{UAH} This day in history...

This day in history 23rd November 1987

It was this day, EXACTLY 30 years ago....

"Where are you going to?", he calmly asked, almost as if a whisper. 'London', I answered. A bit of a tingle in my midst, I could sense, I recall. "What are you going to do?". Visit my brother, I responded. "For how long?". Two weeks, came my perfect instinctive answer outwardly but, sort of, quaking inside. It was clear that he dared not be heard by anyone else except me yet, it was a determined, authoritative interrogation - on air - in flight...

We had entered Egyptian airspace and now approaching Cairo. We had been silent on our seats, so much I do not recall the sounds of the air except as part of the art. That was since that eventful departure from Entebbe hours earlier. Since then, I had held myself to my seat like a gravity pull, downwards; flanked by the interventionist man from Kabale (aka mini saviour) to my left in the window seat and, to my right, the double tormentor. Although we were all relatively 'thin' men, I had kept to my space, hardly touching even the hand rest (especially to the right) as if it were wired for electric shock - but cold.

I had prayed this man would disembark at Cairo but nope. The wait at Cairo was like another whole season, but I had started trusting a little bit, in higher power. In London, I wanted the man simply off my sight but he wasn't. Not even the queue at Immigration could set us apart; we were both holders of Uganda passports (anyway) (Commonwealth Citizens) though his would have been almost certainly that special one....I still recall his back like a harmless ghost - in a dream.

"Mr. Ochieno to booth number....". That was possibly an hour later and after several other stages. I was being called for further interrogation, or was it an interview. I had, on arrival, sought asylum. How I dislike that word...

On this day, I was let off to formally enter the United Kingdom while my case was 'investigated' pending a decision....Cold, disorientated, tortured, confused, helpless but young.....still, there was a deep seated conviction and determination that with time, a human face shall arise. But, despite all the mixture of emotions and fatigue, I felt 'free' (in exile) for the first time since that afternoon knock at my door - in Mitchell Hall, Makerere University...