Mukandanga relives life on Kampala streets

STREET CHILDREN

KAMPALA - Pauline Elizabeth Mukandanga 34-year-old popularly known as Maama City in Kampala, lost her parents during the Rwandan genocide at the age of 9.

Mukandanga with a group of Rwandans found her way into Uganda in 1994 and somehow landed in a family of Bizimungu Sitanisilasi and Dorothy Mujawa Maria in Lugazi town, Buikwe district.

Her life in Uganda started as a search for water, food, and shelter, but eventually graduated to becoming the mother of Kampala city's street families.

"The parenting was okay and I thank them for that, but there was no money at home. I really wanted to go to school but the school fees was not always paid on time. I was in and out of school," Mukandaga said.

Coming to Kampala

At 15 years, she left for Kampala to work as a housemaid and earn some money that would supplement her school fees.

She remembers having a discussion with her parents about a woman who needed help at her home in Zzana, a Kampala suburb.

The woman, she says, left with her for the city after acquiring permission from the parents.

"The situation was fair but the man of the house, who I used to look at as my father started sexually harassing me saying that he wanted me to be his second wife," Mukandaga said.

Becoming a street child

Mukandanga remembers being excited for escaping the claws of the devil and supposedly heading home. 

"I will never forget that day. When I left Zana with my black polythene bag filled with some of my belongings, I stopped at the stage in the taxi park where the taxis to Lugazi are parked. All I wanted was to go back home but I had never been in the city so I decided to tour before proceeding home," she remembers.

However, she did not proceed home, she decided to remain in the city even though she did not have a place to stay. She noted that going back to the village to relive the poverty she had escaped for months was dreadful.

"There is a church where I spent the night that day. Even though it felt so uncomfortable, I made a decision not to go back to the village," she said.

Becoming a businesswoman
On Saturday morning after making a decision to stay in Kampala city, she embarked on the search for a business idea that would not require a lot of money.

"I wanted to sell clothes from the market. When I was still at Zzana, we used to go to Owino market to buy cheap clothes," Mukandanga said.

With sh50,000 that she had been paid by her former employer, she decided to buy second-hand clothes and sell them door to door.

In Owino Market, she found a lady popularly known as Nnalongo who sold to her second clothes. These two later bonded.

"Nnalongo taught me how to do the business. She sold to me each cloth at sh1,500 or sh2,000 and advised me to sell at sh2,000 or sh3,000," she said.

For lack of where to stay whenever the night fell, she always went back to Nnalongo and requested her to help the keep the money she made per day.

Once in a while, as the nights fell, Mukandanga returned at the taxi park where Lugazi taxis staged, hoping that one day she would go back home, but this hope faded eventually.

As she braved the cold nights under parked taxis in the taxi park, the emptiness of not staying close to her mother consumed her mind. At this point, Mukandanga had gotten into the company of other street children and this made her realize she was indeed a street child.

We were never thieves
"The street life then is quite different from the street life of today. Everyone then had their own problems. We used to ask ourselves how we ended up on the streets and the children would share their stories. Some would say their parents died, others would say they are mistreated at home," she said adding that some street boys were hardworking; we used not to be thugs because the reasons why we left home were closely related. Clearly, we were not criminals like it is the case today.

Mukandanga noted that many of the street children then would go to work during the day, but not steal from people unlike the case today.

"It was all good during the day since the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) enforcement team never bothered us the way they do now. However, at night, the Police officers would arrest us, accusing us of being idle," she said.

The rainy season
"Most times we would sleep on the verandas of shops. Whenever it rained, life would be hard. You would hardly sleep. I still feel tortured to date. Sometimes we would not sleep at all as the rainwater flowed on the the verandas," she said.

"The rainy season was really harsh on us. I feel tormented whenever it rains at night even today. I wonder where the street children spend the nights," Mukandanga added.

 
Menstrual hygiene on the streets

As she battled with the life of no permanent shelter, the biological clock was also ticking and certain changes started taking place. She was a woman after all and despite the circumstances, she had to manage her menstruation.

She had to keep clean and comfortable as she roamed the streets looking for opportunities and selling clothes.

"I bought cotton wool from the money I used to make. This substituted the pads since it was cheaper. So I spend the day with the cotton wool and later take a bath from the public toilet around the taxi park. I used to wash my clothes while in the field. There are shallow wells around Lubiri town where I used to wash my clothes from. I would wait for them to dry and then continue selling second-hand clothes. There are times I wore some of the clothes I was meant to sell," she said.

Rules of the street; taking drugs was a must

Despite being a small community, there were rules that governed street life.

After spending three months, Mukandanga had been initiated in the system. The first rule was that whoever joined the community had to change their name.

