Skip to main content

STIGMA KILLED MORE PEOPLE THAN HIV/AIDS


A tribute to my big brother-Moses Lugolole

When people talk about HIV/AIDS after 2010, it is sounds like it is just some kind of sickness where one just has to take a test, be sure of the status and then start taking medication consistently and that is all- you live a positive life-
But the HIV/AIDS I know is not the one of knowing your status and taking medication to live a positive life there after-
It is the HIV/AIDS that meant one person being assumed or proved to be Positive meant the entire family, neighbors friends clan...name it carrying an equal burden of the Cross of the disease through STIGMA...
My story with that painful HIV/AIDS AND STIGMA. ....
When I was in primary seven 13 years of age it was really a tough time
My big brother RIP Moses who was around 23 years of age then..was linked to HIV/AIDS through a wild village rumor- for his relationship with a young widow whose husband had been rumored to have died of AIDS
I suffered a lot of pain for the rumor but I never shared my pain with any one
I hurt at the thought of mother RIP having a child infected with HIV/AIDS and how she takes sleepless nights hurting and not forgetting how she stands the so many scornful statements from the village people- Moses was the brightest,handsome, hard-working and respected boy of his time- the admiration of the village-I lived with that pain day and night
I had the deep pain of my other brothers and sisters imagining their big brother would die thin and painful- how they go through the village scorn- it was too much to imagine- but I never talked to any one about it-
I suffered the desparacy I used to imagine my father lived with for having a son, his biggest boy "infected" that was the common verb for such people at that time
NOW THE MOTHER OF OF MOTHER OF PAIN IS HERE
The thought of My big brother Moses knowing that he is dying any time, I would hurt at how he manages his days of direct and stealthy scorn from the village people
I hurt at the imagination that he would never truly sleep well but dreaming about his Grave
I hurt at the imagination that he was waiting for the time he would slowly go thin and lifeless because that was HIV/AIDS at that time-it was a lot of silent pain I lived with
The Village people didn't care about any those feelings-
The Parents and young girls would openly have alerts against Moses lest they would bump into him and somehow may be Rape them!! At the village Water-Well, people would openly scorn at me or do it in loud whispers
Moses had a son....when he put on weight- one of our neighbors told me " the way your baby is growing fat is the way kids with HIV/AIDS get fat"- it was such a sharp pain i felt-
the baby boy was looked at with scorn by the villagers- one time he fell sick of malaria and one woman told me in the face " you are wasting time, the boy is going to die in whichever way" Did some people even care that i was just a child to be told such!- the boy was I think one year by then'- He is still with us and negative
Now the Mother of Pain came from my science teacher at school...
We had a skit on HIV/AIDS that time in schools it was blended with late
Philly LUTAYA 's song on HIV/AIDS fighting stigma-
And i was playing the part of the Main wife who got AIDS after her husband went to the city and got into relationship with a city woman-that time looking so civilised was enough to be qualified to be candidate for the killer disease.
After the days rehearsal_we went back to class and my teacher told me Openely before other pupils "Nankwanga you're already a candidate of HIV/AIDS since your big brother is dying of AIDS any time"- I felt a sharp pain in my already hurting heart- I wished I wasn't born in my family to take such pain- every time I saw children laughing and playing- I envied them for I magined they didn't have the pain I had - i couldn't share the pain i was going through with My family because I knew they were already hurting
My brother didn't die until after 7 years- when he resigned to village scorn and turned alcoholic-
I always imagine Moses wasn't HIV/AIDS Positive but the village diagnosed him stigmatized him and killed him-
I didn't hear of anyone at home saying he was tested and diagnosed positive -my mother was a medic and she used to treat him with first line Malaria treatment and he would respond immediately
STIGMA KILLED PEOPLE MORE THAN HIV/AIDS its self

RIP my big Brother Moses Lugolole


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

DEFENDING THE DEFENDERS: ZAMZAM DARES DEATH TO FIGHT FOR DARFUR’S FORGOTTEN LIVES

  By Nankwanga Eunice Kasirye A Mother Caught in Endless Conflict ZA mZam Mohammed Khater is not just a journalist; she is a relentless warrior against the shadows of war that have plagued Darfur for over two decades. At 38, she is a single mother of two—a 14-year-old son and an 18-year-old daughter—trapped in a land where fear dictates every sunrise and sorrow lingers in the air like an unshakable curse. Zamzam inspects one of the homes burnt down in 2019  She has seen the unspeakable. Massacres that leave villages lifeless, women brutalized beyond recognition, children reduced to silent witnesses of carnage. She has fled through the darkness, gripping her children’s hands as gunfire echoed behind them, the night air thick with terror. And yet, through it all, she dares to dream. " I dream of a Sudan where my children wake up to the sound of birds, not bombs. Where a mother can send her daughter to school without fearing she may never return." — ZamZam, her voice trem...

DEFENDING THE DEFENDERS:YVONNE MOKA'S CHILLING EXPERIENCE WHILE REPORTING VAWG

By Nankwanga Eunice Kasirye  Yvonne Moka never imagined that reporting on femicide and violence against women and girls (VAWG) would mean reliving her own nightmares. Each story she tells is not just a battle for justice but also a fight for her own sanity. In a chilling interview, she reveals the haunting weight of being both a journalist and a survivor. Yvonne Moka’s Fight for Justice Begins with a Tear-Stained Story Yvonne Moka, a passionate social justice journalist from Botswana, never anticipated that her first major social justice story would be the one that shattered her heart. "My home girl, we grew up together. We shared everything—church, music, village life. She was like my sister. When I left for university, she stayed behind. Over time, she began dating a gangster from the village, and I was not pleased," Moka recalls. "But she made her choices. Then, one fateful day, I received a call from her neighbor: ‘She’s dead. The boyfriend has killed her.’"...

DEFENDING THE DEFENDERS: TURNING THE MICROPHONE TO FEMALE JOURNALISTS REPORTING VAWG

By Nankwanga Eunice Kasirye  Female journalists covering violence against women and girls are not just exposing injustice—they are risking their own safety. The very violence they report on is the same violence that threatens them. According to the United Nations, 85,000 women and girls were intentionally killed in 2023, with 51,100 murdered by an intimate partner or family member. This translates to 140 women and girls killed daily—one every ten minutes. Additionally, 736 million women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence at least once in their lives, with 30% of women aged 15 and older reporting such experiences. Beyond physical violence, female journalists frequently face sexual harassment, cyber threats, and targeted attacks. A 2022 UNESCO report revealed that 73% of women journalists globally have experienced online violence, with 20% facing real-world attacks linked to their work. These threats not only compromise their safety but also have severe psycho...