Age-old customs are forgotten and fear permeates the air as Ugandan farmer Bonaventura Senyonga prepares to bury his grandson, the latest Ebola death in the country of East Africa. A government medical team is preparing the body for the funeral.
In Uganda, saying goodbye to the deceased is rarely a silent process since community people gather at the homes of the bereaved to share in their grief.
Instead, just a few family members are with 80-year-old Senyonga as he excavates a grave on the family’s ancestral property, surrounded by banana trees.
“At first we thought it was a joke or witchcraft but when we started seeing bodies, we realised this is real and that Ebola can kill,” Senyonga told AFP.
Ibrahim Kyeyune, his 30-year-old grandson, was the father of two girls and a motorbike mechanic in the district of Kassanda in the centre of Uganda, which, together with neighbouring Mubende, is the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak.
Since the middle of October, both districts have been in lockdown, with a dawn to sunset curfew, a ban on personal travel, and closed public spaces.
The virus has returned to Uganda after three years, causing concern among the 47 million residents of the nation since cases have recently been detected in Kampala, the capital.
The most recent statistics from the Ugandan health ministry show that out of more than 135 cases, 53 people—including children—have died.
In Kassanda’s impoverished Kasazi B village, everyone is afraid, says Yoronemu Nakumanyanga, Kyeyune’s uncle.
“Ebola has shocked us beyond what we imagined. We see and feel death every day,” he told AFP at his nephew’s gravesite.
“I know when the body finally arrives, people in the neighborhood will start running away, thinking Ebola virus spreads through the air,” he said.
Ebola is not airborne; instead, it spreads through bodily fluids. Fever, vomiting, bleeding, and diarrhoea are some of the usual symptoms.
However, false information is still pervasive and a significant problem.
In other instances, after being medically supervised funerals, the victims’ family exhumed the bodies to carry out customary ceremonies, which led to an increase in infections.
In other cases, patients have turned to witch doctors rather than medical facilities for assistance; this concerning trend caused President Yoweri Museveni to order traditional healers to stop treating sick people last month.
“We have embraced the fight against Ebola and complied with President Museveni’s directive to close our shrines for the time being,” said Wilson Akulirewo Kyeya, a leader of the traditional herbalists in Kassanda.
In order to improve access to healthcare for rural areas, the government has set up isolation and treatment tents inside of settlements.
The only survivor of the four family members who were diagnosed with the illness was Brian Bright Ndawula, a 42-year-old businessman from Mubende who also lost his wife, his aunt, and his 4-year-old son.
“When we were advised to go to the hospital to have an Ebola test we feared going into isolation… and being detained,” he told AFP.
But when their condition worsened and the doctor treating them at the private clinic also began showing symptoms, he realized they had contracted the dreaded virus.
“I saw them die and knew I was next but God intervened and saved my life,” he said, consumed by regret over his decision to delay getting tested. “My wife, child, and aunt would be alive, had we approached the Ebola team early enough.”
Survivors like Ndawula are now an effective tool in Uganda’s war against the disease, sharing their stories to serve as a warning and a reminder that people with the disease can survive if they receive early treatment.
“Whoever shows signs of Ebola should not run away from medical staff, but rather run towards them,” Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng warned recovered patients in Mubende. “If you run away with Ebola, it will kill you.”
It’s a project that a lot of people in this community are passionate about.
When he learned he had the disease, doctor Hadson Kunsa, who caught it while caring for Ebola victims, told AFP he was afraid.
“I pleaded to God to give me a second chance and told God I will leave Mubende after recovery,” he said.
But he explained he could not bring himself to do it.
“I will not leave Mubende and betray these people in the greatest hour of need.”
