Remembering Easter in the ‘bush’

When they got married, Sam Kalenga Njuba and Gertrude Njuba cherished festive seasons like the Easter holiday.

A young couple, full of hope for the future, they were assured of partying during Easter, in and out of their posh residential house.

“We were an ever happy family, we used to have lots of fun with our young children,” captain Gertrude, former war bush fighter, narrates.

At that time, the late Njuba was running a city law firm and also lecturing at the Law school, MakerereUniversity.

His wife, Gertrude was working at Customs Department (the current Uganda Revenue Authority).

Their happiness as a family, however, did not last long. Towards, the 1980 general elections, Njuba was arrested as he was driving towards the City Square.

“He was detained at Makindye Barracks. Yoweri Museveni, who was then the vice-chairperson of the Military Commission intervened and he was released,” Gertrude explains.

Easter in the bush

After the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) was declared winner of the contested general elections and its leader Milton Obote sworn in as President, Gertrude says life became difficult and risky.

“We decided to abandon our home in 1981 and went to Luwero to fight for freedom. We joined Museveni and other oppressed Ugandans, who had grouped themselves under a rebel group, to launch war against UPC Government,” he says.

“When we left home, we forgot about the Easter holiday. We accepted the new situation that had come and we got used to the hard life. Some of my comrades did not get what to eat on some Easter days. I do not want to remember what we went through during those five years of the liberation struggle,” she says.

Though the Njubas tried to adjust with the new situation in the jungles of Luwero triangle, it did not stop them from thinking about the good times they had at their home during the Easter holiday.

Kazoora and Biraro

Just like Gertrude, her fellow former bush war heroes like Maj. John Kazoora and Maj. Gen. Benon Biraro narrates what Easter holidays meant to them in the bush.

“We never had Easter the way one would imagine it because during such public holidays, we had to be on high alert expecting the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) soldiers to attack thinking we had relaxed,” Biraro, a former presidential candidate, says.

Biraro and Kazoora joined the liberation war in 1982, after completing their university courses at Makerere University.

“However, whenever we had free time like Easter days, as young men, we would talk about politics, the war, food and women. These preoccupied our minds. As starving people, we also missed the delicious food, like chicken, rice, beef and matooke we had been eating during the Easter holiday at our homes before we joined the rebellion,” Biraro narrates.

Kazoora also said for the five years they spent fighting Obote’s government, they never had any special days.

“We were ever on standby, especially on special days. In fact, our preferred days of attack were public holidays when we expected the enemy to be relaxed. Bush life was completely different. In fact, Easter, which is not as specific as Christmas, because it would pass without notice,” he notes.

Kazoora says during one Easter holiday, the National Resistance Army (NRA) fighters were ambushed for a week.

“You could not make any movement. When ambushed by the enemy, nobody could walk around,” he adds.

Nadduli’s Easter was different

However former Minister without Portfolio Abdul Nadduli, says Easter was treated as a special day.

“We never fought on such days. Our boys rested on Easter. Others went for prayers, since each camp had their own religious leaders,” Nadduli said.

Asked about what others said about readiness on special days, Nadduli clarified that the NRA fighters always tightly guarded their camps from being ambushed by UNLA soldiers.

No special meal

The fighters had no special meals. Their daily meals included cassava, beans and dry maize.

“And to get it was even luck. There was a time when we had beef. But it did not last and then we went back to eat our cassava,” Biraro says.

Nadduli adds that it was also luck for the fighters to get matooke. They mainly ate cassava and beans.

Separate kitchen for Museveni

The NRA fighting group had a structure of the High Command, chaired by Museveni.

Its members, included Eriya Kategaya, Sam Magara, Elly Tumwine, Fred Rwigyema and Salim Saleh.

Others were, David Tinyefuza (until he was demoted in 1984), Matayo Kyaligonza and Tadeo Kanyankole.

And to be a member, Kazoora said the chairperson considered bench marks like old service in the struggle, education background and political alliances.

As they were fighting, Gertrude says, rumours started to circulate that Obote and his men were planning to poison Museveni as it had been alleged that Obote’s government had poisoned late Sir Edward Muteesa II, the first President of Uganda.

The High Command assigned Gertrude, who was a personal assistant to the chairperson, a new task of being in charge of Museveni’s food and water.

Museveni’s food was prepared in a separate kitchen. Even on Easter holidays, Biraro says, Museveni used to have his regular supply of millet for his bushera.

Strict rules

Kazoora says whether Easter periods or any other holidays, taking alcohol in the bush war zone was prohibited.

“We had a strict code of conduct. We were not allowed to befriend girls or women for fun,” he adds.