African Wind
Chapter5
African Women - I
This chapter will be the first of the “African Women” series I will be writing from time to time into the future. The woman I would like to feature this time is a 26-year old lady names Tosha originally from Burundi.
【The First Contact】I met Tosha for the first time in October 2005. It was when I visited Uganda to see the activities of the Japanese NGO, Terra Renaissance http://www.terra-r.jp , which sets a local office to help and support the ex-child soldiers in Gulu located in North Uganda. Back then, she was still an intern staff of Terra Renaissance, visiting and consulting ex-child soldiers, giving practical advises. She is very quick on the uptakes, and from her face & atmosphere filled with confidence which is unusual for a woman in Africa, my first impression of Tosha was “an independent woman.” She’s constantly positive and bright, she came up to me talking with broken Japanese words that she learned from her boss in order to communicate with us. A very charming lady, and back then, I could have never imagined that she had such a cruel past that she had to live through.The life of Tosha I’ll be writing after this simply transcends anyone’s imagination, even though it’s the true story that happened on this same earth in the same era. Once again, Tosha is 26 years old. These are not something that happened long time ago.
【Tribal War】A lot of you may remember the mass murder in Ruwanda back in 1994, but the confrontation between Tuti & Futu tribes had been a huge problem even before that, not only in Ruwanda but also in the surrounding countries. And in Burundi, Tosha’s home country, also saw countless slaughters that stemmed out of raging conflict between the two tribes.
【At the Age of Seven】Slowly, Tosha begun to talk about her life. It happened when she was 7.On her way back home from school, her village was unusually noisy and her house was surrounded by people. Lots of dead bodies on the ground. She felt something was unpleasantly wrong. As she got closer to her house, a burnt smell invaded her nostrils. Slaughters. And she found out that the heartless slaughter also took away the lives of her parents and her brother. Her family was locked in their house to be burned to death…. That night, Tosha slept on the ground alone, just outside of her burnt house.
The following day, one of Tosha’s aunts from her mother’s side came to take Tosha to her house. But once again, a tragic incident awaited her. Another slaughter he had to witness. One day, her aunt went out to work in her farm and didn’t come back for a long time. Tosha became worried, and went to the farm to look for her. There, she saw her aunt’s dead body on the ground. Another murder caused by the tribal conflict.
Tosha once again survived. But she thought that if she stays with someone, that person will be killed again, that she is the jinx…. So she ran away into the bush, crying, and lived in the bush all alone for the next 6 months. She said she was too terrified to go out of the bush. Hellish slaughters that a little girl of 7 had to witness. A reality that terrifies you just by imagining it, was there, right where she was.
【Refugee Camps】Following the 6 months in the bush, Tosha moved to a refugee camp at the age of 8, taken by the people from the same village who found her in the bush. The camp was a terrible place. No blankets, no bathrooms. Living in the camps are said to be extremely difficult, even for an adult. It surely wasn’t a pleasant one for an 8-year-old child.
By this time, a traumatic pain had dominated her life. She was then moved to another refugee camp in Congo by order of Tanzanian government, but left to Kenya in just 2 weeks. Tosha who had become 10, stayed there for 2 years working as a live-in maid at the house of an Indian Family. There she experienced humiliations, each and every day. They called her “dog!!” She frantically made herself to bear up with the situation. She even learned English during this period, doing self-study by secretly watching TVs. A knowledge that a 10 year old girl obtained in order to live through a better life in the vast land of Africa.
【As a Street Child】At the age of 12, Tosha moved back to a refugee camp, this time a camp in Uganda. Although the place was horrible as ever, she ran away from the camp & became a street child. She had no food. She wasn’t even drink a glass of water. Wearing tattered clothes, she stood in fromnt of a big house. She rang the doorbell, and a man came out of the house. When he saw her, he pointed to her saying she is filthy, and called his family to come & see her. They all laughed at her. Even after such humiliation, Tosha begged them to give her a glass of water, that she could do whatever work they give her. The man went inside the house and came back with a glass of water in his hand. Instead of giving her the water, the man splashed the water onto Tosha’s face and said “don’t ever coma back!!” She thought of her own, murdered family. They were poor, but her father was a very heartful person. She then went on to her memory of Christmas when her family was still alive and whole.
