Why Tadeo Will Always Be My Hero
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Why Tadeo Will Always Be My Hero
By Kayondo Samuel
There’s always good in every bad thing. Tadeo had all the traits of a bad boy one can ever think of. Nobody loved him; not even his family. He got used to being hated, despised and mocked. To him, earth was hell.
Kawempe Mbogo in the suburbs of Uganda's capital Kampala, was a highly religious neighbourhood. It was largely a Muslim community with few Christian families.
Tadeo came from a very humble family, he lost his father when he was barely five years. The entire weight and responsibility of raising him and his six siblings rested on the shoulders of his poor mother, Maria.
She did all odd jobs including garbage collection and selling fish fillets by the roadside in order to feed and provide for her children. She also operated a small stall in front of their home. Her stall had just a handful of items and never seemed to grow. How could it even expand with Tadeo around?
Tadeo and his siblings never dreamed of wearing any new and nice clothing. It was usually old and rejected stock of clothes that they bought at Growers commonly known as Jambula community market.
Sometimes, their ‘new’ clothes had holes in them and could hardly fit them; either they were too big or too small but they had to fit in.
I remember he had a trademark blue round-neck t-shirt that could fit three adults of average American size. It must have been XXXXXXXL! He wore it in the morning, afternoon, evening and in the night.
The weather would change and so was everything but not Tadeo’s t-shirt. It was the constant in the equation of his life.
Despite their humble background and dreadful situation, they managed to smile, play and be happy. They had no reason to worry about tomorrow, what for?
Even today isn’t yet done, why have a fuss about tomorrow anyway? They left tomorrow to those who can enjoy today.
Maria was a good Mother; she sacrificed her life and worked like an oiled German machine. She had no reason to rest nor time to complain or think about herself. Her children meant a whole world to her.
The dubious acts of Tadeo made him a name and won him fame in the entire neighbourhood. He seemed to be suffering from kleptomania.
He barely stole everything, from one old sandal to an empty depleted plastic plate! As long as anything was moveable, Tadeo never spared it.
He survived lynching by angry mobs a number of times that almost costed him life.
His mother Maria would come crying and pleading for the mob not to kill her beloved son.
Most often, she would make a written agreement to pay back the stolen property her beloved son took and sold it off or she would merely compensate her son’s victims.
Some lenient victims would forgive Maria from paying what her son had stolen from them but cautioned her to shape her son’s unwanted trait. She would thank them while on her knees crying with a bleeding heart.
You could tell the pain she carried in her heart, body and soul. Her son’s dubiousness was consuming her. She was literally dying.
Then one unforgettable day came, it was a rainy season I remember so well. There was a heavy downpour that took the lives of more than eight victims in Kampala suburbs. The whole Kampala was soaked and immersed in floods.
While most dwellers were busy fearing for their lives and doing everything they could to safeguard their lives and household properties from being destroyed by the floods, Tadeo saw it as a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to steal.
Three days after the floods, he was caught selling a refrigerator with cold drinks inside that belonged to the LC 1 Chairperson of the neighbouring zone.
When brought before the Local Council court, he said in his defence, that he was sleeping while it rained three days ago and by the time he was awakened by the loud thunder, he was also shocked to see the refrigerator next to his bed with cold drinks outside.
Everyone laughed out loud at his defence but he always defended himself with confidence and looked straight in the eyes of the one he would be responding to. That was Tadeo!
On that occasion I remember, he was flogged by Peter from the Local Defence Unit (LDU). Peter was over 6ft tall, muscular and with scary appearance enough to make one faint before he could lay his hands on you.
“Power Mike” as we used to call him, canned Tadeo 30 strokes on his bare buttocks and he looked so cool with it as though it was a two-year-old baby canning him.
It was from this moment that everyone unanimously agreed that Tadeo had graduated to another level in his trade.
We followed while mocking him as he walked to their home.
Maria was crying and only praying that her beloved son comes back home alive and not harmed beyond he could bear.
She would confess on how her son is a very big problem to her and everyone.
