WUNRN
Please see 2 parts of this WUNRN
release on Northern UGANDA - Women & Girls - Violence, Abuse, Trauma of
War.
_____________________________________________________________________
Direct Link to Publication:
' TODAY YOU WILL UNDERSTAND':
WOMEN OF NORTHERN UGANDA SPEAK OUT
Moving,
personal stories of women and girls affected by the war in northern Uganda
between government forces and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
IRIN & Uganda Women Writers
Association, FEMRITE
_____________________________________________________________
Women's Feature Service
India - New Delhi
Uganda:
EVE - Young Woman's Poignant & Painful Story
of Trauma & Survival in War-Torn Northern
Uganda
By Bani Gill
Acholiland, October 13 (Women's Feature Service) - Northern Uganda has been
witness to one of the longest running civil wars in recent history. The
struggle for power between the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), formed in
1987 and lead by Joseph Kony, and the government of Uganda, lead by General
Museveni, has left thousands dead and many more displaced. About six per cent
of Uganda's population lives in camps for internally displaced people (IDP).
However, the worst affected are the Acholi people of northern Uganda. The LRA
is reported to inflict violence upon the Acholi, indulge in economic extortion,
terrorise civilians and abduct children - as many as 60,000 children so far -
turning them into porters, sex slaves and child soldiers, thereby discrediting
the rule of President Museveni.
The LRA and the government signed a permanent cease-fire in February 2008. But
while people have started moving back to the villages, the effects of war are
far from over.
Along with eight other students, I went to Gulu, Acholiland, in northern
Uganda, in August, to do a story on the aftermath of this 22-year-old conflict.
The initiative was being undertaken by the Aftermath Project in collaboration
with Tufts University, Boston, under the guidance of noted photographer and
journalist Sara Terry and Stephen Alvarez, a leading photographer with the
'National Geographic'. A non-profit organisation, the Aftermath Project
documents and offers grants to photographers working on the aftermath of war. A
non-Tufts student from India and only just learning photography, I had been
invited by Terry to be a part of the expedition to Acholiland, where the
conflict has changed the lives of everyone, including that of 21-year-old Eve.
When I first met her, Eve was just another person I was interviewing for my
project. But her story was very powerful - it seemed to represent the life of
youth in conflict everywhere. War is not just about guns and fighting. It is
about constant fear; about finding life when there are no institutions left to
support you; about the will and determination to survive in search of a better
tomorrow. And this is exactly what Eve is trying to do.
Eve, who has spent her entire life in Acholiland, is one of the many victims of
the LRA. In 1996, the rebels attacked her village of Cwero. They captured and
tortured her father and then left him to die. Only nine years old then, Eve
managed to escape. She hid in a bush from where she saw her father die a
horrific death - his intestines rotting where the LRA had made a gaping hole in
his stomach. "My father was a good man. Everyone loved him. He used to
protect us," she says.
Soon after her father died, Eve's mother went away to her village, leaving
young Eve to take care of her ten younger siblings. Her mother left because she
was being forced to marry her brother-in-law (a custom in Uganda). Life was a
constant struggle and the choices she made for the sake of her family have not
been easy. "Life was very hard, my mind was frustrated. I was young and
had no way to earn any money. One day I went to a dancing club with my friends.
I did bad things: my sister was unwell, I needed that money," she says,
matter-of-fact.
From the very first day of our meeting, Eve treated me as her sister, inviting
me to spend the night at her house, "My father's house," she proudly
proclaimed. It is the house Eve has lived in since 1999, the house in which she
was raped by her father's cousin, but also the one place she can call home.
After her father's death, Eve shuttled in and out of foster homes and IDP
camps, digging in the fields in the morning and spending the nights commuting
to Gulu by cycle. But the threat of the LRA was constant - the rebels were
known to take over villages, burn huts, kill livestock, slaughter the elderly
and abduct the children. Girls as young as six to nine years were abducted and
given away as "bush brides" to LRA commanders. Eve dropped out of
school in the 10th grade so that her brother could continue with his schooling.
Her brother, Thomas, is now a senior in high school. He is attending school on
a football scholarship.
In 2004, the priest of her local church gave Eve away to a family in a nearby
village so they could care for her. In turn, she had to help them out in the
fields. She lived with them for three years and though she has fond memories of
her stay, she couldn't help feeling that she had deserted her family. "I
begged the priest to take me back to my home. I had promised my father I would
look after my siblings," she says.
By 2006, six of her siblings had died - four succumbing to HIV/AIDS. Eve and
Thomas now live together in Forgod Parish, near Gulu Town. In a sense, she is
living her life through her brother. Though she has done a certificate course
in secretarial training and was looking for a job, currently, she makes living
digging fields. But Eve still feels burdened by the responsibilities of the
future. "Since 1996 I have felt alone. I have no one to stand by my side.
Sometimes I feel as if the world hates me. I will never forgive the LRA for
killing my father. The minds of people have changed because of the war. When
you hold guns all the time, something happens. Earlier Acholi people were happy
and friendly... now they have a bitter heart."
Eve has never known a life without war, where she hasn't constantly been on the
run. But she has managed to make a life for herself. She volunteers at a local
NGO that works with ex-child soldiers, is a popular figure in her village and
one of the brightest in her community. In fact, one of the few people who knew
about India, Eve was very curious about my life. She constantly asked me
questions about my family and friends. She told me she had heard a lot about
the 'evil' customs in India - sati and dowry. In Ugandan society, the groom
pays the dowry for the bride and she was shocked to know that the opposite
happened in India.
As I spent time with her, I could literally feel her strength of character. To
me, being 21 represents a distinct stage in my life. I have just finished
college. For me, tomorrow is another day I get to feel like an adult, asserting
my freedom and independence. For Eve, being 21 has no symbolic meaning.
Tomorrow is just another day she is glad to have survived. In effect, she turned
21 the day her father died and she was left alone to fend for her family at the
tender age of nine.
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