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Testimony from Uganda

My name is Agnes Gilian Ocitti. I was born 19 years ago in Kitgum district, in Northern Uganda, Acholi by tribe and fifth of nine children.

I believe it might be helpful to spend a few words on my country: Uganda is a land-locked country in Eastern Africa. For its beauty it has been known as the Pearl of Africa. It is located on the Equator line facing lake Victoria where river Nile has its source. In the sixties it could become worldwide famous for the cruelties of Idi Amin Dada. More recently, Uganda is recognized as the success story in the fight against AIDS, whereby the percentage of the infected people has decreased from 20 to 8%. Out of a population of 21 millions, over 12 millions are under 18.

Since 1986 a continuing unrest has been going on especially in the North of Uganda, the land of Acholi, where I am coming from, which is located at the border with South Sudan. Here the various opposition forces , especially the Lord’s Resistance army have for years ravaged villages and forcibly abducted children as young as nine, compelling them to fight and to serve as domestics and sex slaves. In April 2001 the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that about 15,000 cases of abduction have been recorded in Uganda involving children under the age of 18. Half of them are still missing.

My personal history is linked to this story. In 1996, when I was 13, on the night of October 9^th, while I was a second year student of St. Mary’s College in Aboke, I was abducted together with 138 schoolmates by the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army. It was between one and two in the morning when the rebels arrived. I was really scared and I couldn’t even pray. My mind was lost for the fear. We were tied together with a rope and forced to walk for hours. Our deputy headmistress, Comboni Sister, Sr. Rachele Fassera, together with a teacher, John Bosco, followed us in the bush and knelt down in front of the rebels’ commander to ask for our liberation. 109 girls were released, but 30 were detained. I was among the 30 students that were not released. I was a captive for 3 months. It was  a traumatizing experience. Several times we were beaten without any reason and  forced to take part in brutal activities. When Pope John Paul II appealed to the rebels to release us, we were brutally beaten.

 I am struck by the theme of this Meeting: “The feeling of things the contemplation of beauty”. What does it mean “The feeling of things” as compared to my experience?

While in abduction, I was forced to do brutal activities like killing. Actually I was forced to take part in the killing of another abductee who had tried to escape by beating her together with other prisoners. So I started losing hope and as time went by, I started to despair. One day we entered an ambush set by the Uganda Peoples Defends Forces. I saw many people die and I felt I should die too, that life is useless and meaningless, ending anytime and anywhere. At that moment I remembered the faces of my parents, the grief they would have on news of my death. This helped me build hope and aspiration. This Hope led me to escape and run for my life – running 10 kilometres between death and freedom. This is the feeling of things for me. 

 And what does the “contemplation of beauty” mean to me?

 When I escaped, my parents welcomed me warmly and assured me  of their love. They told me that I shouldn’t worry about the past now .. that I should feel at home as before, that whatever happened, I should forget, because they loved me as before and even more. At school I was equally loved and welcomed by sisters, students and teachers. Never the less, I had a lot of psychological problems, I isolated myself, feeling scared. Many times I felt guilty considering myself a criminal…I had frequent nightmares of the horrible things I had seen and was forced to do while with the rebels.

But with the love of my family and of Sister Alba and Sister Rachele, of the teachers and students of Aboke, and with the help of a counsellor, bit by bit, I started to recover.

Now, during my vacations I do voluntary work with AVSI in the psychosocial support program, that helps to reintegrate the formerly abducted children in society. Sharing my experience with these children, who have gone through the same trauma like me, also helps me to recover and to face my life positively.

Now I am happy with my life and I do not regret my life in captivity, because it has given me full sharing in the life of other suffering people.

So I would say that the “contemplation of beauty” for me is love. The love I received and the love I can offer.

Now I am in Makerere University, Kampala, studying law. With recovery and return to normal life, my keen desire has become to serve the people more and more, and to see that justice is brought  into the world. But how can I talk of peace and justice to my people, when for instance out of the 30 girls who were detained, 10 of us have so far escaped, but 20 are still in the hand of the rebels? Peace and Justice are difficult words for the Acholi people, because for the last 16 years, we have been killed, injured by gun shots and landmines, some 15,000 children have been abducted by the LRA rebels and the people have been forced to live in Internally Displaced Camps that lack social services like medical care, food, etc.

This is why the words of the Pope John Paul II on the World Day of Peace is very important to us. The Pope said “There is no Peace Justice, and no Justice without Forgiveness”.

At Makerere University I am living in the movement of CL. In the movement I have learnt that “Justice” is the plan of God on me , the plan of God on every person. A good plan, my vocation. I often question how can I see the good plan of God on  my own experience, how can I figure out my vocation? Yet, if I think of when I wanted to die and my whole person opposed, my heart said no, that I should continue living, when I met with the love of my parents even greater than before, when I was warmly embraced by Sister Rachele and by all my teachers and schoolmates, when more recently I met with the movement of CL, and from this encounter a concrete support came that enabled me to attend the University, I can see that the plan of God on me, the good plan of God, passes through the Cross of this dreadful experience. And this appears in all its evidence, when I think of the experience of my people.

Catholicism arrived in the Acholi land, in my homeland , in 1914 and already in 1918 Daudi and Gildo, two young catechists that joined Catholicism only two years before, were killed just for believing in Christ and spreading the Gospel. They will be declared blessed next 20^th of October by the Pope in Rome. And also, since 1986, that is since the start of this unrest period, some 60 Acholi catechists were killed due to their faith.

All of them, indicate to me that the vocation of the Acholi people, my own vocation, is the proclamation of the glory of Christ on the cross.

This is possible because the love of God has always been evident to my life, at all times, even in the darkest periods, through the love of my parents, the love and help of Sister Rachele, and today also through the friendship offered to me within the CLU at Makerere University. In my country, like in many other countries of Africa, we need hope: and as Peguy says, in order to have hope we must have received a grace, we must have received a great gift.

I am really glad to be here today with all of you and with Antonio Socci. In the “New Persecuted”, I see the life story of the Christians of the 20^th Century dying for their faith, The story is similar to that of my people and I would like to take this opportunity to ask Antonio to include in the next edition of his book the experience of the Acholi People.

Thanks

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