November 29, 2021 • 25 mins
In 2019, a young lesbian singer-songwriter from Uganda was struggling financially after breaking up with her partner of 6 years. With a child to support, Shivanah was desperate to make ends meet. And so when a former backup dancer told her that an agent could get her work performing in a club in Dubai, she jumped at the chance. This is truly a story of survival. A warning: in some parts, the details are graphic and troubling.
Thank you to Shivanah for sharing her story and music, Sophie Otiende for the role played by her and everyone at Azadi in helping Shivanah escape the traffickers and reintegrate into society.
Azadi is a survivor-led organization that offers long-term support and capacity development to survivors of human trafficking. To learn more about the Azadi, click here.
This episode was produced by Penny Dale and Selly Thiam. Written by Penny Dale. Sound editing by Mercy Barno and Tevin Sudi. Rachel Wamoto is our social media manager. AfroQueer is executive produced by Selly Thiam and is a production of AQ Studios.
Our theme song is Pawa by Maia and the big sky.
AfroQueer is supported by The Wellspring Philanthropic fund and The Ford Foundation.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hello and welcome to Afro Queer.
I'm your host,
Sally Chum.
From what you've been telling us.
You're loving season four so far and same here.
I hope you enjoyed last week's episode featuring some of the brave and passionate filmmakers who produce queer films in Kenya and Nigeria and special.
Shout out to Rachel our social media maven who took us through that story.
(00:25):
So go back and take a listen if you haven't yet.
Today's episode is a powerful one.
It's a story that illustrates both the cruelty and the kindness of human beings.
In an exclusive interview.
We spoke with Ugandan musician Shahana who told us how she overcame one of the most challenging experiences of her life.
This is truly a story of survival.
(00:46):
A warning that in some parts,
the details are graphic and troubling B and me.
Oh,
I need morning.
I see no more child.
I,
I me woman and I'm a child.
(01:08):
I dug up T I one a child.
I cry.
One woman don't cry.
My name is Shiva.
I am from Uganda.
A recording and performing artists,
a lesbian,
very proud and out.
I am a mother of a so 10 years old.
(01:30):
So proud to say that my very first song was called Woman of A I.
After doing my woman song,
I officially came out of the closet around the age of like 17 years old.
(01:53):
Yes,
there were challenges coming out in Uganda.
It was really,
really bad.
However,
I was tired of adjusting to the world that is not mine or adjusting to who I wasn't.
Giovanna's public coming out didn't go down very well.
She left the group she was in and found that the music managers,
(02:14):
mostly male had blacklisted her.
I tried looking for other groups and I couldn't because there was a blockage.
Do not allow Shivan to that group.
She's going to recruit all your girls.
She's going to make them lesbians.
So Scana decided to go solo and she started receiving calls from the queer community.
They're like,
if they don't want to give you shows,
we always have queer events.
(02:35):
I can proudly say at that time,
I was even doing better than the,
than the groups I had left.
So it felt so good to find a community.
She was thriving musically and soon she met someone and fell in love.
(02:59):
The relationship lasted six years.
But when it ended in 2019,
Giovanna found herself isolated by the queer community.
She stopped getting booked for gigs and she struggled to make ends meet with a son to support.
She had to do something and quickly,
I'm like OK.
So if no one is willing to help me,
I think I need to figure out something my own other way of surviving.
(03:21):
So that's when the idea of looking for a job out of Uganda came in,
how I found out about the opportunity in Dubai was through an ex backup dancer of mine.
She's like I can connect you to my agent.
(03:43):
So Scana met the agent,
he told her she needed a passport,
her national identification document,
a few passport size photos and money.
About 800,000 Ugandan Shillings,
which is about $230.
I didn't even have that.
But of course,
I gathered a few things here and there sold a few things,
(04:03):
got a few loans from friends.
The agent offered her a job as a singer and a dancer in a club.
He told me there was a club called Vegas in Dubai.
It's like it's an African club and mostly Ugandans,
East Africans and Nigerians.
She couldn't believe her luck.
Yeah,
she was still hurting after the end of the relationship but life was starting to look up.
(04:26):
There was a lot of excitement and relief that ok,
finally my son is gonna be fine.
I am going to be fine even financially ticket and passport in hand scana set off to the airport only to be turned away from the flight by immigration.
Her visa wasn't in order.
The agent said it was a clerical error and promised to sort out the problem.
(04:49):
And after a few days,
Shavano went back to the airport this time,
she made it through immigration and she boarded the flight was the plane like,
you know,
it took off.