He would spend days without coming back home and whenever her worried mother would ask him about his whereabouts upon his return, he would simply mutter, “I have been on a special mission”
Tadeo was a curse before everyone’s eyes. There was nothing to admire about him except for the fact that he was physically whole with two legs, arms, eyes, compete and of course alive.
His mother developed hypertension and diabetes and the only person to blame for this was none other than Tadeo. She drove him away from her house and he started leaving in unfinished shelters in Bwaise and sometimes he would come back to eat when he had gone a number of days without food.
Dressed in tatters, stinking and often talking alone with gestures something that we all took for madness.
He suffered and so did he make his family suffer and caused them untold and an unbearable suffering; especially his mother, Maria.
With pain she watched her son go to ruins and waste despite her efforts to give him a good life as a single mother.
He disappeared for almost a year only to return that he had been remanded to Luzira Murchison Bay Prison for being idle and disorderly during one of the operations by the Uganda Police in their bid to curb crime in the city.
He looked underweight, with his eyes sunken and his skin pale and physically feeble. He would move around rubbish pits looking for food and his level of ‘madness’ now seemed to have been accelerated by the time he spent in jail.
He had not a single atom of hope in him; not any purpose why he was on this same planet with us. He didn’t care about nothing and to him, life was all about if he got something to eat regardless whether it was fresh or rotten and a place he could lay his ribs and sleep even without a blanket.
To him, he would continue living as long as he was breathing and life would go on just like that.
My question was, “Did life take Tadeo to where he got or he dragged himself to that point?” Your guess is as good as mine.
Kids would surround him singing and dancing calling him all sorts of mocking and provocative things but he never seemed bothered at any one point.
He started collecting plastic and polythene bags and metallic scrap and would take it to ready buyers for money which he would use for eating and taking local gin to keep himself warm.
With time, he wasn’t stealing anymore and he would openly tell anyone who could listen that he didn’t ever wanted to go back to jail. What exactly happened to Tadeo while in jail that made his strong heart and spirit to crumble is a secret he chose to keep to only himself and himself alone.
A few people started to like him slowly as the majority believed that Tadeo was beyond any reform and repair in all aspects of life.
To him, he wasn’t changing for them but in order not to go to jail. Jail had shaped him? Only time was to tell.
…to be continued…
There’s always good in every bad thing. Tadeo had all the traits of a bad boy one can ever think of. Nobody loved him; not even his family. He got used to being hated, despised and mocked. To him, earth was hell.
Kawempe Mbogo in the suburbs of Uganda's capital Kampala, was a highly religious neighbourhood. It was largely a Muslim community with few Christian families.
Tadeo came from a very humble family, he lost his father when he was barely five years. The entire weight and responsibility of raising him and his six siblings rested on the shoulders of his poor mother, Maria.
She did all odd jobs including garbage collection and selling fish fillets by the roadside in order to feed and provide for her children. She also operated a small stall in front of their home. Her stall had just a handful of items and never seemed to grow. How could it even expand with Tadeo around?
Tadeo and his siblings never dreamed of wearing any new and nice clothing. It was usually old and rejected stock of clothes that they bought at Growers commonly known as Jambula community market.
Sometimes, their ‘new’ clothes had holes in them and could hardly fit them; either they were too big or too small but they had to fit in.
I remember he had a trademark blue round-neck t-shirt that could fit three adults of average American size. It must have been XXXXXXXL! He wore it in the morning, afternoon, evening and in the night.
The weather would change and so was everything but not Tadeo’s t-shirt. It was the constant in the equation of his life.
Despite their humble background and dreadful situation, they managed to smile, play and be happy. They had no reason to worry about tomorrow, what for?
Even today isn’t yet done, why have a fuss about tomorrow anyway? They left tomorrow to those who can enjoy today.
Maria was a good Mother; she sacrificed her life and worked like an oiled German machine. She had no reason to rest nor time to complain or think about herself. Her children meant a whole world to her.
The dubious acts of Tadeo made him a name and won him fame in the entire neighbourhood. He seemed to be suffering from kleptomania.
He barely stole everything, from one old sandal to an empty depleted plastic plate! As long as anything was moveable, Tadeo never spared it.
He survived lynching by angry mobs a number of times that almost costed him life.
His mother Maria would come crying and pleading for the mob not to kill her beloved son.
