My name is Erina Kobuyora, a servant of God. I am a pure Munyankole by tribe and as you know when women get married, they relocate to their spouses’ homes so I got married and therefore I stayed in a place called Bwera found in Buganda at a time when the population was still small. I come from Kyorora near Sembabule. Salvation was not being taken seriously then and I was baptized when I was still a baby. My father was a parish chief and by then, he was like a cabinet minister of these days. He used to own a bicycle and the entire community would come out to see him riding it. Those days, education was like choosing good cattle to keep but then you fail to take care of them hence them being killed by diseases.
Bibles were kept in wooden suitcases in the same house as the things used for witchcraft. My father had two wives whom he had not wedded in church. I was born at a time when people were all baptizing their children. That was the time the first reverend of Ankole Buningwire came. However I am not so sure about the exact period because then I would be able to know when I was baptized. There was a hill in our area called Ishekye. There used to be a church in our compound, so they would worship God during the day and practice witchcraft at night. That is the home where I was born. After some time, the church was removed and there was no more attending church. It was overpowered by witchcraft. After some time, my father wedded his first wife but never wedded my mother. I was given a name at my baptism whose meaning I never knew. I served small gods and I also worshipped idols that were in the form of a tree.
The devil kept close to God because he also knew about baptism and confirmation in the church. Whenever I hear people talking about believing in traditional practices, I wish they could come to me so that I explain to them then they realize how they are living in a dark world. I worshipped idols and therefore I became a captive of the devil. The devil reveals his acts to the people who never seem to understand what it is all about. After becoming a captive to the devil because of worshipping a tree, I was later baptized then that same night, I was taken to a county leader who was believed to own someplace also known as heaven. Even though I got baptized, I was still in idol worship. My family worshipped a tree, believe it or not.
At one point, I was taken to a shrine by a leader who was believed to own someplace also known as heaven. I am saying all this because of the suffering I went through. From there I went to a man who was called Nyabingi who was also into some other kind of witchcraft. That was not all, I was then taken to Nyabingi – another incarnation of an evil spirit. He was a small god, because the evil spirits are also small gods. We were always possessed by those spirits. Spirits are worshipped the same way people worship God the creator. Amidst all that, then came salvation. The revival movement started in Rujumbura –modern day Rukungiri, while devil worship thrived in Buraka or Ankole during the time of the apostles. So, there was stiff competition between salvation and devil worshipping and that I witnessed with my two eyes.That is when they decided to stop acts of devil worshipping because it was not in line with God’s teachings.
The devil used to compete with God. But in the end, the Lord manifested His mighty power hence the downfall of the so-called false prophets. Salvation took the lead in Katare and Kikoma. Salvation became supreme in Katale- here in Kampala and Kikoma – in Sembabule. So many people laughed and jeered at saved people. It was believed that people were being possessed by a certain spirit of red ants and that of Jesus’ corns referring to it as evil. It was during those days that I got married. I remember it was 1941 though I do not want to talk much about that marriage. I was so miserable in that marriage. I divorced that man with whom I had one child who was a boy who later passed on. Then my dad also died as well as his brother. I lost many loved ones. I became very miserable leading to divorce so I left that home. I think that it was the misery and trauma in my first marriage that led to divorcing.
My mother was still a young lady who moved to a faraway place where she officially got married to a man called Bigyemano who was very famous. On the day I divorced and left that home, we had no car so I walked on foot from Ankole to Ssembabule to a place called Kasharu. In Sembabule, almost every other person had accepted the Lord as their savior, and that was the beginning of Kikoma. My mother who had gotten married to Bigyemano and everybody in that home was born again. My mother who had married at a very early age herself had left my father and gone to a different place where she re-married. Her second spouse was called Bigyemano and everybody in that home was born again. I witnessed them repent of all their sins and that was something I loved so much. I had forgotten to tell you that I was a very playful person who knew many riddles and folk tales which others didn’t know.
During my childhood, I used to be better at molding with clay than my playmates. I must tell you that I was very talented. Can you believe that I was much better at pottery than all other children? Then I used to do weaving using thread and making baskets at a young age. I also knew there that there was a book called the bible though I did not know its contents. And much as it was written in English, I wondered why I also couldn’t learn that language! I realized that the Bible was written in a language I could not understand and that is English. Whenever I was meditating, I envisioned a lot about God and in the Ankole region, hunters would set a trap by placing a net around the bush then they would make an alarm, and unaware of what was taking place, the animal would come running and fall into the trap.