I'm like,
whoa,
it was like taking a whole deep breath of like,
(05:11):
oh,
I'm leaving all my problems here and it's time to start,
you know,
a whole new beginning.
Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to Dubai where the local time is 12:20 a.m. And she had been given the number of a man to contact when she arrived in Dubai.
If she was questioned by immigration,
(05:31):
he was her fiance and she was there to shop for the wedding to make the call.
She had to borrow a phone from one of the airport security people and then she had to wait.
Eventually the man and two women arrived to pick her up.
I was taken to a motel and I was told to rest.
And then the next morning,
(05:52):
the same set of ladies came back and they told me they have come to take a few pictures because the boss needs them.
Me.
I'm already excited.
I know I'm taking,
you know,
superstar photos ready to slay.
I even wore nice clothes and posed for pictures.
They also requested for my documentation so that they can buy me a line and get me an ID.
(06:16):
So excited to even question it.
I just handed over everything.
So here.
She was in Dubai without her passport or ID.
She had a phone but no local SIM card.
Then the women took her to the Vegas Club where she would be working.
It was full of people.
(06:36):
She could hear other Ugandans in the club speaking,
the boss wasn't there to meet her.
So the women decided they would pick up scan's things from the motel and take her to where she would be sleeping.
So I'm like,
oh,
so that's not where I'm going to be staying.
They're like,
oh no,
no,
no,
no,
no.
We have a place for Wakas.
(06:59):
Giovanna was taken to a building in a remote area on the outskirts of town as we enter through the building,
I am seeing a whole walkway.
There are like cuttings and cuttings.
That's when things started looking fishy for me.
And I asked who are the people that sleep there?
Like you'll just find out?
(07:19):
But for you,
you're not going to sleep there.
We are going up as we were going upstairs,
you could hear sexual moans and screams and then cries like someone is crying.
They sounded to be more of female voices upstairs is subdivided in rooms,
(07:44):
but then also in those rooms,
there are different curtains.
So we get to this room uh and then they welcomed me.
Not in such a very good way.
Welcome.
This is going to be your supervisor,
this is going to be another supervisor.
Those are the bouncers that we have the security people.
Can we have your phone,
please?
(08:05):
I'm like uh my phone.
Why?
Because we bought for you a line and yeah,
we need your phone.
Oh,
ok.
I handed my phone and they're like,
do you have another phone?
I'm like,
no,
I don't have another phone but I actually had another phone.
(08:26):
My phone happened to black out at the airport and I put it somewhere in my bag so they didn't see it.
Thank God,
I started questioning and questioning before I knew it,
I was receiving slaps and now I knew I was in real danger and the bomb was given to me.
(08:47):
I was there for sex work.
They are the ones who are going to be talking to clients and bring them to me.
I don't have to question them nor their name or anything.
So basically just be there and keep your legs open.
Yeah,
that's when the misery started Shanna's suitcase and all her things were taken from her.
(09:10):
They walk her to a small cubicle behind curtains.
She's told she can't leave the building until she's proved to them that she's not going to cause trouble.
She's told not to talk to anyone,
not the clients and not the other women.
You talk to the supervisors or the bouncers if you need anything.
And the supervisors are,
of course,
definitely ladies,
(09:30):
actually,
one of my supervisor was a Ugandan to make it even worse.
Days go by and Giovanna is trapped in an endless cycle of misery and harm.
Then one day a man comes to Shaan's cubicle.
(09:51):
Luckily I happened to get a client that was so nice.
And then he came and like,
are you ok?
You,
your eyes are so tear,
you.
Are you OK?
And I'm like,
no,
I'm not.
Ok.
So he knows we are not supposed to talk to clients.
So he wrote a text on his phone and showed it to me.
(10:12):
I cleared it and I wrote a text to him back and I'm like,
I need to write a message to someone on Facebook.
Can you help me log in and I send a message.
So the very,
very,
very first name that came to my head is a feminist called Solo in Uganda,
Scana.
And Salome knew each other through the activism.
(10:33):
They both did and the queer community that man didn't sleep with me.
So he was just there on top of me while we were texting and texting,
he texts back and then he's like he's,
she's not online,
but I'll make sure I come back here.
That was the only string of hope that I had and this guy didn't come back.
(10:54):
So Giovanni managed to send a message to Salome,
but now she has no way of checking whether she's had a reply.
Then one Friday,
I happened to have a sneaky conversation with one of the girls and she gave me the password of the building because every building has its Wi Fi.
Now,
Fridays are usually quiet days.
(11:14):
It's the weekend in Dubai.
So clients tend not to come.
The owner of the brothel takes the day off and so do the supervisors in return for a sexual favor.
