My name is Princess from Uganda. I ran away from my country because of the war and poverty we were in, the year was 2044. I had to sacrifice a lot to be here, I now have my own house and car but have on one besides my lovely dog. I remember quite well it was June the 29th of 2014 when the police invaded my home. I was the youngest in my home and my mother hid me under the bed.

I heard gunshots but I didn’t cry as I was scared to make a sound. The house was full of blood, my family was dead: my father, my mother, grandmother and my three brothers. Tears were uncontrollably flowing out of my sore, exhausted and red eyes. I escaped and ran to wherever, I didn’t know. I didn’t know where I was going, however, I told myself I will run and stop where the road ends. I got to Town and stood there until I found a group who wanted to get out of the country. I joined them and we all, in one spirit went to a cluster of trucks which delivered food and weapons to other countries. While getting in the trucks without anyone noticing, one of the guys caught us and started shooting at us.

We tried to escape but all the others were dead except me. I hid in a huge yellow truck which was about to go. My heart began to gain relaxation of spirit when I felt the truck leaving. A few hours later it stopped. There came this huge, grotesque and muscular man opening the truck. To my surprise, he knew I was there in the truck and he said, “If you want to continue going to a new country I must also have something.”

“What is that? I don’t have anything.” I asked him.

“A woman always has something,” he replied. He raped me.

I had no choice because I didn’t want to go to Uganda. I cannot tell how many times that beast raped me. Every time the truck stopped he would come and say, “Jangu wano!” Full of despair, I had no choice, my only plan was getting out of that truck.

When we were approaching the borders, the fiendish beast would shout and say, “Hide yourself, the truck is about to be searched!” I would jump and hurriedly hibernate in a trunk that was full of AK47 machines. I don’t know how many of them were there but numerous of them.

Third day on the road and away from home, but I could still see and smell the blood of my family and hear their wailing out from the lands of Uganda. The tears were uncontrollably flowing out of my eyes like a river from the seas. My whole body was heavy and brutally bruised, so much that I couldn’t stand because of the huge fiendish man.

I knew I was going to die if I were to go back to Uganda. So I told myself that I will arrive in the new country and start afresh. After a few weeks on the road I have survived death because of getting bones of leftovers of meat with a few slices of bread thrown to me by the man who victimised me.

I finally arrived in this country. I could smell the sea breeze when I got off the truck. I couldn’t walk; the man carelessly pushed me over to the side of the road. I was surrounded by skyscrapers and bright beautiful lights. The tears hadn’t stopped flowing out of my eyes even to this current moment I was in.

Hours after the huge man just left, there came a white car and out of it appeared a woman that spoke the same language as mine.

“Ki kati? Oli otya? I couldn’t even talk, I fell and collapsed, lights went off.

The next day I woke up in a bed that was in a wide-open space, a hospital called Melommed. The woman who found me was a doctor by profession. She took me to the hospital and saw that I was raped many times. They found out that I was also pregnant and I couldn’t afford to raise a baby as I was alone in the country. Consequently, the baby was aborted. The woman took me to her house where I slept and rested. I told her what was happening back home and how I got here. The country I was in is South Africa.

When telling the story, the gracious woman whose name was Sarah, born by a Ugandan mother and South African father, was deeply touched by my experience. The tears were still maniacally flowing out of my red and extremely swollen eyes. It took me 10 years to forget of my family’s death and I was a centre of the media in South Africa where I would be invited to deliver speeches of encouragement in conferences.

I had done a documentary of my life, the predicaments I had been through while I was 17 years in Uganda. The documentary opened many doors for me, a lot more than I expected although it was not an easy job to talk about it, but Sarah was constantly motivating me. Many media companies were requesting interviews with me. I was in the front page of Newspapers.

The South African government called me and I received the National Award, Ikhamanga for my bravery. That was not all. The President phoned me and promised to send an army to Uganda to help fight the British Colony. The South African Army and Army of Uganda merged forces and victoriously won the battle. Sarah had no husband and kids so we were family. After 2 years she died, leaving me with her house, money and all her belongings as an inheritance.

Now it’s been 27 years since I ran away from my country of origin and I am frightened of returning there. It would remind me of my family and I do not have anything of mine which is there. I have learnt and agreed with my heart that South Africa is my home, even though in Uganda I am regarded as a hero, which qualifies me to be someone’s icon.

Everyone in Uganda wants me to come back but they do not know the challenges and bad memories which have been created there. I am now even scared of looking to any man’s eyes all because of one man who victimised me. On the other side of it, I am now here all thanks to that same devil, the devil was once an angel of light.

The year is 2044, my village in Uganda, Kansarm now has access to water and food is donated to them every day. Poverty is now history for my people. I have already accepted my fate. I will die and leave no one in this Earth because I have no husband and kids. Going back to the struggle of my country will break me. I will stay in Cape Town for the rest of my remaining days and may the Living God richly bless Sarah for her loving kindness and gracious heart.