Most often, she would make a written agreement to pay back the stolen property her beloved son took and sold it off or she would merely compensate her son’s victims.
Some lenient victims would forgive Maria from paying what her son had stolen from them but cautioned her to shape her son’s unwanted trait. She would thank them while on her knees crying with a bleeding heart.
You could tell the pain she carried in her heart, body and soul. Her son’s dubiousness was consuming her. She was literally dying.
Then one unforgettable day came, it was a rainy season I remember so well. There was a heavy downpour that took the lives of more than eight victims in Kampala suburbs. The whole Kampala was soaked and immersed in floods.
While most dwellers were busy fearing for their lives and doing everything they could to safeguard their lives and household properties from being destroyed by the floods, Tadeo saw it as a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to steal.
Three days after the floods, he was caught selling a refrigerator with cold drinks inside that belonged to the LC 1 Chairperson of the neighbouring zone.
When brought before the Local Council court, he said in his defence, that he was sleeping while it rained three days ago and by the time he was awakened by the loud thunder, he was also shocked to see the refrigerator next to his bed with cold drinks outside.
Everyone laughed out loud at his defence but he always defended himself with confidence and looked straight in the eyes of the one he would be responding to. That was Tadeo!
On that occasion I remember, he was flogged by Peter from the Local Defence Unit (LDU). Peter was over 6ft tall, muscular and with scary appearance enough to make one faint before he could lay his hands on you.
“Power Mike” as we used to call him, canned Tadeo 30 strokes on his bare buttocks and he looked so cool with it as though it was a two-year-old baby canning him.
It was from this moment that everyone unanimously agreed that Tadeo had graduated to another level in his trade.
We followed while mocking him as he walked to their home.
Maria was crying and only praying that her beloved son comes back home alive and not harmed beyond he could bear.
She would confess on how her son is a very big problem to her and everyone.
He would spend days without coming back home and whenever her worried mother would ask him about his whereabouts upon his return, he would simply mutter, “I have been on a special mission”
Tadeo was a curse before everyone’s eyes. There was nothing to admire about him except for the fact that he was physically whole with two legs, arms, eyes, compete and of course alive.
His mother developed hypertension and diabetes and the only person to blame for this was none other than Tadeo. She drove him away from her house and he started leaving in unfinished shelters in Bwaise and sometimes he would come back to eat when he had gone a number of days without food.
Dressed in tatters, stinking and often talking alone with gestures something that we all took for madness.
He suffered and so did he make his family suffer and caused them untold and an unbearable suffering; especially his mother, Maria.
With pain she watched her son go to ruins and waste despite her efforts to give him a good life as a single mother.
He disappeared for almost a year only to return that he had been remanded to Luzira Murchison Bay Prison for being idle and disorderly during one of the operations by the Uganda Police in their bid to curb crime in the city.
He looked underweight, with his eyes sunken and his skin pale and physically feeble. He would move around rubbish pits looking for food and his level of ‘madness’ now seemed to have been accelerated by the time he spent in jail.
He had not a single atom of hope in him; not any purpose why he was on this same planet with us. He didn’t care about nothing and to him, life was all about if he got something to eat regardless whether it was fresh or rotten and a place he could lay his ribs and sleep even without a blanket.
To him, he would continue living as long as he was breathing and life would go on just like that.
My question was, “Did life take Tadeo to where he got or he dragged himself to that point?” Your guess is as good as mine.
Kids would surround him singing and dancing calling him all sorts of mocking and provocative things but he never seemed bothered at any one point.
He started collecting plastic and polythene bags and metallic scrap and would take it to ready buyers for money which he would use for eating and taking local gin to keep himself warm.
With time, he wasn’t stealing anymore and he would openly tell anyone who could listen that he didn’t ever wanted to go back to jail. What exactly happened to Tadeo while in jail that made his strong heart and spirit to crumble is a secret he chose to keep to only himself and himself alone.
A few people started to like him slowly as the majority believed that Tadeo was beyond any reform and repair in all aspects of life.
To him, he wasn’t changing for them but in order not to go to jail. Jail had shaped him? Only time was to tell.
…to be continued…