One of the security men let Scana into the office.
She says she needs to get some things from her suitcase.
Remember her Ugandan phone is hidden in there.
I picked my bag,
(11:36):
I picked the phone,
I went and gave it to that girl who gave me the password.
She charged it for me and I hid it under my bed.
But on silence,
of course.
So later in the night I opened Facebook and I find solo me had responded requesting if,
(11:56):
if she can reach out to other people.
I'm like,
even if you're bringing people from America,
please reach out,
reach out to anyone you can reach out.
And so let me the first thing she told me,
I know this is a very difficult situation you're in.
Just hang in there and Cooper,
I don't want you to get beaten so much.
(12:16):
Just cooperates as I try my level best to look for help to try to reach out to a few queer,
you know,
organizations.
But unfortunately,
it was a no,
she referred a friend from South Africa who is a feminist and an activist and she reached out to her and that friend from South Africa is the one who reached out to Sophie.
(12:43):
My name is Sophia Tende,
a survivor advocate of human trafficking.
I recently started a collective for survivors of trafficking in Kenya called Azadi Sophie first looked for help in Uganda but got no help.
Some just went quiet as soon as we mentioned that Shivan was queer and I know these are things that we didn't tell Shivan back then,
(13:15):
but it was quite horrible to like,
listen to some of the things that people are telling us.
She was sending voice notes,
you know,
where she's crying,
she's explaining,
you'd have to be completely inhumane to just also say,
you know,
I'm not going to support.
(13:35):
And for me,
it was just like,
how are we getting this done?
Sophie soon realized that none of the trafficking organizations were going to help scat and she and the other women,
Antonia and Phumi would have to put together a team to help on their own.
So we formed our subgroup and we started calling in like many different personal people that we knew that could potentially support the case.
(14:04):
When we spoke to people.
They basically just kept saying that it was too dangerous or would come up with a plan and someone would just stop communicating.
So then we would dismiss that whatsapp group and come up with another whatsapp group where the three consistent members were me and Tony and Mpumi,
(14:25):
one person who did offer to help was a therapist.
Shona always kept her phone hidden in the springs of her bed on silent.
It was too risky for her to try to speak to the therapist.
So the therapist communicated with Siobhan via text messages and voice notes.
Just simple,
practical things that she could do to take care of herself.
(14:47):
Despite the fact that she was in a really horrible situation.
So the tips of not agitating the perpetrator,
I knew how important it was for her to be in a good mental space if we were to actually get her out.
So first up some fundraising,
(15:10):
we asked our friends for money and put together a kitty for Shivan because we already knew she was going to need a ticket,
she was going to need documents,
she was going to need food,
clothes,
all those things.
And next,
how are they gonna get scana out of the brothel Shivan had already informed us that she wasn't sure the police would be able to help when you are caught in the Middle East in a place like a brothel.
(15:36):
In most cases,
it's women,
even survivors of trafficking that would then be arrested and placed in detention centers.
So going to the police was not a good option.
It would endanger her rather than protect her.
And then that's when I remembered that I had a friend of mine that was actually working in Dubai when I reached out to him and I was like,
(16:03):
this is what is happening.
We have no plan and we are asking you to risk your lives.
We are not sure whether you'll get this person,
but we are hoping that there's a half percent chance that,
you know,
if you act,
we can be able to get her out of this situation.
(16:26):
So when he had Sivan's story,
he was just like,
yeah,
I'll do it because it's the right thing to do.
Scana had now been in the brothel for about a month.
Unlike many survivors,
we weren't talking about someone that doesn't have a agency.
Shivan knew exactly where she was.
(16:46):
She had sent a pin location of where she was.
She had sent images,
she had sent detailed information.
She was also behaving in the way that her traffickers wanted her to and had built up trust with her supervisors and the security people then came news that in a few days time,
Scana was to move to another brothel just down the road.
(17:08):
They can even let you walk because they have spies on the street and it's not like a far distance.
It's just a few blocks to the other because Shavano would be allowed to walk alone.
The team decided this would be the moment to enact the rescue plan and bring in Sophie's friend to help.
We sent money to him for the taxis and made sure that we booked an airbnb in Dubai and we made sure that we booked the Airbnb as far away as possible from the brothel.
(17:39):
And our idea was let's just get her out.
We'll figure out everything else later on.
We coordinate with Shivan.
We put the time we told her that she has to wear something distinct.
So that as soon as she gets out,
that person can be able to trace her and can be able to pick her.
The day came when Chavan was told to take her suitcase and walk to the other brothel,
(18:06):
I told my supervisor I am going,
she didn't even mind me.
