An HIV positive musician has opened up on the stigma he faced after testing positive to the virus 25 years ago. According to Moses Nsubuga alias Supercharger from Uganda, not only did his wife of eight years abandon him, but his family also dug a grave, ready to inter him.
Nsubuga, who’s also a radio host said despite warnings from his wife to stop reckless behaviour, he did not heed. Then in 1994, the couple took an HIV test together and while his wife tested negative, he was not so lucky.
Soon after the test results were revealed, Nsubuga’s wife excused herself to visit the washrooms and never came back.
“The mother of my children left me at the test centre,” he previously told Ugandan Monitor.
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Burial plans
Four years later, the musician became very ill after failing to adhere to the antiretroviral treatment prescription.
“I was not used to swallowing drugs every day and on top of that they were too expensive,” he told the World Health Organisation.
“I was about to die. My relatives gathered at my aunt’s home in Entebbe. They had laid me on the mat. They started planning. They wondered if I died, who had Ush1.5 million to take my body to Kitalaganya. The wise thing was to put me on the bus before I die.”
During the bus journey, however, other passengers forced them to alight since he was vomiting a lot.
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A Good Samaritan offered to drive the stranded commuters to their home village in Kitalaganya, central Uganda. On the drive home, his aunts briefly stopped the journey to purchase materials for his burial.
“They bought cement, one iron sheet and backcloth which they would use on my grave. We then continued. They monitored me every day but I didn’t die,” Nsubuga said.
Hope
After learning of his travails, a former parliamentarian rescued Nsubaga and took him to Kampala for treatment.
The singer has since released “Say No to Resistance,” a song in which he urges people living with HIV to stick to antiretroviral drugs.
