The relics of Fort Patiko in Northern Uganda
have been in ruins for years until efforts to restore it were started a while
back. Recently, United Nations Development Programme, through the Ministry of
Tourism, flagged off a press farm trip to rediscover the 138-year-old Fort
Patiko
On arrival at the Patiko’s rather
bushy parking lot, which is a block from its gate-less entrance, we were
welcomed by Salvatoria Oringa the calm skiny caretaker of the fort. He
suggested we take a stroll around the two-kilometre long pits surrounding the
fort.
The pits, which measure 16ft in
depth and 16ft in width, were dug to make it impossible for slaves to escape
from the fort — just in case they beat its tough security deployment.
As we advanced, we were swallowed up by towering wild grass and shrubs. By the
time we maneuvered our way through, our clothes were covered with black jack
needles whose sharp tips treated us to endless pricking. We were also not
spared by the thirsty mosquitoes in the pits.
Oringa said this humiliating walk was purposed to give us (tourists) a pinch of
“the walk to oppression”, that the slaves endured as they trudged thousands of
miles to Fort Patiko from different parts of central and East Africa.
Following these words, dead silence fell over our group, as odd imaginations
going back to the slaves’ days filled our minds. Unlike us, who were fully
dressed, the slaves were always stripped of their clothes to give them the
slave identity.
Because there were no defined roads
at the time, they were made to walk for miles in such vegetation, not to
mention impenetrable forests which were habitats to beastly animals.
When Oringa noticed we were getting carried away by these emotions, he was
quick to re-route our attention to more adventure at the fort. In a hoarse
voice, he asked us to follow him to the heart of the fort and there we found
three roofless doubled-roomed houses built exclusively with sedimentary rocks
and cement.
They were built on a low rocky hill,
so the Arab architects saw no need to cement the floor. In fact, they made the
most of this location by polishing the rocky floors smooth, after which they
creatively made striking inscriptions on it to give its occupants a feel of
home in this otherwise isolated setting.
“The roof was made of grass thatch,
so the houses enjoyed a chilled shade whose temperatures compares to that of
today’s first class air conditioned suites,” Oringa explained.
Adjacent to these houses are two towering rocks at whose base there are dug-out
caves that used to house the slaves. However, unlike the slave trader’s houses
which were spacious and well ventilated, I hardly found a thing to admire about
the caves.
It appears like more emphasis was
put on digging them horizontally inwards than vertically, just like coal mines.
Their height is about three feet high meaning the occupants (the slaves) could
only get inside by crawling on their bellies.
The cave was always jammed to
capacity because accommodation was not enough for the hundreds of slaves who
were held hostage here.
Tales of death
Oringa explained that from time to time, the slaves would be assembled at the
fort’s sloppy compound where the beautiful, healthy and muscular ones would be
separated from the ugly, sick, weak and skinny.
The selected lucky ones would be
dispatched for the Egypt and Sudan slave markets where they would be sold off
like merchandise. The unfortunate rejects who could not fetch high prices on
the market would be executed by firing squad at the open torture chambers.
“They were not set free because the
traders feared that they would mobilise the local communities to fight off
their cold-blooded Arab masters/traders,” Oringa added.
In a move to make the executions more entertaining, trumpeters would climb up
the 18ft rock which overlooks the torture chambers. Up there, they would blow
aloud trumpets to cheer the executors as they did their job.
After these slaves were killed,
their corpses were never given a decent burial. Instead, the bodies would be
dumped in the pits surrounding the Fort where vultures would move in to finish
the job.
Musician Akon’s award-winning Mama Africa video was shot in July 2007 at Fort
Patiko. The four-minute video attempts to recapture the agonising crucifixion
that the Arab slave traders subjected their captives to between the mid-18th
century and end of the 19th century.
PICTURE
All over the compound, one can
observe sharp cuts on the rocks and Oringa explained that these cuts were
sliced by the axes which were used to behead the slaves.
“The lucky ones who survived the axe, were made to work like donkeys yet fed on
little food. Men were usually tasked with digging out more caves for
accommodation while women did domestic chores like grinding tones of millet —
sometimes till their hands bled.”
The sun shines at last
By the 1840s, it was impossible to maintain a deaf ear to cries against slavery.
It was around this time that Sir Samuel Baker, an abolitionist adventurer and
representative of the Egyptian Khedive arrived in Acholi land.
With his band of Nubian fighters, he
fought off slave traders from the fort around 1870 and took it over as a station
base for his campaign.
However, Vivian Lyazi, an official at Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and
Antiquities, argues that Baker’s prime interest was not in stopping slave
trade, but rather used it as a cover up for his ivory raid in Uganda.
He bases his argument on the fact
that Baker came at a time when slave trade was on the decline following the
rise of the industrial revolution.
Taking into consideration that this
coincided with an overwhelming demand for ivory as an industrial raw material,
it is believed that Baker was in pursuit for ivory.
There are thousands of Borassus palm trees around the fort. Bearing in mind
that the fruits of these palm trees are primarily dispersed by elephants, it is
possible that Baker could have killed thousands of elephants near the fort and
thereafter stripped them of their precious tusks. His close links with Emin
Pasha, another prominent ivory hunter is also telling.
The same fort was later used by Charles Gordon who replaced Baker as Governor
of the Equatorial Province and later by Emin Pasha. It was later used as a
prison by the colonial government before falling into disuse for many years
after independence.
A scenic view from the fort
Locals believe that though slave
inhumanity at Patiko happened centuries back, the spirits of those killed still
haunt the fort. Simon Olweny, a resident in the neighbourhood of Patiko claims
that the nights are punctuated with wails of the ghosts of the slaves who are
often heard pleading for their lives to be spared.
Other tour activities at
Patiko
In other news, Fort Patiko is beautiful from end to end, with amazing scenery
which offers great photography. It boasts of lots of rocks that slaves were
made to curve into models of different creatures such as sharks, the map of Africa,
Lake Victoria and human heads among others.
The hilly fort also has antiquities such as the grinding stones that the slaves
used for grinding millet. Florence Baker, whom the abolitionist had rescued
from a slave market in present-day Bulgaria, left inscriptions of the Holy
cross on the rocks at Patiko.
Exploring the old fort gives one a
feel of a day in the life of a slave.
How to get there
For some one travelling on a shoe string budget, you need about sh150,000 to
tour Fort Patiko. Bus fare to Gulu is sh25,000 one way. Fort Patiko is about 50
minutes ride on boda boda from Gulu, costing between sh4,000 and sh15,000.
Entrance to the Fort is sh10,000.
Unfortunately, there are neither accommodation nor hospitality facilities like
restaurants around the fort. Tourists are advised to bring their requirements
such as food, airtime, water among others.