She was in another cube dealing with other clients.
So I walked down.
But by then already,
Sophie and the team had planned someone to find me along the route,
which was so scary.
They had told me what my rescuer was putting on,
(18:27):
how it looks like they had sent a picture in the group.
When I saw that gentleman,
I was like,
oh,
ok,
he's here.
Now,
the only panic is for us to make sure and be careful.
We are not killed.
We got into an Uber and who even in the Uber,
the panic hadn't stopped.
(18:48):
And we told him as soon as he had gotten Shivan,
we wanted to speak to Shivan immediately and all of us just broke down and started crying like all of us couldn't get our words out because she called the sub group and we just even couldn't speak.
So it was very emotional.
(19:09):
The entire team was trying to calm me down,
but I knew the kind of danger we were in even like my rescuer knows how dangerous Dubai can be.
And most especially the men who are in,
you know,
the sex business,
you know,
like they are so so dangerous.
So he was also scared,
but of course he was quite a gentleman.
He kept on coming me Scana was now safe in an airbnb,
(19:30):
but it wasn't simply a matter of getting her onto a flight back to Uganda.
So most of the Middle East has a system called the Kafala system.
The Kafala system basically means that most migrant workers or workers visas are tied to their employer.
(19:51):
So it's your employer who is sponsoring you and it's your employer who allows you to enter and leave the country at their will.
I basically say that it sounds like legalized slavery,
which is what I think it is.
So when people tell migrant workers or people who go to the Middle East,
(20:15):
you can just run away to work.
Luckily,
Sophie is well connected and she suddenly remembered that a Kenyan company that she had trained in human trafficking had an office in Dubai.
She reached out the CEO who I had never even met left everything Tim and helped she van navigated the system.
(20:41):
The system is easy to navigate when you have a powerful person with you.
And now she then had a powerful person with her and a powerful person who's not black.
So it was easy.
So they basically took her,
went to the police station,
made sure she got the documentation,
(21:03):
took her to hospital booked for her a return ticket.
Finally,
after a horrific ordeal,
Scana landed back in Uganda.
I think I was in a shock mood.
Yeah,
when a lot of things have happened in the same time and they are all bad and they've all impacted you in different ways.
(21:24):
Like it,
it was not just me being,
you know,
sexually abused as a woman.
I was sexually abused in,
in,
in very many ways as a mother,
as a lesbian,
as you know,
I,
I can't even explain that kind of shock mode.
Shaan moved into a shelter.
But the care for me didn't seem like that's the kind of care I wanted.
(21:47):
You can't force me to go to church.
If I don't want to go to church,
you can't force me to dress decently as if,
if I dress it decently.
Most organizations in the counter trafficking space don't say that they are Christian,
but foundation culturally,
they are Christian if you are not a Bible praying,
(22:09):
sometimes tongue speaking.
Survivor,
who believes Jesus is risking you and taking care of you regardless of how many people are involved in your situation.
Jesus did it all if that is not your narrative,
it's very hard.
People are happy to give you support.
(22:29):
So long as you comply with the rules.
So long as you don't question being in Uganda was not helping Scana work through her trauma.
So Sophie offered to relocate her to Kenya.
She agreed and her recovery began.
So did sna ever get back to music?
I did get back to music.
(22:50):
I did get back to music.
If I didn't get the inclusion as a Survivor,
the spaces that Sophie and Zadi provided to me,
you know,
I wouldn't even have gotten financially stable to support myself to get back to studio.
So I recorded a song that is called African.
A,
it's a song celebrating the revelation of Africa from slave trade,
(23:11):
but also creating awareness against the modern slave trade.
I don't mind giving you a capella.
Yeah,
I'm beating my drum on the Afrikan with him.
Thanking our for fathers for blessing our line for weaving the way through calamity and crimes.
(23:32):
Leaving my days in a time in Megan el is and Mama mama Africa is rise and save the land.
(23:55):
I'm AAA.
That song Africa by Shahana was up for best artists in the African traditional category of the 2021 all Africa Music Awards.
That's pretty great.
(24:17):
A huge thank you to Shavano for sharing your story and your music and asante to Sophie Oti Ende for the role played by her Phumi Antonia,
the unnamed man in Dubai and Sallee in Uganda and helping Chavanne escape the traffickers.
You can find out more about Sophie's organization,
(24:38):
Azadi,
a trafficking survivors group run by survivors.
In the show notes,
Africa,
and this episode was produced by Penny Dale and Sally Chung,
(25:07):
written by Penny Dale sound editing by Mercy Barno and Tevin Sui Rachel Omoto is our social media manager.
