Catherine Ajok Enslaved by Joseph Kony and his LRA
30,000 Children abducted by Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army -The story of Catherine Ajok
Boys become Child Soldiers - Girls become Sex Slaves, Concubines, and so-called wives of LRA leaders
Catherine Ajok - 13 years as one of wives of Joseph Kony
Catherine Ajok - Mother to one of Kony's children
Catherine Ajok's Story inside of the LRA as a forced wife of Joseph Kony:
Catherine Ajok had joined St. Mary’s Secondary Boarding School for Girls with hopes and dreams for a bright future. Her parents Dr Alfred Alyai and Lucy Licer Namataka had done their best to put her into a good school, since in Uganda, education is everything and Sr. Mary's Secondary School had a good record of accomplishment and was a premier boarding school in Uganda.
October 9, 1996 seemed
like any other day at the boarding school, it had been a good day for
Catherine and 
now
she was ready to retire after a full day at the school, when the
unimaginable took place. Soldiers of the LRA under the command of Otti
Lagony surrounded the school. Doors were being broken, girls crying out
as they were beaten, some of young soldiers tried to rape some girls,
others tried to hide. The only vehicle in the compound was put on fire
and you could hear the explosions as it burned. It was terrifying. The
clinic of the school was raided, the Lord's Resistance Army tried to
burn some buildings but was not successful, and nevertheless it was a
scene of some horror movie being played out. There had been rumors that
the school might be raided by the LRA, the school reported them but the
Army did not take them too seriously since rumors were being circulated
left and right and most of them were simply untrue.
The rumor had become an ugly reality, now being played out before the eyes of 13-year-old Catherine and her similarly aged classmates.
Catherine was one of 150 some girls led out of the schoolyard in a long line, many of them, their hands tied, led by their youthful captors. The lives of 150 some girls hung in the balance, 150 some girls between life and death, between innocence and being violated in mind and body. Some are said to have cut their ropes and escaped in the confusion.
I
nto
the night the girls moved led by their cruel captors, into the unknown
they marched, not knowing what the future would hold, some crying and
weeping, others praying, all in caught up in the terror of the moment,
for some it would only become worse in the days, weeks, years ahead of
them.
Back at Saint Mary's School, Sister Rachele Frassera had somehow survived the attack. A young nun, biology teacher, she was the head mistress of the school. Now she was in the Bursars office looking for money, so that somehow she could buy their freedom, she did not have a clear plan, but she knew she had to do something, so along with John Bosco Ochen, a male teacher at the school they followed the girls. A litter of bottles and candy wrappers made it easy to find where they had gone. The next day after the attack, they reached the camp where the girls had been taken by Otti Lagony.
While there, the Ugandan army attacked with soldiers and gunship and some girls got away in the confusion, but most were too frightened and simply huddled together for safety. After the attack, they moved to a larger camp deeper in the bush where the army rarely ventured.
Sister Frassera tried to free all of the captured girls but Otti Lagony would only release of 109 girls and chose 30 to remain behind. Those 30 girls were frightened and fearful, Sister Rachele prayed with the 30 and asked God to protect them, departing with the 109 freed girls. It was then that Catherine dedicated her life to God, knowing that it was the only way she could face what was to come.
The remaining young girls, were simply frightened, the acceptance of what had taken place had not yet sunk in. They were hoping that freedom would come for them. Surely, the Army would come and free them; surely, the LRA would release them...but nothing.
They were put to work, cooking, carrying landmines, weapons, equipment, supplies as they marched toward Sudan. Soon after their capture the ritual of brainwashing, of indoctrination began. The girls were ordered to strip to their waist. The rebels took a mixture of water, ashes, and eggs and made it into potion, writing with it words on the backs of the girls. They sprinkled water on their breast and drew heart on their chests with incantations and a secret spell. For three days, the girls had to move bare breasted and then it was revealed that the spirit of Lakwena had spoken and things were revealed to the leaders as to what to do with the girls.
One of the girls tried to escape, she just wanted to go home, but she was caught brought into a circle and the other girls were now taught to kill. They had to take sticks and beat her to death, or in turn be beaten and killed themselves. Two other girls who had asked for water were tied to trees, beaten with bicycle chains, clubs, and sticks
Toward Sudan where Joseph Kony had his main camp at that time. It took them a week of constant marching during the hours of the day to reach it.
Not only had they been captured, but also now, they were in another country, far from home, in the camp of a mad man who had the girls divided up into groups of five that were given to various LRA commanders.
Catherine Ajok was picked by Kony as one of his wives and over the years, he accumulated many. (Ugandan publications say that he has had at least 30 wives, one claims that he has had 57, mostly abducted girls) Life for the girls was simply hard, there was work and most of them by now had lost their innocence and some were pregnant.
Joseph Kony was literally God amongst men. He listened to the spirits for instructions that were then passed on and in a way interpreted into orders. People feared him, some because of his power as leader, power over life and death, but others because they thought he was truly in touch with God, with the spirits.
