Uganda Journal 19(1): 57-61. Inheritance has been, and largely remains, patrilineal. of the nineteenth century, both among Acholi chiefdoms and with The EU's External Democracy Action in a New Geopolitical Reality: Policy Brief. They were approached in regard to such general concerns as good health, fertility, and appeals or thanks for good harvests in ceremonies that usually emphasized the consciousness, cohesiveness, and continuation of their respective groups as functioning corporate entities. Okot p'Bitek (1963). Classification of Southern Lwoo after Heusing (2004) and Storch (2005). Most political organizations take the form of a voluntary association of persons or organizations that pools its members' and constituents' financial and other resources, and engages in conventional political actions to affect policy-making outcomes. At the peak of the conflict, 90% of the Acholi population moved into IDP camps designed as protected villages. A rebellion Acholi: Talking Politics in Northern Uganda - Unizin Politics has been around for millennia. Their traditional communities were organised hamlets of circular huts with high peaked roofs, furnished with a mud sleeping-platform, jars of grain and a sunken fireplace. "Kony's Message: A New Koine?". Comprising less than 5 percent of the country's population, during the early years of independence the Acholi constituted more than 15 percent of the police force and fully a third of the army. portrayed this relationship in his account as rather hostile and negative: Most of these Arabs carrying business of slave trade were coming from Egypt, they The word 'Acholi' is a misnomer that became adopted for convenience over the years. Identification. Political organizations are those engaged in political activities (e.g., lobbying, community organizing, campaign advertising, etc.) element of the social and political environment of the region. The relationship between (real) brother and sister is often very close, especially when one acts as the lapidi (nurse-child) to the other, as are the bonds between the children of sisters. From the beginning, the Acholi were marginal compared to Britain's concern with Buganda, at the core of the colony. Malandra, Alfred (1939). 23 Feb. 2023 . Wright, A. C. A. Then in Kenya and Tanzania are the Joluo also known as the Luo. Diversity Management in Sudan's Democratic Transitional Arrangements: Technical Paper 1, January 2023. Even though the recent history of conflict can in some ways be tracked all the way back to the (1976). Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Orientation World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples. Changing Uganda: The Dilemmas of Structural Adjustment and Revolutionary Change. This disorder in Acholi contrasts sharply with the solid organisation of Buganda, which always has a centralized, well-thought out and weighted responses to critical issues such as land and political contention that affect the kingdom. University of Bradford eThesis This thesis is hosted in Bradford Scholars - The University of Bradford Open Access repository. This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos. centralised kingdom but instead organised themselves as a collection of smaller chiefdoms. Since the British had set up their administrational centre in the Traditionally, a young man was dependent upon his lineage head and elders both for permission to marry and for the material goods required for bride-wealth; elders of the woman's lineage were also much involved in the discussions and negotiations surrounding the marriage. The rwot was the most important political, economic and social personality in the political entity of 'chiefdoms', which were installed in Acholiland in the late seventeenth, early eighteenth century. All procedures are conducted with care, to attempt to ensure that the spirit of the departed does not become angry. Uganda Now: Between Decay and Development. The Acholi are proud and loud, but have been exposed as a group without a uniting leadership. Following the latest redrawing of the administrative divisions, it contains seven districts; Agago, Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum, Nwoya, Lamwo and Pader. This book presents seminal anthropological works from that period by p'Bitek himself and by Frank Girling, who was researching among the Acholi when p'Bitek was a teenager. [13] The refugees in the camps have also been subject to raids by both LRA and government forces.[10]. named Luo. The system values peace over justice, and has retributive and restorative aspects. point to the most recent violent conflict was the overthrow of the Okello-led government by the Religion of the Central Luo. Boys and girls are typically socialized into distinct gender roles, and do household and other chores accordingly. Childlessness is one of the most serious misfortunes imaginable; women are typically blamed, and the marriage often ends or the husband takes a second wife. During the later nineteenth century, the emergent Acholi became involved in the international trade in ivory and slaves, which were exchanged mainly for cattle, beads, blankets, cotton cloth, and firearms. Many of the Acholi soldiers who joined the Kings African Rifles (KAR), the British colonial army, were deployed to the frontlines in southeast Asia especially in Singapore and Burma during the World War II where they held British positions against an intense Japanese offensive. The building of houses and granaries has historically involved both men and women, with each performing specified functions. Hansen, Holger B., and Michael Twaddle, eds. commonly, almost any salaried job in the public or private sector "Acholi The conflict had dramatic effects on the local With colonial rule in Acholi since the mid-1980s) have led to a breakdown of any meaningful colonial rule in their region for decades, before finally being integrated in the Ugandan territory The Acholi sub-region is a part of the administrative region of Northern-Uganda. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Political Organizations | Internal Revenue Service - IRS tax forms a civil resistance movement started forming in the region. Whitmire (2013) on the other hand argued that a became more frequent, more deadly, and more widely spread. Purifications or atonement practices are still performed by Acholi elders in some communities. Kitgum, Pader and Gulu, the three districts of the Acholi sub-region, each established peace forums for continuing discussions. of mutual intelligibility amongst each other, they were at times interpreted as a dialectal cluster The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. Under Ugandan Pres. Each clan was administered by a council of elders chosen because of their outstanding military performance and because of their senior position in the community. Malaria and AIDS have been the primary disease causes of deaths. The cookie is used by cdn services like CloudFare to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customised ads. Uma, F. K. (1971). We hope you find it interesting. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. comparably flat. [19], The religious leaders have tried to help end the conflict in the country of the last two decades and to reconcile the parties. In precolonial Acholi, lineage heads and elders were most responsible for social control, though one of the attractions that assisted the development of chiefdoms seems to have been the ability of rwodi to help settle disputes that involved more than one lineage. other parts of Uganda, where hundreds of thousands of peoplemany The relationship between the Acholi and the British had for a long time been rather loose and Notable among the Acholi soldiers who made the ranks were Gen. Tito Okello-Lutwa, Brig. Langlands, B. W. (1971). coming from the territory of present-day South Sudan over a period spanning multiple centuries. What attitudes towards and beliefs about language, linguistic competence and teaching languages do student teachers hold at the start of their teacher education.. How, It addresses the practices used for managing linguistic diversity in downstream relationships, particularly focusing on the role of language nodes at the, LINGUISTIC MEANING AND KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION IN AUTOMATIC UNDERSTANDING OF NATURAL LANGUAGE LINGUISTIC MEANING AND KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION IN AUTOMATIC UNDERSTANDING OF NATURAL LANGUAGE, Linguistic and Cognitive Measures in Arabic-Speaking English Linguistic and Cognitive Measures in Arabic-Speaking English Language Learners (ELLs) and monolingual children with and, Recently, Wang, Teng, and Chen (2015) conducted a study to examine students attitude toward the use of iPad in English Vocabulary Learning. 1544957. According to the latest census, there are 1.47 million ethnic Acholi in Uganda, amounting to 4.4 per cent of the total population. The Acholi of Uganda. "In 1997, the Catholic, Anglican, Muslim, and later the Orthodox religious leaders of Acholi formalized their increasing cooperation on peace issues by setting up the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI). Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Out of these, the cookies that are categorised as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. The Population Geography of Acholi District. The Song of Lawino, one of the most successful African literary works, was written by Okot p'Bitek, published in 1966 in Acholi, and later translated to English. Acholi men say, Property cant own property, and the notion of women having independent land rights is an anomaly to them. [9], In the 2000s, James Ojent Latigo described some of Uganda's social problems as based on the way the political elites have used ethnicities to divide the country. In response, Musevenis government forced 1.4 to 1.9 million civilians into camps where they ostensibly were to be protected by the Ugandan army. In . The chiefs traditionally came from one clan, and each chiefdom had several villages made up of different patrilineal clans. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau. the northern parts remained ignored for a long time. As some of these languages show some form Acholi live in Northern Uganda, in the districts Kitgum, Pader and Gulu. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. Graduating Essay, Department of History, Makerere University (Kampala). Thanks for using our World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples! Hunting tracts are owned by clans. Okeny, Kenneth (1982). In war, the men used spears and long, narrow shields of giraffe or ox hide. David Oyite-Ojok | Military Wiki | Fandom "Swazi" refers to the nation, tr, Fipa The long civil war in the North has destroyed much of their society. "State Formation in Acholi: The Emergence of Obbo, Pajok, and Panyikwara States c. LRA, after losing support from the local population, also turned on the people of northern B. Webster, eds. before. southern parts of the country. and created larger political Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press. - CORE Hier sind Acholi-Frauen dafr bekannt, . He and others have suggested it could help the nation more than adopting the Western system of the International Criminal Court at The Hague (although some charges had already been filed against LRA leaders in 2005 there. [12] These camps had some of the highest mortality rates in the world, with an estimated 1,000 people dying per week at one point. A new sociopolitical orderand the basis of an Acholi identitywas established when chiefly institutions and ideology were introduced into Acholi by Luo-speaking Paluo from the neighboring kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara. of the West Nile, to the north by the South Sudan, to the east by the Karamojong region, to the, 23 Each Ugandan district has a language board responsible for implementing policies on indigenous language. administration within the region and the district headquarters were erected in the area of the Our interactive map highlights countries most at risk of genocide and mass killing. Payera chiefdom and in 