Afro Queer is executive produced by me,
Sally Chum.
Afro Queer is a production of A Q Studios.
Our theme song is Power by Maya and The Big Sky Afro Queer is supported by the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund and the Ford Foundation.
(25:30):
You can follow us on all our social media platforms at a podcast and you can listen to all our episodes on our website,
a podcast.com or anywhere you get your podcasts.
I'm Sally Chum.
Thanks for listening.
All I need grow up.
(25:52):
Oh.
Hello and welcome to Afro Queer.
I'm your host,
Sally Chum.
From what you've been telling us.
You're loving season four so far and same here.
I hope you enjoyed last week's episode featuring some of the brave and passionate filmmakers who produce queer films in Kenya and Nigeria and special.
Shout out to Rachel our social media maven who took us through that story.
(00:25):
So go back and take a listen if you haven't yet.
Today's episode is a powerful one.
It's a story that illustrates both the cruelty and the kindness of human beings.
In an exclusive interview.
We spoke with Ugandan musician Shahana who told us how she overcame one of the most challenging experiences of her life.
This is truly a story of survival.
(00:46):
A warning that in some parts,
the details are graphic and troubling B and me.
Oh,
I need morning.
I see no more child.
I,
I me woman and I'm a child.
(01:08):
I dug up T I one a child.
I cry.
One woman don't cry.
My name is Shiva.
I am from Uganda.
A recording and performing artists,
a lesbian,
very proud and out.
I am a mother of a so 10 years old.
(01:30):
So proud to say that my very first song was called Woman of A I.
After doing my woman song,
I officially came out of the closet around the age of like 17 years old.
(01:53):
Yes,
there were challenges coming out in Uganda.
It was really,
really bad.
However,
I was tired of adjusting to the world that is not mine or adjusting to who I wasn't.
Giovanna's public coming out didn't go down very well.
She left the group she was in and found that the music managers,
(02:14):
mostly male had blacklisted her.
I tried looking for other groups and I couldn't because there was a blockage.
Do not allow Shivan to that group.
She's going to recruit all your girls.
She's going to make them lesbians.
So Scana decided to go solo and she started receiving calls from the queer community.
They're like,
if they don't want to give you shows,
we always have queer events.
(02:35):
I can proudly say at that time,
I was even doing better than the,
than the groups I had left.
So it felt so good to find a community.
She was thriving musically and soon she met someone and fell in love.
(02:59):
The relationship lasted six years.
But when it ended in 2019,
Giovanna found herself isolated by the queer community.
She stopped getting booked for gigs and she struggled to make ends meet with a son to support.
She had to do something and quickly,
I'm like OK.
So if no one is willing to help me,
I think I need to figure out something my own other way of surviving.
(03:21):
So that's when the idea of looking for a job out of Uganda came in,
how I found out about the opportunity in Dubai was through an ex backup dancer of mine.
She's like I can connect you to my agent.
(03:43):
So Scana met the agent,
he told her she needed a passport,
her national identification document,
a few passport size photos and money.
About 800,000 Ugandan Shillings,
which is about $230.
I didn't even have that.
But of course,
I gathered a few things here and there sold a few things,
(04:03):
got a few loans from friends.
The agent offered her a job as a singer and a dancer in a club.
He told me there was a club called Vegas in Dubai.
It's like it's an African club and mostly Ugandans,
East Africans and Nigerians.
She couldn't believe her luck.
Yeah,
she was still hurting after the end of the relationship but life was starting to look up.
(04:26):
There was a lot of excitement and relief that ok,
finally my son is gonna be fine.
I am going to be fine even financially ticket and passport in hand scana set off to the airport only to be turned away from the flight by immigration.
Her visa wasn't in order.
The agent said it was a clerical error and promised to sort out the problem.
(04:49):
And after a few days,
Shavano went back to the airport this time,
she made it through immigration and she boarded the flight was the plane like,
you know,
it took off.
I'm like,
whoa,
it was like taking a whole deep breath of like,
(05:11):
oh,
I'm leaving all my problems here and it's time to start,
you know,
a whole new beginning.
Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to Dubai where the local time is 12:20 a.m. And she had been given the number of a man to contact when she arrived in Dubai.
If she was questioned by immigration,
(05:31):
he was her fiance and she was there to shop for the wedding to make the call.
She had to borrow a phone from one of the airport security people and then she had to wait.
Eventually the man and two women arrived to pick her up.
I was taken to a motel and I was told to rest.