Therefore, she dropped Elizabeth and adopted Shadiah. The reason is that if a relative or Police officers came looking for you, nobody would be able to locate you.

Another rule was; you had to take narcotic drugs. 

"I also started taking the drugs and I would feel energetic. I even had a gang I led," Makadanga speaks with confidence.

Fighting with groups of street children across the city was a source of amusement in the night. This explains why taking drugs was important for every street child.

During the battles, each group was headed by a leader popularly known as the general. At the time when Mukandanga had joined, Kawoya, who passed on a few years later was the general for all street children in and around the Old taxi park. He would lead them to fight gangs of street children across the city.

However, Kawoya's tenure did not last long. There was new blood in the hood. To make matters worse for Kawoya, the new blood was female.

Mukandanga narrates that for one to become a general, there had to be a trial by combat. The winner automatically becomes the new commander and an initiation ceremony was performed.

"After defeating Kawoya, he gave me the name Shadiah. He admitted that I had beaten him and the name suited me.  I got my gang and every street child then knew I was very powerful. He gave me the powers of a general and later that night I was crowned," Mukandanga said.

She adds, "that was 2001, it was a new year and there was new a general who was a beautiful woman. She took drugs and still remained stable. She even smoked cigarettes".

"Whenever I took my drugs, I would become powerful and just wait to beat anyone who was against me.  We used to organise fights across the city. I would lead my gang to fights in Katwe and Nakivubo towns ."

Mukandanga then referred to as General Shadiah was the fiercest and this has not stopped today. The street children today call her Maama City because she never forgot about them after leaving for a more comfortable life.

Leaving the street
Age has a way of taming women. By 18 years, Mukandanga felt she had outgrown residing on the street. The general as she was popularly called rented a room in the outskirts of Kampala where she was to later decide to stay after letting go of street life.

This took her a while. Abandoning a life she had passionately learned to live for four years was indeed a difficult decision.

"I decided to leave the street but it was hard since I had adapted to life on the street. I moved around the city and eventually found a room that I rented in Masajja, a Kampala suburb.  It was at sh40,000 per month. However, I don't remember spending a night in the room because the thought of what would be happening on the street would fill my mind while there. So there I was, back on the streets most of the time," she said.

The street lifestyle did not at any one time according to Mukandanga ever interfere with her relationship with her new neighbors.

All the anti-social behaviors like taking drugs and fighting were done on Kampala streets and a humble girl she pretended to be would go back to her rented room in Masajja.

 
Finding love
Even though she was fierce, energetic, and wild, the men were not deterred.

She recalls going out on dates as a game.

"I would organise some of the street boys. Brief them on where the man was taking me and what they would do when they find us.  So one of the street boys would come and pose as my boyfriend, question the man why he was with me, cause chaos and later the gang would storm the bar and steal anything they came across," she said.

Unlike the unlucky suitors, there came a man called James who still today brings a spark in Mukandanga's eyes as she recollects how he approached her and later was the reason she decided to leave the streets.

"When this man came, he was different. I really needed a man who would manage me. I was not easy to deal with and never listened to anyone. But this one took his time to know who I was."

"One evening, he parked his car and came to buy chapattis from a stall next to our hangout. After his purchase, he requested to chat with me and I asked why.

He wasn't polite and shouted in my face, ‘I don't want people who respond to questions with questions', I was perplexed.

Since that encounter, this man always showed up at our hang out and he even bought chapatis and porridge for my gang. Slowly by slowly, he became friends with everyone."

James was liked by Mukandanga's crew but he was a threat to the general because he gave orders and all the boys listened.


"I would oppose everything he would ask me to do. Even going out with him on a date was by force since the crew was on his side. He was a built-up man, good looking and his intentions were clear. He wanted me to be his girl. He later told me he wanted me to get off the streets."

For Mukandanga, a man who was ready to embrace who she was and accept the tough life she chose to follow was clearly the man of her dreams.

"He was patient with me and did not care that I took drugs. He would even let me take my drugs in front of him," Mukandanga said.

She had never experienced this kind of inclusion in her life.



Leaving the street and marriage

The new love Mukandanga found opened up a whole new chapter in her life. She even left the streets.

James proposed to her in a way any woman would love to hear the question of a lifetime - Will you marry me or be my wife?

"He proposed to me from Mabira forest. He had taken me to Jinja for a date and when we were coming back, he pulled over asked me angrily to get out of the car. I wondered why he wanted me to get out of the car in the middle forest at night when it was raining heavily. As the rain-soaked our clothes, he went on his knee and asked me to marry him and I accepted," Mukandanga said.

The two exchanged vows and had three children. However, Mukandanga's James passed on recently.

Mukandanga currently takes care of some street children in Kampala, one of the reasons she is called Maama City.