Land, not water, is life
Jan 21, 2015
First story
Land, not water, is life
The story of Lusi Kampi, project woman, Asante na Zawadi, Uganda, East Africa.
My story is about the youthful energy I spent in my husband’s home and how my own brother stopped me from using the land at home.
Until I constructed my self a house, three co wives, our children and my husband, shared a grass thatched hut which my husband built. My husband asked me to let the family to join me in the big house and I agreed. But when he declared that a new wife was coming to take over the only plastered bedroom in the house, my room, I could not take it. I went to my father’s home and got to work. The first season, I harvested 6 sacks of corn. That is when my brother woke up. "You dig like a tractor! You are not going to continue using the land", he said. I reported him to my father, but my brother threatened me with death if I went ahead to grow crops on the land.
Men own land and with it unlimited access. As a result, they have every thing at their beck and call, from labor to dignity. As for me, I am like a fugitive in my own country. I have nothing to be proud of. My daughter of 13 years conceived, the very year I left. She also dropped out of school. I also lost my mentally retarded son. And I lost a house and acres of crops to last my husband a lifetime, a symbol of my wasted youth.