Mulamba the amazing armless painter

In life, no one gets to decide how they will be born. Some people are born without any physical disability while others have some disabilities.

Those with disability suffer a great deal while growing up. Many drop out of school because of the discrimination and stigma.

However, the more resilient stick around to disprove those who thought they could not amount to anything.
Esther Mulamba, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo and now living in Switzerland, was born without arms and legs.

Born 25 years ago in a family of five, she is the only one who is disabled and has been moving with the aid of prosthetic legs since she was a child.

She says being born without limbs was a great surprise to her parents, especially the mother who always visited the hospital for antenatal checks with everything seemingly normal.
“From what I know, my parents were shocked because they did not know I would be born with this disability. they knew it when I came out,” Mulamba says, adding, “my mother told me that she lost consciousness when she saw me.”

Her condition was not only a shocker to the parents but doctors too who thought her limbs had remained in her mother’s womb. And for more than a month, the mother and baby remained admitted in the hospital for close monitoring.

Throughout this period, her mother was crying endlessly and nursing unbearable pain.
“ My mother always cried because she could not imagine what my future would look like. She thought she would be the one to take care of me the rest of my life and her worry was that if she died one day, how would I survive?”

Mulamba says at some point, considering how inconsolable the mother was, the doctors suggested to her parents that she is given up for adoption.
This suggestion was, however, rejected by her father who said she would not be taken anywhere because she was their own flesh and blood.

Difficult childhood
Regardless of her disability, Mulamba has gone through school albeit with challenges. Her time in school was not easy at all because she looked different, and so fellow pupils by the true nature of children were would often do and say things that were hurtful.

“Children would laugh at you, walk behind you, trying to imitate how you walk, as they made fun of you.”
She says while she got along with people, she still felt she was not so connected until she got to college, where she found only one.

“In college that is where I had one friend that I got along with very well, that’s all.”
Mulamba who is currently studying a Bachelors in social Anthropology from Zurich University in Switzerland was recently in Kampala for research.

“I am doing research on women with disability looking at topics like marriage and kinship. I like marriage, kinship and gender.”
She says her six weeks in Uganda were some of the best moments of her life having met and learnt a lot from several women with disability.

Overcoming disability
Well despite her disability, Mulamba has defied all odds and is living and enjoying life like everybody else.
Mulamba has a very beautiful handwriting in her notebook. I could not resist but ask about when she learnt how to write, and how she does it without hands or even fingers.
Mulamba explains that she learnt how to write like every other child does although it is difficult to explain to people how she does it.

“It is difficult for me to say how but, for me it is a normal thing. I just hold the pen or whatever with the two hands I have or whatever you call these and I write.”
Beyond the good handwriting, Esther is a very good fine artist and painter. Going through her website, one comes across unbelievable works of art.

“My love for art started when I was a small child. Art is actually my passion, it started with me drawing women and clothes. That is what I really loved doing, I started at five actually.”
At the age of 12, she was ready to advance to drawing portraits with charcoal.
She says although her dream then was to become a fashion designer, she wanted to do more drawing and so her parents bought her a book called portraits which showed how to do portraits with charcoal.

Later, she changed her technique and started using pastels because she wanted to experience drawing with colours. Mulamba continued painting with canvas, acrylics and water and since 2009, she has been honing her skills at painting.

Mulamba’s skills and plans
There are several other amazing things Mulamba does such as swimming and playing the piano.
She says swimming is one of the best sports that a person with disability can do and it is free.
She also plays the keyboard having learnt in college, where she was shown some basics.

“Where people use 10 fingers, I use too and it sounds good too, “she says with a light giggle.
I ask her whether she has plans for marriage and raising her own family in future and she says does not want to be in any rush, leaving it in God’s hands “in His own time His blessing shall come.”
She says she always felt God should heal her from the outside and give her back her legs and hands and that is when she would be fulfilled and happy in life.

“But then, He healed me from the inside and that is when I realised actually that staying disabled is not a curse but if you are disabled in your mindset that is when you are disabled for real,” Mulamba says.
She has a final word for other women and girls living with disability and are struggling with low self-esteem.
“There is a reason we are born the way we are, just believe you are not a coincidence , you are not a curse but you are a blessing so stay strong, keep believing in God and learn to love yourself , learn to have confidence”