The first time he told me that he had wanted a baby boy, I was speechless. An imaginary misty fog blurred my vision. He looked like a silhouette through my eyes, and I imagined his body as a motionless skeleton. I tightened the grip on our baby daughter Kizza, who was sound asleep over my shoulder. The cold atmosphere between us made her breath feel warm in my ears.
Our twin daughters; Babirye and Nakato were at school. We had agreed not to adopt the tittles Nalongo and Salongo (mother and father of twins), because filling in forms with these titles would mess our official identification in the UK. However it was important to us to keep the children’s traditional twin names to carry on the tradition and preserve our family identity.
Having twins was not enough, his brother had just had a baby boy, and it meant he carried the family inheritance line instead of us. “You took a day off work to tell me this?” I lashed out.”I am sick and tired of this family rivalry. A Microbiologist like you should know that I have no say in whether the baby is a boy or girl.”
Juliet Lubega (unpublished 2013)
Juliet Lubega 