And then the next morning,
(05:52):
the same set of ladies came back and they told me they have come to take a few pictures because the boss needs them.
Me.
I'm already excited.
I know I'm taking,
you know,
superstar photos ready to slay.
I even wore nice clothes and posed for pictures.
They also requested for my documentation so that they can buy me a line and get me an ID.
(06:16):
So excited to even question it.
I just handed over everything.
So here.
She was in Dubai without her passport or ID.
She had a phone but no local SIM card.
Then the women took her to the Vegas Club where she would be working.
It was full of people.
(06:36):
She could hear other Ugandans in the club speaking,
the boss wasn't there to meet her.
So the women decided they would pick up scan's things from the motel and take her to where she would be sleeping.
So I'm like,
oh,
so that's not where I'm going to be staying.
They're like,
oh no,
no,
no,
no,
no.
We have a place for Wakas.
(06:59):
Giovanna was taken to a building in a remote area on the outskirts of town as we enter through the building,
I am seeing a whole walkway.
There are like cuttings and cuttings.
That's when things started looking fishy for me.
And I asked who are the people that sleep there?
Like you'll just find out?
(07:19):
But for you,
you're not going to sleep there.
We are going up as we were going upstairs,
you could hear sexual moans and screams and then cries like someone is crying.
They sounded to be more of female voices upstairs is subdivided in rooms,
(07:44):
but then also in those rooms,
there are different curtains.
So we get to this room uh and then they welcomed me.
Not in such a very good way.
Welcome.
This is going to be your supervisor,
this is going to be another supervisor.
Those are the bouncers that we have the security people.
Can we have your phone,
please?
(08:05):
I'm like uh my phone.
Why?
Because we bought for you a line and yeah,
we need your phone.
Oh,
ok.
I handed my phone and they're like,
do you have another phone?
I'm like,
no,
I don't have another phone but I actually had another phone.
(08:26):
My phone happened to black out at the airport and I put it somewhere in my bag so they didn't see it.
Thank God,
I started questioning and questioning before I knew it,
I was receiving slaps and now I knew I was in real danger and the bomb was given to me.
(08:47):
I was there for sex work.
They are the ones who are going to be talking to clients and bring them to me.
I don't have to question them nor their name or anything.
So basically just be there and keep your legs open.
Yeah,
that's when the misery started Shanna's suitcase and all her things were taken from her.
(09:10):
They walk her to a small cubicle behind curtains.
She's told she can't leave the building until she's proved to them that she's not going to cause trouble.
She's told not to talk to anyone,
not the clients and not the other women.
You talk to the supervisors or the bouncers if you need anything.
And the supervisors are,
of course,
definitely ladies,
(09:30):
actually,
one of my supervisor was a Ugandan to make it even worse.
Days go by and Giovanna is trapped in an endless cycle of misery and harm.
Then one day a man comes to Shaan's cubicle.
(09:51):
Luckily I happened to get a client that was so nice.
And then he came and like,
are you ok?
You,
your eyes are so tear,
you.
Are you OK?
And I'm like,
no,
I'm not.
Ok.
So he knows we are not supposed to talk to clients.
So he wrote a text on his phone and showed it to me.
(10:12):
I cleared it and I wrote a text to him back and I'm like,
I need to write a message to someone on Facebook.
Can you help me log in and I send a message.
So the very,
very,
very first name that came to my head is a feminist called Solo in Uganda,
Scana.
And Salome knew each other through the activism.
(10:33):
They both did and the queer community that man didn't sleep with me.
So he was just there on top of me while we were texting and texting,
he texts back and then he's like he's,
she's not online,
but I'll make sure I come back here.
That was the only string of hope that I had and this guy didn't come back.
(10:54):
So Giovanni managed to send a message to Salome,
but now she has no way of checking whether she's had a reply.
Then one Friday,
I happened to have a sneaky conversation with one of the girls and she gave me the password of the building because every building has its Wi Fi.
Now,
Fridays are usually quiet days.
(11:14):
It's the weekend in Dubai.
So clients tend not to come.
The owner of the brothel takes the day off and so do the supervisors in return for a sexual favor.
One of the security men let Scana into the office.
She says she needs to get some things from her suitcase.
Remember her Ugandan phone is hidden in there.
I picked my bag,
(11:36):
I picked the phone,
I went and gave it to that girl who gave me the password.
She charged it for me and I hid it under my bed.
But on silence,
of course.
So later in the night I opened Facebook and I find solo me had responded requesting if,
(11:56):
if she can reach out to other people.
I'm like,
even if you're bringing people from America,
please reach out,
reach out to anyone you can reach out.
