Former LRA abductee making a difference
Denis Labongo aka BSG performs during one of the functions at Pece Staduim in Gulu. The singer was shot by LRA rebels leaving him crippled. Photo by Okello Stephen
As a child, Denis Labongo dreamed of becoming a footballer because he was healthy, energetic and was in the village football team. His father supported his dreams.
However, his world turned upside down in 1990 when he was 12. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels raided their village, Anaka in Nwoya District at around 3pm when they were having a late lunch in their compound. He, together with his father were abducted. His mother and siblings managed to escape without harm.
The day of his capture he suffered another tragedy. His father was shot dead in his sight when he was trying to resist abduction.
Labongo, the second born in a family of six children, was thus raised by a single mother.
“I normally don’t want to share my late father’s stories with people because I break down if I recall the bullets they fired at him before he died. The echoes of the gunshots still sounds on my ears up to today,’’ says Labong who spent two weeks in captivity.
Now called Blessed Servant of God aka BSG, Labongo says that God is very faithful and loving given that despite his experience he is still alive.
“I am a blessed servant of God if I’m still alive. I escaped death while in LRA captivity at the age of 12 years. Even if I’m crippled, God still blesses me,” says Labongo who is now a popular artiste in northern Uganda.
Life in the bush
While in LRA captivity, Labongo says, they walked long distances carrying heavy luggage with little water to drink and the food stuffs they looted from the raided villages. Some of the other abductees and children died on the way because of hunger, thirst and fatigue.
Escape route
Along the way, Labongo tried to escape because he wanted to go back and attend his late father’s funeral, but was recaptured in the process and shot in the right leg and given several strokes of the cane all over his body that left him disabled for life.
“I was shot and caned in the presence of other captives to scare off those who would attempt to make the same mistake. When the rebels got you disobeying them they made sure they brutally tortured you so that you do not influence others to rebel. ’’
After being shot and beaten, the LRA commanders left him unconscious lying in a pool of blood because they thought he was dead. But he was rescued up by a good Samaritan who took him to Gulu Regional Referral Hospital where he was admitted for six months.
His mother was informed about Labongo’s fate and she came to attend to him but with little hope that he would recover.
“My mother thought I was going to die after I stayed unconscious for long,” Labongo explained, adding: “The hospital was too packed with both patients and caretakers because it was also a refuge for the people affected by LRA war.
Medics would force several patients to go back and take their medications from their homes in vain.”
Turning point
When the medical workers saw that Labongo was slowly getting better, they told him to train himself to walk on his own using crutches because he was young and would recover without a wheelchair.
“The doctors were suggesting I go to India for an operation but I had just lost my father and there was no money to take me to India for treatment,’’ he explains.
Six months later, Labongo recovered, though crippled. He was discharged but feared to return to Nwoya because the LRA war was still at its peak.
He was then taken to stay and study in Kampala where he finished his primary and O-Level. He joined A-Level but dropped out in Senior Five in 2002 due to lack of school fees.
But instead of throwing a pity party, Labongo started planning what to do next.
“God did not leave me alone. He gave me another talent after I lost the dream of becoming a footballer. Without going to any music training institute, I slowly started training myself in writing songs and singing until one day I was able to record videos in Kampala,’’ he says.
Labongo sings both gospel and contemporary music with positive messages to all the LRA war victims of northern Uganda. He says he believes in reconciliation and peace with all mankind, that is why he sings in English, Luo, Kiswahili and Luganda because he wants the message to reach every group of people, nation, race and tribes.
His song My mistake is your correction talks about gender-based violence. In Abokalam he sings about the aftermaths of the LRA war in northern Uganda and how people have to forget what happened and progress.
“We need peace and reconciliation as Ugandans so that we can make the country a better place to live in.”
Music has opened doors for Labongo and he has become an instrument for his campaign on the different aspects he is passionate about.
“I was invited for a fundraising concert in St Mary’s hospital, Lacor to raise funds to purchase machines for cancer patients, Save The Children campaign on gender balance, NUDIPO’s campaign on civic education, among others,” says Labongo who aspires to be an international artiste.
Close to his heart is the plight of children with disabilities, he is thus keen on singing to raise funds for the education of children with disabilities in northern Uganda.
He is also paying fees for some and giving them all the scholastic materials from his own savings.
“People have money but they cannot support vulnerable children. that is why I get the money from them indirectly through the concerts,’’ he says.
He also makes crafts, does poetry and paints pictures, all with the target of raising funds to support children with disabilities through his community-based organisation in Gulu called Stand for hope.
