Unmarried girls who got meaning used to live seen every bit bringing shame to their families inwards parts of Uganda, thus they were taken to a tiny isle together with left to die.
The lucky ones were rescued, together with 1 of them is even thus alive.
BBC's Patience Atuhaire tracked her down.
"When my household unit of measurement discovered that I was pregnant, they pose me inwards a canoe together with took me to Akampene [Punishment Island]. I stayed at that spot without nutrient or H2O for 4 nights," says Mauda Kyitaragabirwe, who was aged only 12 at the time.
"I think beingness really hungry together with cold. I was almost dying."
On the 5th twenty-four hours a fisherman came along together with said he would accept her abode amongst him.
"I was a fleck sceptical. I asked him whether he was tricking me together with wanted to throw me into the water.
"But he said: 'No. I am taking you lot to live my wife.' So he brought me here," she reflects fondly, seated on a uncomplicated chair on the veranda of the trouble solid she shared amongst her husband.
She lives inwards the hamlet of Kashungyera, only a 10-minute boat trip across Lake Bunyonyi from Punishment Island, which is genuinely only a patch of waterlogged grass.
 |
| This is where Mauda Kyitaragabirwe was left to go out |
"At first, Ms Kyitaragabirwe was unsure how to greet me until Tyson Ndamwesiga, her grandson together with a tour guide, told her that I spoke the local Rukiga language," writes BBC's Patience Atuhaire.
Her human face upward cracked into a nearly toothless smile. She held my arm from the elbow, inwards the tight traveling pocket that the Bakiga people unremarkably reserve for long-lost relatives.
The slender-built Ms Kyitaragabirwe walks amongst steady steps together with estimates that she is inwards her eighties, but her household unit of measurement believes she is much older.
She was born earlier nativity certificates were mutual inwards this purpose of Republic of Uganda thus it is impossible to live sure.
 |
| Mauda Kyitaragabirwe |
"She used to receive got a voter's registration carte from only earlier Uganda's independence [in 1962]. That is what nosotros used to count backwards. We think she's some 106," says Mr Ndamwesiga.
In traditional Bakiga society, a immature adult woman could solely larn meaning later on marriage. Marrying off a virgin immature lady meant receiving a bride price, to a greater extent than oftentimes than non paid amongst livestock.
An single meaning immature lady was seen every bit non solely bringing shame to the family, but robbing it of much-needed wealth. Families used to rid themselves of the "shame" yesteryear dumping meaning girls on Punishment Island, leaving them to die.
Because of the remoteness of the area, the practise continued fifty-fifty later on missionaries together with colonialists arrived inwards Republic of Uganda inwards the 19th Century together with outlawed it.
Most people at the fourth dimension - particularly girls - did non know how to swim. So if a immature adult woman was dumped on the island, she had ii options - outpouring into the H2O together with drown, or hold off to go out from the mutual depression temperature together with hunger.
I asked Ms Kyitaragabirwe if she was scared. She tilts her caput to 1 side, frowning, together with fires back:
"I must receive got been nigh 12 years old. If you're taken from your abode to an isle where no-one else lives, inwards the middle of the lake, wouldn't you lot live scared?"
 |
| There are 29 islands on Lake Bunyoyi, including 1 that used to live a leper colony |
In some other purpose of the region, present-day Rukungiri District, meaning girls would live thrown off a cliff at Kisiizi Falls.
Legend has it that it was non until 1 of them dragged her blood brother downward amongst her that families stopped pushing their daughters to their deaths.
No-one always survived Kisiizi Falls. But a let out of girls are said to receive got survived Punishment Island, thank you lot to immature men who could non afford to pay a bride price.
Marrying girls from the isle meant a dowry-free wife.
After her married adult man took her to his abode inwards the hamlet of Kashungyera, Ms Kyitaragabirwe became a dependent plain of curiosity together with gossip.
Over the decades, she has go a tourist attraction - her abode a regular halt for tourists on the trail of the history of the area.
While discussing her life story, she oftentimes stopped talking together with stared at her hands contemplatively.
At other times, similar when I asked how she lost her eye, she was quite evasive, instinctively raising her paw to impact it.
The touchiest dependent plain seemed to live the fate of the babe she was meaning amongst when she was left to die.
"The pregnancy was even thus quite young. I never had the baby. Back thus you lot could non struggle dorsum to defend yourself. If you lot did, they would shell you lot up," she says, lifting her head-wrap from her lap to wipe her face.
Even though she did non tell it outright, I understood what she meant - she was beaten upward together with had a miscarriage.
 |
| Mauda Kyitaragabirwe |
I receive got 3 daughters. If whatever of them had got meaning earlier they were married, I wouldn't blame them or punish them.
Punishing girls - known inwards the local linguistic communication every bit Okuhena, from which the isle draws its local nurture Akampene - was an age-old practice. And Ms Kyitaragabirwe would receive got known nigh the consequences of a pregnancy.
"I had heard nigh other girls that had been taken to Punishment Island, although non anyone closed to me. So, it seems I was also tempted yesteryear Satan," she chuckles.
She never saw or heard from the human being who led her downward "Satan's path". However, she had heard, many years ago, that he had died.
Of her husband, James Kigandeire, who died inwards 2001, she said: "Oh, he loved me! He genuinely looked later on me.
"He said: 'I picked you lot upward from the wilderness, together with I am non going to brand you lot suffer'.
"We had vi children together. We stayed inwards this abode together until he died."
 |
| Ms Kyitaragabirwe's grandson, Tyson, plant every bit a tour guide inwards the area |
And piece it took decades, she was finally reconciled amongst her family.
She smiled together with said: "After I became a Christian I forgave everyone, fifty-fifty my blood brother who had rowed me inwards the canoe. I would go abode to view my family, together with if I met whatever of them I would greet them."
Ms Kyitaragabirwe is believed to live the in conclusion adult woman who was dumped on the island, amongst the practise having died out later on Christianity together with regime became stronger inwards the region.
Still, single meaning women were frowned upon for many years.
Condemning this attitude, Ms Kyitaragabirwe said: "I receive got 3 daughters. If whatever of them had got meaning earlier they were married, I wouldn't blame them or punish them.
"I know it tin john come about to whatever woman. If a immature adult woman got meaning today, she would come upward to her father's trouble solid together with live taken attention of. The people who carried out such practices were blind."
***
Credit: BBC.com Sumber http://www.dnbstories.com/