Meet Maruda
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Punishment Island
Lake Bunyoni is a beautiful, serene body of water in Central Africa, studded with many islands of different shapes and sizes. The water is always calm and the atmosphere is peaceful, but somewhere in the middle of all this tranquility one finds the smallest of all the islands. A single barren tree, home to a large group of black cormorants. They are a constant reminder of the island's dark, secret past.Africaugandastorymaudapunishmentpunishment islandtraditionswomenfamilytragedy reportagephotographylifepeoplesurvival
Mauda's fate
On a dark winter night in 1954 three young women stood at the edge of the water. Two of them had already been on the island a couple of days, while eighteen year old Mauda had just arrived. None of them knew how to swim. Although they lived around the lake and made a living from it, most people in this part of Uganda still don't know how to swim.Africaugandastorymaudapunishmentpunishment islandtraditionswomenfamilytragedy reportagephotographylifepeoplesurvival
Left to die
Mauda was probably the one suffering the most. She could still feel the excruciating pain of her oversized belly even though her seven month old baby was no longer inside. She had lost it hours earlier after receiving repeated beatings from her father and her older brother. Her mistake had been conceiving this baby out of wedlock. As local custom dictated, she was abandoned on the island to die so that the family would not have to bear the shame any longer. Her only hope was that some impoverished man from another village lacking sufficient means for a dowry would rescue her and take her as his wife.Africaugandastorymaudapunishmentpunishment islandtraditionswomenfamilytragedy reportagephotographylifepeoplesurvival
Mutual fate
The three young women had committed the same sin and were therefore destined to suffer the same fate. Standing at the water's edge, they had decided to jump in and thus avoid many days of further suffering. On the count of three two of them jumped. Mauda had a last minute change of heart. Something inside of her was telling her that this was not the end. And so she stood there and watched as her new found friends sank into the dark depths of lake Bunyoni.
Seeing a future
Three days passed without food or water, and Mauda's hopes were fading fast. Then on the third night she heard a sound in the dark. She was not alone on the island any longer. In between the tall grass she made out the figure of the man who was to become her future husband.Africaugandastorymaudapunishmentpunishment islandtraditionswomenfamilytragedy reportagephotographylifepeoplesurvival
Mauda's life
Mauda is now eighty-five years old and lives in the tiny village of Burimba overlooking Punishment Island.Africaugandastorymaudapunishmentpunishment islandtraditionswomenfamilytragedy reportagephotographylifepeoplesurvival
As she sits in a chair by the window of her small, dark hut, she recalls having had a good life. She and her husband enjoyed raising seven children, one of whom passed away too early. Her husband also passed away a few years ago, but her many children and grandchildren, one of whom teaches people in the community to swim, are always around to keep her company. She still thinks about the baby she lost at the hands of her own father, and as she talks about it and describes her pain to me with tears in her eyes, she signals for her daughter to leave the room.
Africaugandastorymaudapunishmentpunishment islandtraditionswomenfamilytragedy reportagephotographylifepeoplesurvival
Nothing is known of the young man who made her pregnant. In those days the man would not suffer any consequences, but Mauda tells me that times have changed. -Today young couples can have babies without being married, and I am happy to know that no young woman will ever have to go through what I went through, she says.
Africaugandastorymaudapunishmentpunishment islandtraditionswomenfamilytragedy reportagephotographylifepeoplesurvival
