2 - The New Acholi

Summary

For men from the bush, what they wanted to see was that you are pregnant or have a big stomach. If you complain, they would say that “for me, I am the only survivor in my family so I should produce to replace the missing ones.” They don't have human hearts.

– Flamingo

Soon after she had given birth, a Ugandan soldier shot Maria in the leg. As her gumboot filled with blood, she fell behind the others in her unit and became separated from the ting ting (a young boy or girl who acted as a helper to mothers) carrying her newborn baby. When Maria was no longer able to walk, she took shelter alone and rested for the night. A small group of young LRA soldiers returned to look for her in the morning, and when they did, they placed her on a kita (a makeshift stretcher) and carried her quietly past Ugandan soldiers to re-join their unit, where she was reunited with her newborn. She recalls, “My baby rejected me from carrying him. I was stinking of blood and had not showered the whole night. There was no water. I knew the condition I was in. When another battle starts, I would be thrown [by kurut carrying her] and my baby would go. I worried a lot about my baby.”

When the next battle did start, as she predicted, Maria was again separated from her baby. The kurut (new recruits) carrying her on the kita debated dumping her as they waited to cross the road to join the rest of the unit, who had already moved ahead. “The boys who were carrying me were so terrible. They complained a lot. They said, “Why are we bothering carrying this woman? Women are very useless. How will she benefit us? … Even if we leave her, no one will complain.” Another boy protested, saying, “She is a mother to an innocent baby who will suffer if she is left.” As they debated her fate, Maria worried about the girl carrying her baby ahead; she suspected the girl might escape with the child and that she would never see her baby again.