Jennifer I lived with Phil [30]. Very early in the morning, my job was to wake up, wash clothes for all Phil’s women and children because he had three children. I had to look after those three children and prepare meals for them and the other women as well. Prepare bathing water as soon as their bath time came.
If I didn’t do as I was told I would be beaten. A woman like me with no husband if I am seen standing with a boy then we will both be killed. People are so fearful in the bush.
Interviewer [Link] The death of Lafonye Phil plunged Jennifer into marital responsibilities as she became wife to elderly Okello Twiga, already married with four wives. Jennifer resisted the idea of being wife number five and that nearly cost her life as she explains:
Jennifer When I was transferred there, I thought they would take me to the home of a young man but I was given to an elderly man who was so mature that he walked with a walking stick. They told me that this man is now my husband. When evening reached, he told me to go to bed and sleep. I started crying and ran away way but was picked up by the rebels who threatened to kill me. They tied me up and forced me to agree that I would become wife to the mzee [31].
Interviewer Did this man have any other wives?
Jennifer There were four other women and they were the ones teaching me and consoling me all the time - ‘Please stop crying, because if you keep on doing it they will kill you. There is nothing for you to do – just become a wife’.
When I heard that encouragement, I started accepting my fate as my friends had done. If you became sad in the bush, you end up crying. If you say that you like someone else (one whom you are not attached to), when Kony calls a meeting and you are pointed at as one who does not want the husband you are attached to, they take you and kill you.
Interviewer Is Kony a spirit?
Jennifer He says that an angel appears to him and if he hadn’t gone to the bush, he would have been a strong witchdoctor because he can read the future.
Also when he chooses someone to act as the commander, he knows what that person is thinking.
These people (GUSCO) have made me a hut. Although the digging place is small, I can live here (Agwok camp in Amuru district) with my mother. My father was killed by Lakwena [32].
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[30] An LRA commander
[31] Swahili word meaning old man
[32] Alice Auma aka “Lakwena” meaning messenger in Acholi. Self-proclaimed prophetess Lakwena was head of the Holy Spirit Movement, a hugely popular cult that led a rebellion against the government forces of President Museveni from August 1986 to November 1987. Many of Lakwena’s followers later joined the Lord’s Resistance Army led by her cousin, Joseph Kony.