Whenever I was meditating, I envisioned a lot about God. It wasn’t long before this God I used to daydream about trapped me. This was exactly like a hunter- here in the Ankole region who sets a trap to catch an animal while the net is hidden in the grass somewhere, the hunter blows a horn and then the animal trying to escape from the hunter unknowingly falls into the trap. That’s how the Lord trapped me. The net that God set to trap me was a bible and that’s why I love it so much. Whenever I read it, I understood it well much as I didn’t go to school. I read about the death of Jesus and everything else and slowly by slowly I read it all. However, while I was still a young girl between the ages of 8 and 10, there was one Muhima man who was baptized and educated. One day, while he was talking to his herdsman. I was young but I understood what was being said. He told the herdsman that there was a place called hell where sinners go and body parts are burnt gradually and painfully by flames.
I was shocked. I wondered why a person would be born in the first place if they were to end up being burnt in such a manner! He turned to me and wondered why I was shocked. So, whenever I read the bible, I remembered that statement of being burnt in hell and therefore the main reason as to why we accepted Christ Jesus, was to avoid going to hell. We did not accept Christ for any other reason but that and even whenever we were in sorrow, Christ always healed us though we got to know about it after we had accepted Him. Our main aim of accepting Christ, was going to heaven and that is exactly what I am aiming at as an individual. I did not get saved at that time though because,I was still stubborn and so I did not value the bible. But there was a book called “Enjatula” which means “confession” which was mainly about Apostles Paul, Peter and others. It was referred to as the New Testament. I read it and found out the truth about God’s word, something that created fear in me.
This is a prayer book in Luganda, I used to read it and discovered the truth about Jesus in me. But then I was already married in that home which marriage I hated so much because of the problems I was used to face during pregnancy.Mark you I gave birth to only two girls in my second marriage. I had many miscarriages. While other babies died at birth. I was very disturbed because I did not know why all that was happening to me. So, my husband, whom I later divorced, thought I had a spell cast on me. This disturbed me and so I thought of leaving this man as well. I thought the first husband had cast a spell on me.
Another thing that made matters worse was that my mother lost her husband and yet I had no grown-up son to make a home for her. I wondered where I would leave my two daughters if I was to ever get married again to a wealthier man. It felt like judgment day for me which created sadness in me. And to make matters worse, my mother’s husband died when she had not had any child with him. There’s a proverb that says that she who has never faced any challenges, it is because she has never been in a marriage where her own mother has to move in and stay in the same home with her.
My mother had nowhere else to go after losing her husband so she had to move in with me yet I was married. I had no son old enough to build a home for my mother, I was in a state of confusion and that also contributed to my unhappiness. I had sorrow because it felt like judgment day for me as if the heavens would shake and lightning strikes. I had a number of miscarriages while some of my babies died at birth. To me, that felt like I was cursed and I was going to end up in hell then leave my other children behind. The bible became my shield. It was during that painful period that the Bible became my shield, Those who were already born again, remained strong in faith though I still had some doubts about whether they were real.
One day, a man called Kikundu who later on passed on slept over at my home. He was a young man. At that time when he came home. I was still a young girl of twenty-three. I was very young and beautiful like a flower and I used to wear jewelry all the time. We had all types of jewelry and makeup and some of those items were made by us. One evening, while he was carrying a bible in a bag and holding a walking stick, he came and sat beside me. He was dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and a pair of shorts. After the cows had come home, I gave him milk to drink and so he told me about salvation though I never took him seriously because I couldn’t believe a young man at his age would be born again. We slept in the same bed that night and I gave him my shawl which he used to cover himself with.
That time he had one big bed made of sticks stretching from one end of the hut to another.
So that is the bed he slept on and I slept on another end. At around 1:00 am, it occurred to me and I finally believed that salvation was real, so I gave my life to Jesus Christ to become my Lord and savior. Since then, I regarded Kikundu to be my true brother because he made me confess and love salvation. In him, I saw a different person not like anyone I knew. Then, I developed ulcers which caused an increase in my body temperature and I condemned myself to hell. Kikundu was like a real brother to me and I would go with him everywhere I went. Before I met Kikundu, many people used to tell me to become born again but I had a big hurdle before me and my husband had actually abandoned his wife and children.
