CHARLOTTE, GRACE, JANET AND CAROLINE

Could the Lord ever forget his love

The rebels have ruined northern Uganda

The L.R.A., the Lord’s Resistance Army

Which massacres, mutilates villagers—

Cutting off noses, ears, genitals—kidnapping

Their children who they then turn into 

Murderers of their parents, teachers, friends

Could the Lord ever leave you

Charlotte Awino, abducted in 1996

When she was fourteen, one of twenty

Thousand children brutally kidnapped

Forced immediately to commit atrocities

Killing was the crux of an abductee’s 

Initiation, making them one of the rebels

Could the Lord ever forget his love

Joseph Kony, the Lord of the resistance movement

The Messiah, the true Jesus Christ, Lakwena, Father

One who serves the Holy Spirit, has over fifty wives

More than a hundred children, re-populating his tribe

The Acholis, making them strong, future leaders

Of their country, when they win the war

Could the Lord ever leave you

The civil war—which has persisted for eighteen years—

Scattering over one and a half million villagers to seek

Sanctuary and shelter in refugee camps, preferring 

Slow death by disease and malnutrition, to certain

Death and mutilation with the arrival of the rebels 

At their door, in their village, with no defense

Could the Lord ever forget his love

Kony’s confessed aim is to take over the southern capital

Of Kampala, but he rarely crosses the Nile which divides

The desolate northern regions with the south, he mainly

Makes war on his own tribe, the Acholi, punishing them

For their sins, particularly the sin of not supporting him

How can one man wield so much power among his tribesmen

Could the Lord ever leave you

On Independence Day, October 9, 1996, rebels invaded

St. Mary’s, a convent boarding school run by Italian nuns

Went into the dormitory rooms of these virginal girls

Dragged them out screaming and thrashing, tied them up

Some of the girls recognized their captors, they being

Boys just abducted from a nearby school the previous month

Could the Lord ever forget his love

The following day, Sister Rachele Frassera, assistant headmistress

Persuaded the commander of the invaders to release one hundred

And nine girls but he kept thirty, very selective, choosing those 

With desirable traits such as beauty, light skin color, good health

Charlotte, Grace, Janet and Caroline, crying hysterically, until they 

Were kicked, beaten into submission, a new form of slavery  

Could the Lord ever leave you

The horror of escape was instantly imprinted in the minds

Of the new arrivals by the disappearance of Jennifer, when

She was found hiding in a hut, the other girls were given 

Orders to beat her to death, although the girls didn’t want

To harm her, the rebel soldiers forced them to beat harder

Until she was dead, then they left her corpse as a reminder

Could the Lord ever forget his love

That resistance was futile, they couldn’t help one another

They too were murderers, their former selves were destroyed

The girls of St. Mary’s were Kony’s favorites, he

Promised them privileged positions when he took over the 

Government, meanwhile he distributed them almost like

Bounty, to his commanders and they had to go willingly 

Could the Lord ever leave you

And never refuse their “husbands” sex or he would punish

Them the first time with two hundred strokes of the cane

Another time he would brandish their foreheads with a 

Hot iron, but these girls were his preferred, the others he

Would execute as witches, these girls raised by their traditional 

Families to always obey authority, especially religious authority

Could the Lord ever forget his love

The girls believed that he was the supreme one, who could do 

No wrong, while in fact like true megalomaniacs, his decisions 

Were based on his sole obsessional whims, when he was in 

Good spirits, he was friendly, merciful, encouraging, in a 

Bad mood, he was vengeful and ordered killings, but now—

The girls think he should be forgiven, according to Acholi justice

Could the Lord ever leave you

The girls knew nothing about sex, just that the loss of virginity 

Would mean they would be damaged for life, in their communities 

If ever they could escape, in their spiritual and psychological 

Makeup, mutilated as the most obvious cases, scarred for life

The commanders made it their mission to have sex with the 

Girls during their fertile periods—all had children, their husbands  

Could the Lord ever forget his love

Varied as much in their actions and customs as in ordinary society

Charlotte’s husband is still with the rebels, is a seasoned veteran

Of nineteen years, he has twenty-one wives with whom he is very 

Rude, very cruel, showing no mercy to anyone—Grace Acan was Given to an old man, she was his favorite wife, he taught her Everything, punished her often but she didn’t mind because 

Could the Lord ever leave you

She thought it was for her own good, he was a government 

Informer—Janet Akello had a disabled man as a mate

A former commander, whose leg had been amputated, he walked 

On crutches, he was nice to her, he had recently been captured by Government troops, Caroline Anyango’s husband had died, she Was despondent, with no one to take care of her and her children

