Speaker Anita Among has opened up on how life story, narrating how she faced difficulties growing up and how much she has gone through to become the third important political office holder in Uganda
Speaking at the launch of the Uganda Parliamentary Forum to End Child Marriage and Teenage Pregnancy, Speaker Anita Among asserted that she would “jealously” protect her speaker seat because she has fought hard to get where she is today.
“As I told you, I will keep this seat jealously because I worked for it. I refused to become a teenage mother,” said Among, who totally opposed the proposal to allow teenagers to use contraceptives.
“So, I am going to be in this seat – so you better guard this seat – other than this business of saying ‘I want a kid.’ No, those kids are a problem; you will get them later.”
REFUSING TO GET MARRIED AS A TEENAGER
She narrated how the girls in her large family would be married off in their teenage years instead of being encouraged to stay in school. That she chose to remain in school and to pursue her dream of becoming the most educated in her family and to be able to change her family, community and nation.
I am speaking from my heart. The issue of eliminating the teenage pregnancy and child marriages is a reality [because] I happen to be a victim of them. In the tradition where I come from, having so many girls is being rich. The moment parents see breasts come of the girl, that girl is ready for marriage. I happen to come from a family of about 48 children, and most of them are girls, I am actually the third last born in the home,” she shared.
“When my other sisters grew up, I would see everybody getting married and I would wonder, ‘what is happening?’ Kumbe that was the riches that [were] there. And I one time happened to ask my sisters, ‘you are young, why are you getting married.’ My sister said, ‘you don’t know what you are talking about.’ I told her, ‘you wait, you will become my house girl.’ That is what I told my sister, ‘why don’t you want to go to school?’ she said, ‘for you, you study if you want.”
Determined to acquire education, Among says she would soon run away from home for fear of being married off since her father wanted cows they would pay him as bride price. She would become a housemaid.
“So when it reached my time, I was going to P.7 – first of all I was very brilliant. I didn’t study nursery. When I was in P.1 they took me straight to P3 because I was too clever for the class. P.3, I studied there, I went to P5, so that is how young I was,” Speaker Anita Among narrated.
“But you reach a class and somebody says, ‘we need cows because for us we are cattle keepers.’ I ran away from home and became a house girl, stayed in those people’s homes and at one time I said no, let me go and stay with one of my sisters.”
SURVIVING RA*E
At her sister’s home, Among claims her brother-in-law (her sister’s husband) attempted to ra*e her.
“My sister’s husband wanted to ra*e me. I still ran away. My belief was one: I must be the most educated in that home, and I thank God that I am.”
As some one who had run away from home, the speaker further recalled, she had “nobody to pay my fees” since she “would work as unpaid house girl.”
From house helping she went into selling alcohol. Her father would also disown her for refusing to get married.
“I started selling local brew as I was working as a house girl to pay for myself,” she said.
“I refused and said I will not [get married]. My father rejected me and he said I was not his kid. I said ‘it is okay. Time will come when you will know that you are my father.”
DISLIKING MEN
From her father wanting her to marry at early age and to forget about education, Speaker Anita Among said she developed hat*ed for men. She later reconciled with her father, the man who had disowned her.
After her A-levels, she would begin as a cleaner at Centenary Bank and rise to the position of cashier.
“I grew up with that hatred of men and why did I ha*e men, because it was a man who was trying to force me to get married. A man who was husband to my mother! I actually stopped calling him father. But after some time, we got back together and I said, ‘Daddy, don’t you see?’” she recalled.
“He only accepted that I am his kid now that I am working. So I educated myself from primary to University. I paid my fees from S.6 that I went to Centenary Bank to look for a job. I said there is no man that will lie to me that let me give you money. I went and became a cleaner in Centenary Bank, we were just on vacation, but I had to prove myself that I can work but because of the hard work and commitment that I had, I was made a cashier.”
With such a painful life journey she has gone through, Anita Among has vowed to jealously guard her job. She currently faces sanctions both from the US and the UK over corruption. Members of her parliamentary commission face censure over Shs1.7bn cash awards. (See Details Here and There).
You can read more about Speaker Anita Among’s profile Here.
(For advertising, sponsored content or story tips, send us a Whatsapp message on +256 705 690 819 or E-mail us on [email protected]).