Joseph Kony took whatever was convenient to him, Christian thought and rituals, then later with the support of the Islamic Khartoum government it was Islam, but Joseph Kony was and is no Christian and neither is he a Muslim, he is simply evil. A cult like leader who uses animism and witchcraft. There is the appearance of Kony being in touch with the spirits, even claiming he was the manifestation of the Holy Spirit all mixed in with Christian and Muslim words, a lunatic whose Holy book is Violence. Into this insane world, enter a young girl such as Catherine Ajok and the countless others who became before her and after her.
He felt that the Acholi people, his own tribe had betrayed him and he was going to create a new Acholi people in the bush with children whose slate was clean. Pure like Catherine upon whom he could write his ways, his ideas and way create an Acholi super people.
Catherine became one of his wives, one of many. A girl from a catholic environment, from a believing family, now with an evil man who only thought of his desires and appetite. Who became intoxicated with his power, self-deluded into believing his own myths of being a semi-deity.
This evil Pied Piper of Northern Uganda, who stole the souls of thousand rules by violence and intimidation. Catherine saw much evil, saw death, was made to do things she most likely will never tell a reporter. Her innocence was taken by an evil man, her childhood snatched away. She never had the opportunity to dream in captivity, there were no books to read, no family dinners, no family celebration, no school, no Christmases, no Easter going to church, no she was in the Church of Kony, and the Eucharist was death and dying. It is that fear of dying that kept children like Catherine Ajok alive. The sad thing is this, that after a time with Kony, your mind begins to do crazy thing. You start believing the myths. This abuser of children, of young boys and girls, this child molester who has robbed thousands of their innocence (by Uganda's laws, just for having a sexual relationship with a girl under 18 he could get life in prison as a child molester).
Life in the LRA culture was simply hard, work, work and more work. Women carrying heavy loads as they moved from camp to camp. Farming, tending to chickens, small livestock, cooking, cleaning, and being available to a maniac, her so-called husband - Joseph Kony, the enslaver of the children of northern Uganda, South Sudan and northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Catherine was beaten at times, tortured and taught to kill, taught to inflict the very thing she hated, violence.
Her parents never gave up on her. Over the years girls would escape from her group 30, and her mother and father would hope that she be next. Of the 30 girls taking into captivity from Saint Mary's Secondary School, 26 escaped and four died in captivity. Those who died were tortured, one beaten by the other girls who were forced to kill her or be killed, because she tried to escape, another tied to a tree and left to die, one beaten to death, while the fourth died in battle as the Ugandan army raided Kony's camp in Garamba Forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo in December of 2008. (When one attacks the LRA, invariably the very people one wants to rescue become victims and instead of being rescued, are killed. One of the reasons many of the parents of abductees do not want a military solution to this conflict)
In some ways Catherine Ajok had given up, life seemed unfair, why was she selected to remain behind while 109 others went free? She became somewhat bitter as she often thought about that moment in time, why her?
The years past, in the Kony camp there was always tension and intrigue. Sometimes even commanders were executed because Kony no longer trusted them. Suspicion abounded, rumors circulated, fear reigned.
The LRA moved deeper into hiding, peace talks came and went, a cease-fire agreement was reached with Uganda, but in South Sudan and in he Democratic Republic of Congo, the war went on, the killings continued, the villages were burned, children kidnapped, the trail of tears did not end.
Catherine Ajok gave birth to her son Happy Odonga, back in 2007.The child has been baptized and given the name Deogracious, or God’s gift, and a Luo name, Apunyu. After the birth of Happy, she would not see Kony for months at a time, since she could no longer move with the troops being a mother and seen by Kony as a security risk. They were now in the Democratic Republic of Congo living in the jungles of Garamba National Park.
On December 13th,
Joseph Kony warned of an impending attack on the various camps. On
December 14th Kony had left the camp early, some say to go hunting for
meat. The camp was almost empty by no
w,
since most had moved out because of the impending attack by the armies
of Uganda, South Sudan and DRC.
Catherine Ajok was just bundling up her things when the bombs hit the camp. She ran with her child into the bush, a nearby tree literally exploding as a bomb hit it, barely missing her.
Catherine wandered for the weeks in the jungles and savannas of the Garamba area, living on nuts, cassava, things she could find, coming face to face with a lion as she sat with her child under a tree.
A Congolese
Soldier found her footprint and discovered her taking her to the Ugandan
army. Her dramatic 13-year story of captivity ended as she landed in the
Antonov Plane at Entebbe back in Uganda. One of the first people to
greet her was one of her former classmates, now a reporter for the New
Vision Newspaper in Uganda.
Catherine Ajok is back home in the north of Uganda, living with her parents in the Lango Quarters in Apac town. Life will most likely never be normal for her, but after her return she went to church here and told her story of God's deliverance from the hands of the LRA and all of Uganda rejoiced...Catherine is home...thousands other North Ugandan children are still missing...Kony is still free, creating more havoc for the people in and near Garamba Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo...from Kampala...jon
Uganda's
Child Soldiers (Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army): 20
some years of children being robbed of their innocence turned into
assailants and murderers by the madman Joseph Kony and his LRA. What was
it like for a child in the LRA? This was first written in 2005.