Could the Lord ever forget his love

She worked as a nurse in another commander’s home, providing 

Some protection—President Yoweri Museveni did little to combat

The LRA in the 1980’s and 90’s, thinking, hoping that it would 

Self-destruct, the Ugandan government sided with the  

Sudanese rebels while the government of the Sudan

Supported the LRA, then everything changed—

Could the Lord ever leave you

When the girls were taken from their elite, private school, the 

Parents of these abducted children, Angelina Atyam, Charlotte’s

Mother, Frank Olyet Ayo-Ogang, Caroline’s father formed

The Concerned Parents Association and appealed to the Pope 

Thereby gaining international attention and concern, Sister

Rachele and the parents put pressure on the governments

Could the Lord ever forget his love

Who gave aid to Uganda to do something to end this insurgence

For eight years, the parents stirred up so much international anger

That Angelina was chosen to meet with Lagira, the leader of 

The raid on St. Mary’s, he told her he would release Charlotte 

If she would stop her activism, but Angelina refused to accept

Charlotte until all the girls were released, she described how 

Could the Lord ever leave you

Months after the abduction and the formation of CPA, she was

Single-handedly committed to the cause, and her refusal was

Like a female version of the Abraham-Isaac story, she relayed 

Her story to newspapers and television throughout the world

Becoming a celebrity who was invited to the White House 

By Hilary Clinton to receive an award, others came from

Could the Lord ever forget his love

Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Tutu, in 2002 Uganda 

And Sudan signed a treaty to stop supporting each others’ 

Insurrectionaries a new general was put in charge of the 

Ugandan army and new battles were fought, giving new 

Opportunities for the girls to escape, in July of 2004, Charlotte

Was the first of the four girls to make a successful flight 

Could the Lord ever leave you

Although they had all been told that their parents were dead

Rumors had seeped through about the CPA, Charlotte 

Believed that her mother was searching for her, she had a vision

That she would escape the next day, just walk away the 

Messenger said, so she did with the guard staring right 

Through her, with her two-year old son, Miracle, on her back

Could the Lord ever forget his love

Her six-year old son, Ronald, having disappeared during

Another battle and kept himself alive by eating mangoes

Fifty rebels were chosen to hunt her down but they came 

Instead in the clutches of the Ugandan Army, so Charlotte

Reached a village where authorities called her mother

Janet followed in August, Grace in September, Caroline 

Could the Lord ever leave you

In November, the four heroines of my tale traveled with 

Melanie Thernstrom, a journalist, who took them from 

Their homes in Lira to Gulu, near the Sudanese border

To a rehabilitation center named World Vision, where 

Former rebels could receive treatment for a month, as if 

A month could erase all the horror, hurt and sorrow that 

Could the Lord ever forget his love

They had endured—different experiences awaited them

Janet met up with her husband, Charles Otom, expressly

Against her parents wishes, Charles had related to Melanie

That the best option for captured male rebels is to join

The Ugandan army proving their loyalty, but he is a cripple 

Before he was captured, he heard that Janet was free

Could the Lord ever leave you

He asked Melanie to bring Janet to him

He didn’t say he loved her, just that he needed her

For money, a place to live, and a father should 

Have control of his children, Janet and he spoke in

Acholi, his voice loud and threatening but it did no

Good, he ordered her to stay but she didn’t

Could the Lord ever forget his love

Grace met a former friend from grammar school at 

World Vision, Sam Kilaro, the center’s outreach

Coordinator, he greeted her so warmly until she 

Told him she had been one of the St. Mary girls 

His attitude changed immediately, just as the 

Girls had foretold, damaged goods they now were

Could the Lord ever leave you

They could not turn back the hands of time, they 

Were re-united with their fellow inmates but didn’t 

Speak much as they couldn’t speak when they were 

Under captivity lest the guards think they were conspiring 

Something, but they were happy that the unthinkable 

Had come to past, they were meeting in freedom

Could the Lord ever forget his love

The girls learned many things in captivity: how to 

Give birth, forage for potatoes, kill someone in cold blood

Although starved, beaten and forced to do hard labor

As the wives of commanders, they were spared being

Fighters, weren’t forced to kill their parents, relatives

Teachers, neighbors, weren’t forced to cut, pull out

Could the Lord ever leave you

Or burn eyes, they are fortunate to have families who

Still wanted them, willing to accept the children they 

Bore in captivity, their families happily received

Them back, Caroline’s grandmother in her ancestral 

Village danced welcome around her, they are proceeding

With their lives, attending a British boarding school in the fall

Could the Lord ever forget his love

Although still wracked with memories of killings, atrocities

They are told now again and again, that nothing they did

While they were rebels was their fault, they can only hope

And pray, believe in their faith’s promise of forgiveness

And rebirth, they told of a hymn they were forbidden to sing

But they sang it in their hearts and knew they weren’t abandoned

Could the Lord ever leave you

Could the Lord ever forget his love

Though the mother forsakes the child

He will not abandon you

Information taken from Charlotte, Grace, Janet and Caroline Come Home

in an article published May 8, 2005 and written by Melanie Thernstrom 

2005