Woman who fled torturers that killed her family tells story in new book

29th November 2007

A Ugandan woman who narrowly escaped death at the hands of the unrelenting torturers that killed her husband and abducted her children has had her story published in a seminal new book.

‘My Painful Journey' is the story of Jade Amoli Jackson, a long standing client of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture and a prolific writer with the organisation's writing group, Write to Life.

It is one of 16 true stories featured in ‘From There to Here', the second decibel Penguin prize anthology, described as "the widest reaching contemporary survey of the immigrant experience published for many years".

"I sometimes feel ashamed of my story, but I have had so much encouragement from the Medical Foundation that I felt able to put it in writing," said Jade, who has attended an Arvon Foundation writing course and is now studying drama at Morley College, London. "When I'm writing, it's like I have closed a door on the past and another one is opening."

Jade fled Uganda seven years ago, where as the niece of former president Milton Obote, political rival to current president Yoweri Museveni, she had been subjected to a lifetime of harassment. Staunchly opposed to the guerrilla warfare that was claiming the lives of her fellow country-folk, Jade helped many desperate families flee the country.

In 1991, Jade's own life began to unravel. Her husband was abducted and murdered by the military and just weeks after identifying her husband's dismembered body, Jade's twin sister and her father were killed as Museveni's men descended on the family's farm to seize their property in the ongoing power struggle.

Scrambling together her three children, Jade fled to northern Uganda. The family lived in relative safety until 2001, when Jade returned home from work to be confronted with the sickening news that the village had been attacked and her children had been abducted. Desperate and distraught, Jade sought refuge in a neighbouring village and it was not long before that too was destroyed and the villagers captured.

For two days, Jade was marched barefoot into a secluded jungle enclave where she was to spend the next few months enslaved in impoverished conditions, confronted daily by death, rape and starvation.

Jade considers herself fortunate to have escaped, and though the loss of her children haunts her still, she has slowly managed to rebuild her life. Her prose and poetry, which chronicles her experiences both in Uganda and her reflections on life in the UK, has earned her praise at literary festivals up and down the country which she has attended with other MF clients.

Six judges, including Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty and the novelist Kate Mosse, selected the most illuminating and powerful entries to be published in the book.

Samenua Sesher, Director of decibel, said: "The anthology is an exciting collection of the authors' journeys and experiences of fleeing persecution, or seeking new lives and opportunities in another country. The stories are important in today's multicultural Britain, illustrating how our country is ever changing, and how these kinds of experiences add to the diversity and collective history of our society."

*From There to Here is published by Penguin in paperback on November 29, priced at £8.99. To order a copy, visit www.penguin.co.uk.

Click here to read more about the MF's project, Write to Life