New:
Alice
Auma Lakwena: The warrior priestess who led thousands of
Acholi warriors into battle with sticks and stones. Joseph
Kony was her cousin but the two were very different, Alice Lakwena
before her death repeatedly asked Joseph Kony to give up his
destructive ways.
New:
Who
is Joseph Kony? Profile and Background of Joseph Kony
and the Child Soldiers of the Lord's Resistance Army. Joseph
Kony has enslaved thousands into becoming child soldiers, made girls
into concubines, displacing millions from their homes in Uganda.
Joseph Kony's
Mother's dying Wish.
The War in Northern Uganda:
The war has deeply affected Uganda's North. Thousands were
killed by the LRA, thousands of children abducted by Kony's Army, many
disfigured and maimed, Two million people displaced from their homes.
Villages burned, Displacement Camps attacked, parents left without their
children, a way to make a living. Now in 2009 Northern Uganda is
rebuilding, but the scars of war remain, mostly within the people of
Northern Uganda.
Where are the children of the LRA?
Over 35,000 children were abducted and enslaved by the LRA in
northern and then eastern Uganda. The question on the mind of
Ugandans and South Sudanese is this -Where are the Children that were
enslaved by the LRA?
Richard
Akena: Former Lord's Resistance Army Child Soldier
who escaped and now helps the victim of the LRA conflict in Uganda.
Even though the conflict has ended in Northern Uganda, the wounds of war
both external and internal remain, Richard has invested himself in the
lives of the victims.
Northern
Uganda - Peace - Give it a Chance It has been a long night
for northern Uganda. The return to the villages and towns is an
adjustment from the Internally displaced camps. It is slowly
happening, there are struggles, but the fruits of the peace brought
about a cessation of hostilities can be seen.
Amnesty for LRA Child Soldiers? What you may not realize 24,000 former LRA members have been given amnesty by the Uganda Amnesty Commission. Find out what traditional ways are used to bring healing to the community.
The Night Commuters of Northern Uganda Every evening they would walk for miles to stay safe from the attacks and abductions of Joseph Kony' Army. Sleeping in the streets, bus parks, schools, hospitals and simply under the awning of store-fronts, doing their homework by the light of gas stations.
Child Soldiers - Victims or Assailants: A look at child soldiers in history, where child soldiers are found with lessons learned from the LRA and Joseph Kony. From Colombia to the Congo, from Afghanistan to Darfur, Child soldiers are a reality.
Background information to the LRA and child soldiers.
Uganda 2009 and Joseph Kony LRA: Where is Joseph Kony? The present situation regarding the war with
the LRA in northern Uganda. What is going on with Joseph Kony and his
LRA? How large is the LRA at this time? Joseph Kony, is fortunately alive and
well inside of the DRC, continuing his rampage of killing and
destruction and abduction on the population of the DRC around Garamba
National Park.
Joseph Kony LRA News
Updates: Latest updates regarding the LRA, Joseph Kony
and activities of the LRA now in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Joseph Kony is no longer just a menace to Uganda's north, that was bad
enough, now he is terrorizing a region of North Eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo and continuing his path of destruction and death.
It is still not Christmas in Northern Uganda:
Written - Christmas
2006, Peace talks were under way, there was a glimmer of hope.
The people of the north were weary of the future. The cessation of
hostilities agreement had been signed, but it was not known what it
meant and if it would hold. Over the years there had been many
promises, but little fulfillment of them.
It does not feel like Christmas-Joseph Kony-Christmas 2008:
Operation Lightning Thunder began against the LRA on December 14, 2008.
The peace talks have failed, Joseph Kony refusing to sign the treaty due
to his fears regarding the indictments against him by the International
Criminal Court and his impending arrest. He also wants more
clarification on the Amnesty program inside of Uganda and how and if it
would apply to him.
Uganda is more than Idi Amin, Joseph Kony and the LRA:
The images that westerners have of Uganda is amazing. Rarely do
those images reflect the reality of Uganda. People see Uganda as a
dangerous place, they do not see as a country that is thriving in many
areas, as a country that is rebuilding the North of Uganda with the help
of many. They do not see the pearl of Africa, but filter it all
through the lenses of Joseph Kony, Idi Amin, LRA.
Living in a Warzone - Uganda:
Recently I received an email from a woman, that just happened to be from my hometown in the USA, Bellingham, WA. She challenged me to
prove that Uganda had been enjoying peace and that the north was slowly
rebuilding. Her email is indicative of what people in the west,
especially in the USA think is going on. When you search the
internet, you rarely find that Uganda has enjoyed a fragile peace for
over two years.
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Catherine Ajok 13 years as a wife of Joseph Kony
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