Survivors never quit!

 It was one morning of a Thursday in 2001, when I woke up heading to school, and on my way there with other pupils, we were told that the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels who started their guerilla war in the area in 1996 had raided my village and the entire now Bunyangabu district. I was in primary seven and preparing to seat for my PLE, my dreams of sitting my first academic level were put at test. For some reason, there has always been a huge stumbling block each time I wanted to achieve something along my life journey, but, I always found sufficient grace to sail through, and yes, here I am today. 

So, the ADF story goes on, as we walked (with other school children) we ran direct to school which was close to our home; hardly had we entered the classrooms than we heard thunderous pellets of the famous AK 47 gun, I was flabbergasted and couldn’t stand the loud alarms coming in from a near by village, Busiita where they had shuttered some part of the national road. Then we were called to go for parade by the then Headmaster, Mr. Rwakigumba, a very inspirational man who also taught us Mathematics, he loved a particular song, "Math is good, oh oh!"

The headmaster was triggered pink as well, and he was quoted saying, “am worried of what am gonna do for all these pupils, where will I hide them”, later on he asked us who resided nearby the school and within the now Kibiito town to go home and retained other students whose homes/villages were under attack. It was a Thursday, Thursday's were market days in my community, but the market had a handful of buyers and sellers. Citizens shunned the market that day in fear that the purported buyers and sellers would probably be rebels. Hearing this scare, we got more worried as the road to our home passed through this market.

We were saved by the government’s call it Mamba some type of gun, that moves on a special car of the sorts. Government was quick to deploy UDP soldiers to whom we entrusted our lives. Hardly had we crossed the market down to now Kibiito Town, than the UPDF started cracking gunshots in retaliation with the rebels. Somehow, we kept running home, and would finally arrive, our home was along the main road, which made it even worse. I recall it was a month of the Holy Rosary, and my Mother would make us recite all the mysteries of the Rosary and finish them, imploring the interecession of Mother Mary, Queen of Peace to come to our rescue. There is a particular song we sung every minute in the house, "Maria Nitukwamiirra otuyambe mukurwaana, obiinge abanyanzigwa" literally translated from Rutooro dialect as "Mary we implore you to come to our aid in this war, and chase away the enemies" It worked days latter, although we lost many citizens and family members.

 

So the rebels used to drop letters of warnings (Kajegere) for their target places of brutal attack. My school was one of the targeted areas to be attacked. The warnings would help government distribute sufficient soldiers ready for retaliation. We spent several days sleeping awake, staying on tension, just like the experiences we had in 1997 when the same community was hit by an earthquake that buried people alive, and destroyed livelihood. During the earthquake, we slept outside, for fear of being hidden underground the house should the quakes come heavy, imagine, whether it rained or not, we slept outside awake! The tales of early childhood to teenage are indeed the memoirs of a survivor that would never quit. 

The rebels attacked the Town from the Rwenzori Mountains, where we have a rich in culture community, the Bakonzo, now interestingly, the Bakonzo were running to the Town, little did they know, that the Town had already been under attack. Sorrowfully, as we heard from announcements over the radio many might have lost their lives in these movements for lack of information. It is very critical that in such situations, governments put in place urgent communication measures to alert people on safe and unsafe zones.

The Uganda People's Defense Forces did a great job, scaring away the rebels from the Town. Sadly, as stories ran by, homes were left homeless, before the UPDF intervened, the rebels abducted people they came across with, burnt houses and we were told, they would slaughter goats and cows and roast in jubilation. They also killed babies and as narrated by community members from Mujunju, they used to pound them, I still remain questioning myself about this story, whether they were cannibals. Three Churches were burnt. The men and women in this force were enraged, but the UPDF never gave up! they pursued them until they perished all of them in one crater lake - in a village called Kaina. 

 

Talking about my nasty experience and tales of this misery caused by fellow human beings that gave us several weeks of unrest. We were out of school for several weeks, and yet, our examinations were due. We were able to resume school, but had very limited time to study and practice ahead of the Primary Leaving Examinations. What is unfair is that, us who were under unrest, were subjected to the same questions and examinations like the pupils who were in relatively safe places across the country, and those who were actually in safe spaces. This makes me wonder whether the Ministry of Education should not put in place measures for handling students and pupils in risky environments, we need emergency guidelines for such scenarios. For long close to 18 years, the Northern Region was under war, I doubt the education curriculum was ever adjusted to consider such conditions. Yet in northern Uganda, the war that raged until 2006 prevented most from accessing education. 

 

I sat my primary leaving examinations, but my performance was greatly affected by the insurgency, however much, I passed well enough to proceed to Secondary level, I felt with peace, and sufficient time to prepare, I would have excelled much better. Nonetheless, this never failed me from continuing to explore. 

In my next story, I will share the joys and sorrows of my joining Secondary education!