And so let me the first thing she told me,
I know this is a very difficult situation you're in.
Just hang in there and Cooper,
I don't want you to get beaten so much.
(12:16):
Just cooperates as I try my level best to look for help to try to reach out to a few queer,
you know,
organizations.
But unfortunately,
it was a no,
she referred a friend from South Africa who is a feminist and an activist and she reached out to her and that friend from South Africa is the one who reached out to Sophie.
(12:43):
My name is Sophia Tende,
a survivor advocate of human trafficking.
I recently started a collective for survivors of trafficking in Kenya called Azadi Sophie first looked for help in Uganda but got no help.
Some just went quiet as soon as we mentioned that Shivan was queer and I know these are things that we didn't tell Shivan back then,
(13:15):
but it was quite horrible to like,
listen to some of the things that people are telling us.
She was sending voice notes,
you know,
where she's crying,
she's explaining,
you'd have to be completely inhumane to just also say,
you know,
I'm not going to support.
(13:35):
And for me,
it was just like,
how are we getting this done?
Sophie soon realized that none of the trafficking organizations were going to help scat and she and the other women,
Antonia and Phumi would have to put together a team to help on their own.
So we formed our subgroup and we started calling in like many different personal people that we knew that could potentially support the case.
(14:04):
When we spoke to people.
They basically just kept saying that it was too dangerous or would come up with a plan and someone would just stop communicating.
So then we would dismiss that whatsapp group and come up with another whatsapp group where the three consistent members were me and Tony and Mpumi,
(14:25):
one person who did offer to help was a therapist.
Shona always kept her phone hidden in the springs of her bed on silent.
It was too risky for her to try to speak to the therapist.
So the therapist communicated with Siobhan via text messages and voice notes.
Just simple,
practical things that she could do to take care of herself.
(14:47):
Despite the fact that she was in a really horrible situation.
So the tips of not agitating the perpetrator,
I knew how important it was for her to be in a good mental space if we were to actually get her out.
So first up some fundraising,
(15:10):
we asked our friends for money and put together a kitty for Shivan because we already knew she was going to need a ticket,
she was going to need documents,
she was going to need food,
clothes,
all those things.
And next,
how are they gonna get scana out of the brothel Shivan had already informed us that she wasn't sure the police would be able to help when you are caught in the Middle East in a place like a brothel.
(15:36):
In most cases,
it's women,
even survivors of trafficking that would then be arrested and placed in detention centers.
So going to the police was not a good option.
It would endanger her rather than protect her.
And then that's when I remembered that I had a friend of mine that was actually working in Dubai when I reached out to him and I was like,
(16:03):
this is what is happening.
We have no plan and we are asking you to risk your lives.
We are not sure whether you'll get this person,
but we are hoping that there's a half percent chance that,
you know,
if you act,
we can be able to get her out of this situation.
(16:26):
So when he had Sivan's story,
he was just like,
yeah,
I'll do it because it's the right thing to do.
Scana had now been in the brothel for about a month.
Unlike many survivors,
we weren't talking about someone that doesn't have a agency.
Shivan knew exactly where she was.
(16:46):
She had sent a pin location of where she was.
She had sent images,
she had sent detailed information.
She was also behaving in the way that her traffickers wanted her to and had built up trust with her supervisors and the security people then came news that in a few days time,
Scana was to move to another brothel just down the road.
(17:08):
They can even let you walk because they have spies on the street and it's not like a far distance.
It's just a few blocks to the other because Shavano would be allowed to walk alone.
The team decided this would be the moment to enact the rescue plan and bring in Sophie's friend to help.
We sent money to him for the taxis and made sure that we booked an airbnb in Dubai and we made sure that we booked the Airbnb as far away as possible from the brothel.
(17:39):
And our idea was let's just get her out.
We'll figure out everything else later on.
We coordinate with Shivan.
We put the time we told her that she has to wear something distinct.
So that as soon as she gets out,
that person can be able to trace her and can be able to pick her.
The day came when Chavan was told to take her suitcase and walk to the other brothel,
(18:06):
I told my supervisor I am going,
she didn't even mind me.
She was in another cube dealing with other clients.
So I walked down.
But by then already,
Sophie and the team had planned someone to find me along the route,
which was so scary.
They had told me what my rescuer was putting on,
(18:27):
how it looks like they had sent a picture in the group.
When I saw that gentleman,
I was like,
oh,
ok,
he's here.
Now,
the only panic is for us to make sure and be careful.
We are not killed.
We got into an Uber and who even in the Uber,
the panic hadn't stopped.