Whenever you possess what doesn’t belong to you, you have to give it back to the rightful owner.
I could never be considered to be the first wife of a man who was still legally married to someone else because salvation means repenting of one’s sins and taking back what doesn’t belong to them. When I got saved, my husband was present, so I confessed all my sins to him though he was such a complicated man. He hated salvation. He and his relatives believed that a woman would rather go to a bar than go to a church. I let it all out and repented of my sins with all honesty. I confessed to him that I had never stolen anything from anywhere else in my life except from his house. I acknowledged that he had never beaten or insulted me though I felt conviction from heaven to repent of all my sins. I told him about everything I had done which he wasn’t aware of. I even told him of how I used to steal his money to buy cigarettes and alcohol.
But I was sad because of the problems that I used to face with my pregnancies, I also lost many loved ones and I condemned myself knowing that on judgement day, I would go straight to hell. I was very miserable because my mother who had nowhere else to go since she had lost most of her relatives and only left with me. It was so sad, and since then, everything seemed new to me. My life was transformed, I felt like handcuffs had been removed off my arms since I was in captivity.Before confessing salvation, we were like captives but that day, I felt free and like I had taken a big burden off my shoulders. I picked the bible and raised it up towards my friend Kikundu because from the bottom of my heart, it had become my shield though I was not able to read it so well.Praise the Lord.
I approached my husband and told him that I was leaving him and I never wanted to be officially wedded to him. I left at a time when I was still breastfeeding my daughter who is now a big woman and married in Ssembabule. He called me and said that if I left because of his bad habits, I should return and we resolve things between us. I told him that it had nothing to do with him and I was not divorcing him, only that I had received someone special and that was Jesus Christ. The entire area of Bwera was in shock because of what had happened; people thought that I had run mad and indeed I had run mad. I carried my baby girl on my back supporting her with my bear arms without any piece of cloth to cover her. I tied a head scuff on my head and proceeded to Kikoma to bid farewell to the brethren.
The news of my testimony spread like a bush fire and reached places before me.
As I was crossing Kakyinga, carrying my baby girl on my back with my bear arms and wearing a head scuff on my head, I sang a song that goes like this; “Whoever enjoys worldly things, is a loser just like a gold miner who ends up losing his property. You have no idea about what we saw because we are going to leave you in foolishness. Jesus is the light because thanks to Him, we are able to see the truth.” When I was singing that song, it felt like I was moving while seated on top of a lorry. I found everybody in Lyakeyihura waiting for me and when I wanted to share my testimony with them, I realized that they had already heard about it because it moved faster and got there before me. There are silly things that we used to do as young ladies to entice men but I want to tell you that after I had become born again, I realized that it was all nonsense and that’s what I told the ladies.
Whenever I entered any home, the respect accorded to me was like that given to a father-in-law. I was so much respected because of salvation. I left behind my babies in their father’s home and yet other women would give anything to be married and have children. They never wanted to listen to whatever I had to say about salvation. I received a living God when I became born again. After some time, I went back to my former home, not to continue with my marriage but to share my testimony with them. I wanted to tell my husband about the mighty power of Christ whom I had accepted as my Lord and saviour but I did not know how to convince him. One afternoon, I showed him the sun and asked him whether he thought that it was created by a white man or the ancient kings? I told him that the sun was the eye of the Lord which He uses to see everywhere and He is the one that I received. He wanted to put a price on me to talk me out of it but I told him that what is done is done and it is irreversible.
He tried to take me out of salvation and even suggested paying bride price so that I could be culturally accepted as his wife but I told him that the decision I had taken was irreversible. A time came and he went to the Lord and I was with him until his last hour on earth. His children were worried that I would want a share of the inheritance but I told them to share it amongst themselves in any way they wished. I went back home and when my child grew up, I took him to school. I received some money which I used to pay for his education and when he completed his studies, he got married. He never used to drink alcohol and during the UPC regime, he has accused of being a Museveni supporter so he was arrested. He later escaped from prison and joined the bush war and I was interrogated because they wanted me to tell them where he was. I also ran away. However, even though I went through all that, I remained committed to God. When the NRA took over power, he came back home though he was sick because he had contracted AIDS. It seemed like he had a bright future but unfortunately, his life had got messed up.