【Christmas Memoir】It was the last Christmas Tosha had spent with her family. Her family wasn’t rich, but on every Christmas, they ate meat, and her parents bought her a new dress. But on that Christmas day, there was no meat, and no new dress. All her friends are eating meat and wearing a new dress. Tosha was so disappointed, cried, and asked “why?” to her father. Her father lifted her & rolled her high up in the air. Then he started to play drums, and all her family joined in to sing and dance. Smiles returned to the whole family, and her father said “If I give you a new dress, you will be happy today but you will forget about it tomorrow, and you will ask for another dress next year. But a time like this, you will remember forever!!”
Tosha muttered as if to reminisce the old times “he gave us such a fun time as a present…and I’ll never forget. It’s not materials that are important, ….”
【Independence】Following the life on the streets, she was finally able to obtain a proper job. The very first step of her independence. There, she never wasted time either, she self-studied again and achieved skills to use computers. She did what ever she could. To be able to stand on her own.
【Children】Tosha now moved to Kampala, the capitol city of Uganda, and few years have passed. She was now 20 years old. There were countless number of street children in Kampala. She saw herself in them, being on the street as a little girl.he decided to help and take care of the children on the streets. Currently, she is a foster mother of 2 girls and 2 boys. She brought all four children from the streets to live with her. She rented a house in the suburbs of Kampala, and together with a friend from her home country Burundi, looks after the children. Tosha says “if I collapse, they have to go back to the streets. So I have to hold on, and be strong.”
【Activities as Terra Renaissance】Year 2005. Tosha applied and was admitted as an intern of the Japanese NGO, Terra Renaissance, which had a base in Uganda to help ex-child soldiers. She wanted to make a good use of all her past experiences to help the children.
In Gulu, a city located in northern Uganda, there are a lot of children who gets kidnapped by anti-government guerillas while they are small, and forced to be their soldiers. Even if they get to be taken out of the guerilla troops by the government and finally able to go back to their village, the villagers discriminate them for what they did as child soldiers. In the troops, they are forced to hold guns as child soldiers, to kill and injure others, and sometimes to burn down a whole village. A lot of people died. Colleagues and enemies…. If they didn’t kill, they will get killed. Those who got caught from trying to escape from the troops had their nose & mouth cut off of their faces, and other cruel penalties that goes well over one’s imagination. Girls get raped, and was forced to deliver babies. Seeds of dense darkness were sowed within the hearts of ex-child soldiers.
Now, Tosha is a person that Terra Renaissance can’t do without, being a sister-like consultant to the ex-child soldiers. Making her past experiences a positive motivation, she now gives hopes to the children with broken hearts.
【The Future】Right now, Tosha’s face is filled with smiles. She’s bright and bubbling with energy, finally being able to find her place to be, busy being surrounded by lots of people that needs her. None of them have blood relation with her, but she definitely has her new family.
She told me that her dream is to make a house that lots of street children could live together. I think that the house should be named “Tosha’s House.”Tosha currently works as one of the leading staffs in Terra Renaissance. If you find a chance to see her, I definitely suggest you to go and listen to her words directly. I would like as many people as possible to know about her, what she had gone through. Cause I know that she would give you lots of courage and energy.
【Afterthoughts】This time, I introduced you a 26 year old woman from Burundi named Tosha as the first chapter of my series “African Women.” She desperately lived her life til now, and constantly have progressed forward. So-called advanced world is overflowing with materials. Children have everything a child wants. But they instantly shuts down the minute something happens or even to a small change. I myself used to be like that. I was a spoiled, sh*tty brad. Wasn’t able to face up my vulnerabilities.By making visits to Africa, I was able to learn the fundamentals of life, what it is to live. There are a lot of issues in Africa that needs immediate improvement, especially with the states that women in Africa are in. But at the same time, it is not just few women that stand against and survive from the difficulties like Tosha. I would like to live strong as well, making them as my models. Thank you, Tosha.
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