(18:48):
And we told him as soon as he had gotten Shivan,
we wanted to speak to Shivan immediately and all of us just broke down and started crying like all of us couldn't get our words out because she called the sub group and we just even couldn't speak.
So it was very emotional.
(19:09):
The entire team was trying to calm me down,
but I knew the kind of danger we were in even like my rescuer knows how dangerous Dubai can be.
And most especially the men who are in,
you know,
the sex business,
you know,
like they are so so dangerous.
So he was also scared,
but of course he was quite a gentleman.
He kept on coming me Scana was now safe in an airbnb,
(19:30):
but it wasn't simply a matter of getting her onto a flight back to Uganda.
So most of the Middle East has a system called the Kafala system.
The Kafala system basically means that most migrant workers or workers visas are tied to their employer.
(19:51):
So it's your employer who is sponsoring you and it's your employer who allows you to enter and leave the country at their will.
I basically say that it sounds like legalized slavery,
which is what I think it is.
So when people tell migrant workers or people who go to the Middle East,
(20:15):
you can just run away to work.
Luckily,
Sophie is well connected and she suddenly remembered that a Kenyan company that she had trained in human trafficking had an office in Dubai.
She reached out the CEO who I had never even met left everything Tim and helped she van navigated the system.
(20:41):
The system is easy to navigate when you have a powerful person with you.
And now she then had a powerful person with her and a powerful person who's not black.
So it was easy.
So they basically took her,
went to the police station,
made sure she got the documentation,
(21:03):
took her to hospital booked for her a return ticket.
Finally,
after a horrific ordeal,
Scana landed back in Uganda.
I think I was in a shock mood.
Yeah,
when a lot of things have happened in the same time and they are all bad and they've all impacted you in different ways.
(21:24):
Like it,
it was not just me being,
you know,
sexually abused as a woman.
I was sexually abused in,
in,
in very many ways as a mother,
as a lesbian,
as you know,
I,
I can't even explain that kind of shock mode.
Shaan moved into a shelter.
But the care for me didn't seem like that's the kind of care I wanted.
(21:47):
You can't force me to go to church.
If I don't want to go to church,
you can't force me to dress decently as if,
if I dress it decently.
Most organizations in the counter trafficking space don't say that they are Christian,
but foundation culturally,
they are Christian if you are not a Bible praying,
(22:09):
sometimes tongue speaking.
Survivor,
who believes Jesus is risking you and taking care of you regardless of how many people are involved in your situation.
Jesus did it all if that is not your narrative,
it's very hard.
People are happy to give you support.
(22:29):
So long as you comply with the rules.
So long as you don't question being in Uganda was not helping Scana work through her trauma.
So Sophie offered to relocate her to Kenya.
She agreed and her recovery began.
So did sna ever get back to music?
I did get back to music.
(22:50):
I did get back to music.
If I didn't get the inclusion as a Survivor,
the spaces that Sophie and Zadi provided to me,
you know,
I wouldn't even have gotten financially stable to support myself to get back to studio.
So I recorded a song that is called African.
A,
it's a song celebrating the revelation of Africa from slave trade,
(23:11):
but also creating awareness against the modern slave trade.
I don't mind giving you a capella.
Yeah,
I'm beating my drum on the Afrikan with him.
Thanking our for fathers for blessing our line for weaving the way through calamity and crimes.
(23:32):
Leaving my days in a time in Megan el is and Mama mama Africa is rise and save the land.
(23:55):
I'm AAA.
That song Africa by Shahana was up for best artists in the African traditional category of the 2021 all Africa Music Awards.
That's pretty great.
(24:17):
A huge thank you to Shavano for sharing your story and your music and asante to Sophie Oti Ende for the role played by her Phumi Antonia,
the unnamed man in Dubai and Sallee in Uganda and helping Chavanne escape the traffickers.
You can find out more about Sophie's organization,
(24:38):
Azadi,
a trafficking survivors group run by survivors.
In the show notes,
Africa,
and this episode was produced by Penny Dale and Sally Chung,
(25:07):
written by Penny Dale sound editing by Mercy Barno and Tevin Sui Rachel Omoto is our social media manager.
Afro Queer is executive produced by me,
Sally Chum.
Afro Queer is a production of A Q Studios.
Our theme song is Power by Maya and The Big Sky Afro Queer is supported by the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund and the Ford Foundation.
(25:30):
You can follow us on all our social media platforms at a podcast and you can listen to all our episodes on our website,
a podcast.com or anywhere you get your podcasts.
I'm Sally Chum.
Thanks for listening.
All I need grow up.
(25:52):
Oh.
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