A Tale of Two Beauties

"Send this message to 14 people in 10 minutes including myself. God is going to surprise you with money."

Does Heaven currency work in Uganda?

To the people who forward to us these messages sustainably, what is always going through your mind as you forward? What are your intentions? Why should I send back to you what you sent to me? The sentence does not even make sense.

It reminds me of the year 1999 back in the village called Nabisolo. Till now it is a rural area with animals like foxes, tsinjipwe, butsutse and other chicken-mauling animals whose names I can't recall neither in English nor the local Lumasaba. However, the name Nabisolo is loosely translated to mean a place of wild animals and being that it is at the foot of Wanale hill, harbouring wild animals is not anything strange. Nabisolo is found in Bungokho, one of the sub counties that make up rural Mbale.

I do not have many fond memories of this place apart from the fact that it is where I lost my virginity and maybe this other story that am going to share with you today. When you are in Nabisolo you have a good view of the plain flat areas of Mbale town and the beauty of other places like Busiu with the great Manafa River snaking through to offer water to the rice farms in Himutu, Doho, Tindi all in Butalejja. I have a feeling the river then pours into the great Mpologoma, which also delivers to Kyoga in Pallisa. In other words, you can stand on rock in Nabisolo and view three quarters of Mbale including the shanty structures of Kikamba in Mooni, Munkaga in Nauyo and the United States of Adra (USA), Maluku.

Now that you have a clear picture of Nabisolo, we can go back to 1999, the year that transformed me into a man proper. Having been circumcised on 28th December 1998, I was properly initiated into manhood on 1st January 1999 because I missed the mandatory 30th December the day I was supposed to have my shabalye. It is also the year in which I celebrated making a decade in Uganda and the world in general.

In the year 1999 in that village there lived 2 girls that I got well along with. My attachment to these girls was simple; one took my virginity, the other introduced me to her. It goes without doubt that many children in Bugisu are normally introduced to sex at a tender age. After all, it is circumcision then the need to cut what we call “kumulindi”. It happens when a circumcised boy has sex for the first time since he was circumcised. When I now look back, I think that I would not accept to do such a thing because you are not even allowed to use a condom; for better results.

Back to the story of Nakuti and Khaitsa. Khaitsa was and yes, she is still my cousin sister. She was 3 years older but our closeness mainly emanated from the fact that I was at the centre of all her relationships that I can now say were love affairs. One unique character about Khaitsa was that she was not one to refuse advances from any boy. At 12 years, you would say she was too young to be having over 4 lovers but my sister got well along with it. No wonder that she has borne us 4 nieces and 5 nephews from 3 in-laws.

I now look back and marvel at her capacity to make sure that she kept all her lovers and kept amassing them; one thing that I have failed to even contemplate doing. But this was not of her alone because even Nakuti my first cut did not end with me but that will be another day’s story. Today’s story shall be about Nakuti and Khaitsa my sister.

Born at a time when girl-child education did not mean much to the people in the slopes of Wanale, these girls knew that their mission in life was to grow, get married, tend to the children and die. It is the reason why the fate of Nakuti and Khaitsa at school would be sealed as soon as the girls started “going to the moon” as the locals used to say. Whenever the girls stained their pink school uniforms, they could be ridiculed all day and Nakuti would normally stay home for the 4 days that followed. But she did not miss much since school in such places always ended at lunch time. The time after lunch was for singing practice, games and sports. I doubt whether much has changed since then.

Nakuti and Khaitsa kept a bond that stood a test of time and I vividly remember this one evening when Khaitsa skipped school because she was in one of those “red days”. After school, Nakuti picked all her books on the pretext of coming for revision with Khaitsa. Of course she just got a good excuse to skip helping her mother prepare supper and get the goats into their place; because the two families maintained a good family friendship, it was allowed for Nakuti to stay late outside their home because she was at my uncle’s place and the same of my cousin sister Khaitsa. The girls always took advantage of this loophole to pay visits to their lovers and tell their parents they were at the other’s place.

This one evening when Nakuti visited Khaitsa, 20 minutes were spent on school work. She told Khaitsa about what transpired at school. Of course, at the back of my mind even at that tender age was why my cousin should miss school just because she is in her “moon days”, why she bled and we the boys did not bleed. No one ever bothered to tell me but it was because I never asked anyway. It has been my tendency from childhood to keep most of the questions to myself; I always believe that I will find out myself without bringing myself so low to ask.

Having grown up now to a level of appreciating the role women play in our society and being exposed to the need to have girls educated just as boys should be, I wonder why girls even up to now and tomorrow should miss school days just because they are girls. Many times I read posts of people in support or against Dr Nyanzi but on rare occasions do I see a political party raise voice in support of her cause however noble it is. That is what we call bastardising a noble cause for political gains.

Back to Nakuti. When it got late and time when she is supposed to go back home, Khaitsa offered to walk her friend outside the compound. The girl chat that the two were enjoying went on and instead of stopping her outside the compound; Khaitsa accompanied Nakuti to her house. I now look back and wonder what the girls were discussing to that extent. After greeting Nakuti’s parents and wishing them a good night, of course Nakuti had to return the favour and walk Khaitsa back home but this time with Nakuti’s brothers since it was getting late.

The next time it happened, Khaitsa never returned home

To be continued......................................

By the way, forward this message to everyone in your contacts list including me and I will surprise you with nothing.