Patiko: The fort of death

Nov 24, 2013

The relics of Fort Patiko in northern Uganda have been in ruins for years until efforts to restore it were started a while back.

The relics of Fort Patiko in northern Uganda have been in ruins for years until efforts to restore it were started a while back. Recently, United Nations Development Programme, through the Ministry of Tourism, flagged off a press farm trip to rediscover the 138-year-old Fort Patiko.

By Solomon Oleny

On arrival at the Patiko’s rather bushy parking lot, which is a block from its gate-less entrance, we were welcomed by Salvatoria Oringa the calm skiny caretaker of the fort. He suggested we take a stroll around the two-kilometre long pits surrounding the fort.

The pits, which measure 16ft in depth and 16ft in width, were dug to make it impossible for slaves to escape from the fort — just in case they beat its tough security deployment.

As we advanced, we were swallowed up by towering wild grass and shrubs. By the time we maneuvered our way through, our clothes were covered with black jack needles whose sharp tips treated us to endless pricking. We were also not spared by the thirsty mosquitoes in the pits.

Oringa said this humiliating walk was purposed to give us (tourists) a pinch of “the walk to oppression”, that the slaves endured as they trudged thousands of miles to Fort Patiko from different parts of central and East Africa.

Following these words, dead silence fell over our group, as odd imaginations going back to the slaves’ days filled our minds. Unlike us, who were fully dressed, the slaves were always stripped of their clothes to give them the slave identity.

Because there were no defined roads at the time, they were made to walk for miles in such vegetation, not to mention impenetrable forests which were habitats to beastly animals.

When Oringa noticed we were getting carried away by these emotions, he was quick to re-route our attention to more adventure at the fort. In a hoarse voice, he asked us to follow him to the heart of the fort and there we found three roofless doubled-roomed houses built exclusively with sedimentary rocks and cement.

They were built on a low rocky hill, so the Arab architects saw no need to cement the floor. In fact, they made the most of this location by polishing the rocky floors smooth, after which they creatively made striking inscriptions on it to give its occupants a feel of home in this otherwise isolated setting.

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The writer, Solomon, in one of the caves

“The roof was made of grass thatch, so the houses enjoyed a chilled shade whose temperatures compares to that of today’s first class air conditioned suites,” Oringa explained.

Adjacent to these houses are two towering rocks at whose base there are dug-out caves that used to house the slaves. However, unlike the slave trader’s houses which were spacious and well ventilated, I hardly found a thing to admire about the caves.

It appears like more emphasis was put on digging them horizontally inwards than vertically, just like coal mines. Their height is about three feet high meaning the occupants (the slaves) could only get inside by crawling on their bellies.

The cave was always jammed to capacity because accommodation was not enough for the hundreds of slaves who were held hostage here.

Tales of death

Oringa explained that from time to time, the slaves would be assembled at the fort’s sloppy compound where the beautiful, healthy and muscular ones would be separated from the ugly, sick, weak and skinny.

The selected lucky ones would be dispatched for the Egypt and Sudan slave markets where they would be sold off like merchandise. The unfortunate rejects who could not fetch high prices on the market would be executed by firing squad at the open torture chambers.

“They were not set free because the traders feared that they would mobilise the local communities to fight off their cold-blooded Arab masters/traders,” Oringa added.

In a move to make the executions more entertaining, trumpeters would climb up the 18ft rock which overlooks the torture chambers. Up there, they would blow aloud trumpets to cheer the executors as they did their job.

After these slaves were killed, their corpses were never given a decent burial. Instead, the bodies would be dumped in the pits surrounding the Fort where vultures would move in to finish the job.

Musician Akon’s award-winning Mama Africa video was shot in July 2007 at Fort Patiko. The four-minute video attempts to recapture the agonising crucifixion that the Arab slave traders subjected their captives to between the mid-18th century and end of the 19th century.

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Journalists touring the fort

All over the compound, one can observe sharp cuts on the rocks and Oringa explained that these cuts were sliced by the axes which were used to behead the slaves.

“The lucky ones who survived the axe, were made to work like donkeys yet fed on little food. Men were usually tasked with digging out more caves for accommodation while women did domestic chores like grinding tones of millet — sometimes till their hands bled.”

The sun shines at last

By the 1840s, it was impossible to maintain a deaf ear to cries against slavery. It was around this time that Sir Samuel Baker, an abolitionist adventurer and representative of the Egyptian Khedive arrived in Acholi land.

With his band of Nubian fighters, he fought off slave traders from the fort around 1870 and took it over as a station base for his campaign.

However, Vivian Lyazi, an official at Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, argues that Baker’s prime interest was not in stopping slave trade, but rather used it as a cover up for his ivory raid in Uganda.

He bases his argument on the fact that Baker came at a time when slave trade was on the decline following the rise of the industrial revolution.

Taking into consideration that this coincided with an overwhelming demand for ivory as an industrial raw material, it is believed that Baker was in pursuit for ivory.

There are thousands of Borassus palm trees around the fort. Bearing in mind that the fruits of these palm trees are primarily dispersed by elephants, it is possible that Baker could have killed thousands of elephants near the fort and thereafter stripped them of their precious tusks. His close links with Emin Pasha, another prominent ivory hunter is also telling.

The same fort was later used by Charles Gordon who replaced Baker as Governor of the Equatorial Province and later by Emin Pasha. It was later used as a prison by the colonial government before falling into disuse for many years after independence.

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A scenic view from the fort

Locals believe that though slave inhumanity at Patiko happened centuries back, the spirits of those killed still haunt the fort. Simon Olweny, a resident in the neighbourhood of Patiko claims that the nights are punctuated with wails of the ghosts of the slaves who are often heard pleading for their lives to be spared.

Other tour activities at Patiko

In other news, Fort Patiko is beautiful from end to end, with amazing scenery which offers great photography. It boasts of lots of rocks that slaves were made to curve into models of different creatures such as sharks, the map of Africa, Lake Victoria and human heads among others.

The hilly fort also has antiquities such as the grinding stones that the slaves used for grinding millet. Florence Baker, whom the abolitionist had rescued from a slave market in present-day Bulgaria, left inscriptions of the Holy cross on the rocks at Patiko.

Exploring the old fort gives one a feel of a day in the life of a slave.

How to get there

For some one travelling on a shoe string budget, you need about sh150,000 to tour Fort Patiko. Bus fare to Gulu is sh25,000 one way. Fort Patiko is about 50 minutes ride on boda boda from Gulu, costing between sh4,000 and sh15,000. Entrance to the Fort is sh10,000.

Unfortunately, there are neither accommodation nor hospitality facilities like restaurants around the fort. Tourists are advised to bring their requirements such as food, airtime, water among others.

Budget accommodation facilities around Gulu town range from sh15,000 to sh70,000 per night, while luxurious facilities range between sh60,000 and sh200,000 per night.

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