The policy of opening foreign mail had reached its zenith about then, and overzealous underlings, eager to impress overbearing bosses and win scanty favors, fell upon Dr. Wagner’s letter like a famished pride of lionesses on a giant buffalo. Within a day, they had traced Aunt’s whereabouts. She was still at Nsambya Hospital, where the letter was addressed. They rushed to the junior staff quarters, pulled her out of bed at 3 a.m., tossed her into the boot of a car and drove her two kilometers to Makindye Barracks, where they had an office.
Aunt Lwandeka ate all the threats as they were served to her. She had already realized that hers was an important case, one most likely to be tried in court as a testimony to German infiltration, spying and slander campaigns. It would bolster the claim that mission workers and others in the employ of the Church were spies for foreign governments. Aunt’s captors wanted a confession obtained without visible bodily damage to her, because she had to appear in court, but the confession was not forthcoming. Tempers became dangerously inflamed.
Normally, women talked quickly, but Aunt would not talk at all. She kept swallowing their insults and threats with a calm, almost vacant look. The “tall man” asked his men to strap her onto a table faceup. He drew his knife and threatened to cut her up, in vain. He then pulled a spitting cobra out of an iron box. He put it at her feet, and it bit her several times. That really unhinged her. She remained conscious by an act of will pinned on the belief that the fangs had been blunted and the poison milked. The horror made her scream, and the men laughed and stroked her face arrogantly. The snake bit her again and again, but she still had enough willpower not to tell them anything. Mad with rage, the man picked up the snake and slid it inside her clothes via her cleavage. She started shouting like mad. She tugged at the ropes, and the men laughed and slapped each other on the back. They danced around, shouting, “Amin oye, oyeee! Amin ju, juuuu!” At one time Aunt thought she was going to faint. The reptile kept wriggling as though entering the depths of her body in order to terminate her and her future children with its lethal poison. All horror had a limit, and the thugs knew that. The man at last retrieved the reptile and petted it. He rubbed it in her face one last time and asked her to talk. He wanted answers to the following questions: What were the names of the spy organizations Dr. Wagner worked for? What kind of spies was she recruiting? What sort of military aggression was her group planning? Was she at all linked with the failed 1972 guerrilla incursion into Uganda? What kind of secret information did Aunt send the German spy? Which of the remaining hospital staff were spies? How long had this spy ring been in existence?
Aunt refused to talk. The knife was now brought close to her face, but her lips remained sealed. She knew by now that they would not cut her. She, on the other hand, was working out when to spring a surprise on them. When she felt that the time had come, she asked them to talk to a famous brigadier. Immediately.
Who the fuck did she think she was? Who the fuck did she think she was talking to? Who the fuck did she think this brigadier was?
She said time and again that she worked for him. Baiting dissidents, foreign spies and their benefactors.
Why the hell hadn’t she said so before? There was plenty of confusion and suspicion and a touch of fear. Longevity in the security agencies, as the tall man and his cohorts knew, depended on not stepping on big men’s toes, and on knowing when to relent. However much the tall man might have liked to teach this woman a lesson, he knew that it was suicidal to press on, especially if her claims were true. That was Aunt’s salvation. Even if the brigadier took time to do something, Aunt knew that she had already frightened the thugs enough to be left alone.
The brigadier ordered her captors to take her to court. She was taken dressed in flowing robes to cover legs swollen with snake poison. The case files, however, were stolen or lost or both. The letter also disappeared. The judge got angry that court time was being wasted. The case was dismissed after a fortnight. Aunt’s brothers and sisters, with the help of Padlock’s money, bribed the thugs and the policemen to drop all “investigations.” Aunt was released a week after. The brigadier later defected to Tanzania to join the exiles and guerrillas.
Padlock and Kasawo used the incident to implore Aunt to turn her back on politics and involvement with dissidents. As a survivor of an attack on her life, Kasawo believed that she was a credible expert on how to survive in hard times, and she expected her younger sister to swallow her admonitions and advice whole. Kasawo also believed that her younger sister’s involvement in politics was a form of compensation for failing to find a man to marry and settle down with.
As a good younger sister who had just escaped the jaws of death, Aunt Lwandeka did not defend her position, showing the expected deference to her elder sisters. She let them exhaust themselves with talk.
“You must stop all this political nonsense,” Padlock ordered.
“We were worried sick about you. We were afraid that something terrible was going to happen to you. Have you got no feelings for others? How can you even think of dragging us through the same nettles by saying that you cannot give up?”
“Get a man, marry and settle down.” Kasawo dropped her favorite line with a smile. “If your own children are not enough for you, go and care for orphans.”
“Stop writing to foreign spies, sister,” Padlock said angrily. “What will that German woman do for you? She was using you all the time she was here, making you wash her knickers and towels. Wasn’t that bad enough? Now she is back in her country and has left you to languish. She doesn’t even know what you have just been through. She doesn’t even care. Can’t you see that?”
“Listen to your eldest sister’s words,” Kasawo said.
“I know you are smart but also naive and unguided. Ever since you gave up religion and stopped praying and putting yourself at the feet of God, things have gone bad for you,” Padlock began, her voice rising without her face muscles reacting. It could have been the miracle of the talking statue. “The first educated man who came along fooled us all, and in the end, he dropped you to marry a more educated woman. What has he done for you and your son ever since? What have the other men done for you and your children? You work hard for them as if they were orphans. Now you are gallivanting with politicians who will dump you as soon as you have done what they want. Stop trusting people. Invest your trust in the only one who will never desert you: God.”
Aunt took her punishment in silence. She gave her sisters her demurest look but did her own thing in the end. There was no turning back. She considered going to Tanzania to join the NRM guerrillas, leaving her three children with their fathers. She communicated with the brigadier a number of times about it. He wanted her to join him in Tanzania because the NRM could use all the help they could get. A close friend who was also involved in the struggle took her aside one day and warned her that she was putting all her eggs in one basket. He asked her what she knew about fighting, if she knew how long the struggle would last. He asked her if she was sure that the NRM would get a big chunk of power when the struggle ended, if she was sure that she would be given a big post after the struggle. He asked her if she believed that all those guerrilla groups loosely united against Amin would remain united after he was gone. He asked her if she was really determined to throw her life away as though she had no other alternatives. Then he asked her to make and sign her will and hand it over to him.
Finally, Aunt Lwandeka came to her senses and stayed. She saw the wisdom of fighting from inside, giving information to the NRM and housing NRM missionaries before they did their job. It proved a more satisfactory option. It did not take her away from her children. It did not disrupt her life; in fact, it gave her the chance to remain in control.