By the time the Moyo-bound Gateway bus empties its belly of all and sundry in Moyo town (in Uganda's West Nile region), over 12 hours after it left Kampala, my being aflame with aches. My knees threaten to give way as I wobble off with mu dust-coated luggage. It feels like I am carrying the world upon my shoulders. Yet shouldering the world (forget about being in a cramped bus) is an art the women of northern Uganda seem to do effortlessly. For a start, scores of women on board spent the entire travel time on their bullet-scarred feet, and occasionally on their knees, putting on different hats. When they were not caring for their sick and severly nauseated kin (the unending sounds of yet another child emptying its inner being, and the ruffling of polythene bags to catch what they could not stomach, were maddening), they were feeding, comforting or entertaining their three to five young, unsettled children. Other travellers looked on helplessly. condescendingly. Indifferently.
Read the whole story, "Strength of a Woman", first published in July 2008 as the main feature in issue 23, pg. 66 - 70, of African Woman magazine.
You will also be moved, like I was, by "Corrupted Childhood" another feature in the same issue. This is an account of the experience of young puberscent girls in the hands of the now infamous LRA soldiers. See pg. 72 - 73.
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