Unita wives seek former husbands

Unita wives seek former husbands

By Justin Pearce BBC, northern Angola

Unita soldiers have been arriving at the quartering area of Uamba, in northern Angola ever since their leaders signed a peace accord with the Angolan Government in April last year.

But in the last few months, there have been new arrivals.

Women suffered throughout the war

Women have come in search of their husbands who, during the war, left their wives in the towns, while they went off to fight for Unita.

During the years of war as the government army and Unita rebels battled for control of the country, women would find themselves controlled first of one group of soldiers, and then by another.

Rape and forced marriages were common, and at the end of the war, some women were left abandoned with their children.

Stories

Adriana Faustino from Negage, a town about 150km (90 miles) away, told me what happened when her husband left.

"A man from the police raped me, and as a result of this I became pregnant. I left there because I was abandoned, and came here to look for my husband.

We were forced to be with other men - we didn't do this because we wanted to, but to save our own lives

Amelia Chipuko

"I found my first husband here. The man who raped me, I don't know where he is, he abandoned me."

But not everyone has managed to find their husband in the quartering area.

Amelia Chipuko comes originally from Huambo in central Angola, but she too was living in Negage, married to a Unita solder, with whom she bore six children.

"In 1997, Unita left town for the bush - but because of the children we had to stay in the city - because our husbands were with Unita."

"We were forced to be with other men - we didn't do this because we wanted to, but to save our own lives."

Amelia says she was with an army soldier, but he left in September 2001, and then she realised she was pregnant.

"I was left alone pregnant in Negage, until my child was born on 20 May. I came here with the others to look for my husband in Uamba, because I thought he would have come out of the bush, and made his way to here.

"But when I arrived here I heard my husband had died, in Makela. I am living in my sister in law's house. I have no ration card to get food - the clothes that the children are wearing are what people gave me."

No choice

Here in this Unita quartering area, the women invariably talk about the Unita men as their real husbands, and the army as the aggressors.

But observers of the Angolan conflict say that women had little choice either way, and the need for survival forced them to form relationships with the soldiers of whichever army happened to be in control at the time.

Unita soldiers left their families to fight in the bush

Mary Daly, a doctor who has worked with war victims in Angola for more than 20 years, says abuses happened on both sides.

"The fact that you are in one zone or the other zone doesn't negate the reality of what happened, and it happened throughout this country. I think the first thing we have to do is remove the issue of who did and who didn't. Everybody did."

At least for many the future may be brighter.

Jorgina Portasio a Unita party official in charge of women's welfare at the quartering area, believes that with the end of the war the threat of rape is gone, but the women now need a chance to rebuild their lives.

"Some of them have professions - they may be teachers or nurses - if they can practice their professions they will no longer suffer, through their work they can help their children - and the others too, each one can do something to benefit the children in her own way."

But the promises of social assistance that were made to Unita families nearly a year ago have yet to materialise - and at the moment, the prospects of making a new start, seem remote.