Elizabeth Namazzi
28 November 2009
Kampala — YOU didn't have to know Pamela to celebrate her victory. Weary of hiding from the lustful 40-year-old man who had been trying to defile her for years, the 14-year-old girl picked a stone and hurled it at him. Like the biblical David who killed Goliath with a stone, Pamela ensured that the man would never bother another girl, or woman, again. He died in hospital.
For a while there, Pamela's future seemed bleak as the law took its course. She was arrested and spent some days in police custody because her relatives did not want to get involved in her woes. Moved by her story, Mary Karooro Okurut highlighted her case in Parliament. She called on the House and the interior minister to intervene and protect the girl. As the Bushenyi Woman MP, she knew only too well that rape and defilement are the biggest crimes in Bushenyi, yet the victims, like Pamela, never receive justice.
Karooro suggested that the girl be treated as a heroine because she acted in self-defence. Karooro could not have chosen a better opportunity to stress her stand for women. A renowned novelist, playwright and columnist who has written about women's plight and spoken for women's rights, she has taken to Pamela's case with passion and established a special committee to co-ordinate help for the girl. She has also organised a charity walk in Kampala, which is to take place in two weeks, as a show of solidarity against defilement. It is not clear whether the bid to raise support will go on, now that Pamela is in the foster care of Jovia Saleh.
Those who know Karooro are not surprised by her reaction to Pamela's case. Described as someone who genuinely cares for other people, she's always willing to go out of her way to help those in need. It is said that her smile lifts the most disheartened, which is why she easily wins people to her side.
A founder member of the Uganda Women Writers' Association (FEMRITE), her passion for storytelling can be traced back to her childhood. It was the perfect beginning of the author, who was voted Uganda's woman writer of the millennium in a 1999 survey done by the New Vision. Her novel, The Official Wife, won the 2004 National Book Trust of Uganda award.
Her other passions include President Yoweri Museveni and the ruling NRM. She will defend the two any day, any time, and her literary and oratory skills serve her well in this arena. A former lecturer at Makerere University's department of literature, she served as President Museveni's press secretary and was a commissioner at the Education Service Commission before she vied for the Bushenyi Woman MP seat.
It was her father, Erinesti Karooro, who inspired her to join politics with his belief that she had a genuine concern for people. Her marriage to Stanislaus Okurut further convinced her that politics was her world and it was only a matter of time before she joined the political boat.
Although she's a fully fledged politician now, her family remains close to her heart. Not that she has not had any mishaps with her Iteso in-laws. When she had just gone to Teso as a bride, she asked a young man how they greet in Teso. "Bangana noi," the young man replied. Excited that she had the weapon to win over her in-laws, she sought out one of them, and like a well-mannered wife, knelt down and, with a big smile, repeated the 'greeting' she had learnt.
To her surprise, her smile and greeting were received with dismay. She overheard someone say that her husband had married a lunatic. She didn't understand what was so lunatic about greeting one's in-law with a smile until she learnt that bangana noi means you are very stupid. Karooro was terribly embarrassed, but the charming woman that she is, she was able to mend her image with her in-laws in no time. Today, none of them remembers that Karooro uttered Bangana noi, because she is fluent in Ateso.
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