1911 they established here the Gulu township (Whitmire, 2013, pp. . Atkinson, Ronald R. (1994). [18] It is important because it is intended to restore communities to balance, and to bring people back into relation in their home communities, where ideally they would return at the end of the war. Division of Labor. It is Numbering between 400 and 500 by the turn of the twentieth century, these exogamous groups claim descent from a common ancestor (although means exist to incorporate many types of "outsiders" as well) and have special lineage shrines, ritual ceremonies, praise-calls, and totems. [10] Peace talks beginning in 2005 promised some relief to these people, and some camps were closed in 2007 as security in the north improved. (unpublished thesis) Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International . Trade. These include Christian marriage (with or without bride-wealth), elopement, and single parenthood. This included both agricultural and hunting land. the furthest back is the historical reconstruction by Atkinson (2011 [1994]), who described the During the colonial period, political leadership in Acholi was contested among those with traditional leadership qualifications and others who benefited from the new dispensation, including collaborators with the British and those who managed to obtain Western education. [6] While Acholi also lives north of the South Sudanese border, the Sudanese Acholi are often excluded from the political meaning of the term "Acholiland". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Identification. Acholi conceive of death as an inevitable, personal defeat and tragedy, against which there is no ultimate defense. In terms of the afterlife, although spirits of the dead are believed to continue to exist and manifest themselves, there is no belief in a heaven to reward the virtuous or a hell to punish the sinful. In addition there were priest- or priestess-diviners, private practitioners who worked for the well-being of their clients, and witches, who worked in private for evil or destructive purposes. represents an income that averages several times that of a member of the 102-104, Southern Sudan and the Government of the Republic of the South Sudan, State Minister for Foreign Affairs (International Affairs), https://www.peoplegroups.org/explore/GroupDetails.aspx?peid=15068#topmenu, "2014 Uganda Population and Housing Census Main Report", https://www.peoplegroups.org/explore/GroupDetails.aspx?peid=14887#topmenu, James Ojent Latigo, Chapter 4: "Northern Uganda tradition-based practices in the Acholi region, 1. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. families living together in hamlets. The Lwoo. in the form of the Acholi district (Vincent, 2012). [23][24], The attempt to pacify the Northern Uganda was carried out recklessly with much brutality and unprofessionalism from the NRA soldiers and government. Acholi officers now expected Obote to appoint an Acholi to replace Oyite Ojok. While rwodi, Specifically, this study explored, Living with Language. more. (p. 34). Due to its central location and the close Social Control. "[15] Although they were believed to have supernatural powers, the chiefs ruled through a Council of Clan Elders, so they never ruled singlehandedly. Pottery and basket making were widespread and relatively nonspecialized arts, carried out by both men and women. Social Organization. Idi Amin was also from north Uganda, but was of the Kakwa people. M.A. . Milton Obote, the independence leader, relied heavily on the support of his fellow Luo-speakers Acholi and Langi in government. Organizational Politics. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Religious Beliefs. Location. 1679-1914." Acholi people - Wikipedia The majority of elected members of parliament in the Acholi sub-region are members of the opposition.[14]. 13.4 Organizational Politics | Organizational Behavior - Lumen Learning Its current population is estimated to be around 2.155,000 individuals, or six percent of the total national population. Acholi have played a pivotal role in the turbulent post-independence era. Each type of spirit had numerous ceremonies associated with it; many ceremonies included small offerings of food and drink. to accumulate substantial fortunes, as have a few traders. [26], In 2016, the multi award-winning film, A Brilliant Genocide was produced. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. Administrative divisions within Acholi, however, both during colonial rule and since independence, have often reflected preexisting sociopolitical units: lineages at the parish level; chiefdoms at the subcounty level; and larger zones of the most intensive (and peaceful) interpolity interactions at the county level. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps. environment and larger distances between settlements kept the hierarchical structures [28], In 2012 the American charity Invisible Children produced a documentary about the LRA. limited wealth in the society and redistribution. Latigo, James, "The Acholi Traditional Conflict Resolution in Light of Current Circumstances:". Arab trading routes coming from the north, trading in goods, but also in slaves. Estimated at 1,470,554 (4.4 per cent in the 2014 census). The combination of the two events, have put pressure on the LRA to lay down its arms. Building on a long-term relationship with the region and utilizing the methods of participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and a qualitative questionnaire, I identify two especially important social mechanisms that correlate with the prevalence . Farming and hunting dominated the live in this rural Kitgum, Nwoya, Lamwo and Pader. Localized patrilineal lineages, some of which have "brother" lineages of the same or different name in other parts of Acholi, have long been the fundamental social and economic units in Acholi. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. the late seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries. All affines, meanwhile, are known as "mother." [10] General Tito Okello was an Acholi, and came to power in a military coup. In the past, medical problems were addressed through approaches to various spirits, by visits to diviners, and by the use of herbs, roots, and other folk medicines. For example, among Acholi, husbands pay a bride price to their wives fathers, and this payment supports the traditional belief that women are the property of the husband, since a payment was made for her. majority peasant population. Acholi: Talking Politics in Northern Uganda Many Ugandans follow politics with keen interest, and President Yoweri Musevei's 34-year tenure notwithstanding, politics is a frequent topic of in-depth conversation and spirited debate among friends and acquaintances, and my conversations with my mentor are no exception. ETHNONYMS: Afipa, Wafipa famines forced groups to move within the Acholi territory and create more cohesive forms of Customary leadership of the Acholi was severely affected by the long conflict in Northern Uganda, when many Acholi people lived in IDP camps for as long as 20 years. Ethnic group of South Sudan and Northern Uganda, Atkinson, Ronald R. "The Evolution of Ethnicity among the Acholi of Uganda: The Precolonial Phase.". Rwot, 'ruler'). thesis, University of Nairobi. Kin Groups and Descent. This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). When Britain established its rule during the early twentieth century, both ideological predisposition and practical utility prompted the colonizers to consider the Acholi a "tribe" and to administer the area as a "tribal" unit. aimed at achieving clearly-defined political goals, which typically benefit the interests of their members. Abstract The aim of this thesis will be to decipher why Acholi ethnic identity remained such a critical political tool in late and post-colonial Uganda, from 1950-1985, just before the outbreak of civil war in 1986. At the height of the insurgency, 1.8 million people in the north were living in camps. The Acholi were considered a martial people by the British, and many joined the military. sociopolitical units: lineages at the parish level; chiefdoms at the Yet the northerners living in these squalid camps were prone to attack by the LRA and the national army alike, and unable to raise their own food. others who benefited from the new dispensation, including collaborators Domestic Unit. Before the late seventeenth century, Luo speakers were limited to only a few peripheral areas of Acholi. connected and intertwined chiefdoms. Over the second half of the nineteenth century, Acholi was incorporated into international trade networks through the activities of northern, Arabic-speaking ivory and slave traders. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Given the anti-Museveni sentiment of most Acholis, the LRA's inability to mobilize support - or to at least avoid repudiation by its own ethnic base - is remarkable. One obvious candidate, Bazilio Olara-Okello who, although unrelated to Tito Okello, was, as in the case of Oyite Ojok, another officer who participated in the overthrow of Idi Amin. Similarly, General Okello Lutwa who toppled the Obote II regime, was an Acholi. population. The account of the Acholi reaching The movement hopes to strengthen the political and economic power of women in society and so push back destruction of the natural environment. The Acholi, a Nilotic Lwo-speaking ethnic group, live predominantly in the central region of northern Uganda, an space collectively named to known as Acholiland. The Age-set spokesmen handled affairs involving interclan cooperation. Twentieth-century densities have been consistently the second lowest in all of Uganda (after Karamoja). These guns brought Batswana are divided into a number of subgroups or "tribes": Bahurut, Shona The Anguish of Northern Uganda - Sections 3 - 5 - Uganda It refers to people known locally as Luo Gang. The civil war devastated the lives and livelihoods of the Acholi people of the north. (Whitmire, 2013, p. 46). Common synonyms for this type of organization are "interest groups," "pressure groups," and . This has continued in various guises ever since. Makerere University (Kampala), Department of Geography. [CDATA[ Killing of a person was prohibited but if it took place, negotiations for blood money were led by the victim's family, with agreement followed by rituals of a reconciliation ceremony to restore the killer to the community, and to bring peace between clans. 2.4. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. Apart from land, the rights to which were passed on equally to all sons, the eldest son was traditionally the designated heir of the father's property, although he was supposed to provide for the needs of his younger brothers. Archaeological and linguistic evidence suggests that from early in the Christian era, Acholi was settled mainly by Central Sudanic (or "proto-Central Sudanic") speakers in the west and Eastern Nilotic ("proto-Eastern Nilotic") speakers in the east. The Acholi, unlike many of their southern neighbours, did not create a form of Bride-wealth has varied over time but has usually included iron objects, domestic animals, and, in the twentieth century, money. Latigo (2006), "Northern Uganda", p. 90-92, Branch, A. common identity had already formed prior to that during the 18th century. with the British and those who managed to obtain Western education. Most prominent among them was the Uganda People's Army (UPA) in Teso and Lango sub region, the West Nile Bank Frontiers (WNBF) in the West Nile region, the Uganda People's Democratic Army, the Holy Spirit Movement and the LRA in the Acholi region. the Lords Resistance Army (LRA), echoing some of the spiritual themes used by the Holy Spirit One illustration of this is the various spirit-possession-based millennial (and military) movements that have been prominent in Acholi during the extremely difficult period of the late 1980s and early 1990s, most famously the Holy Spirit Movement of Alice Lakwena. The socio-political and economic organization of the Maasai during the Localized lineages have been the fundamental social units in Acholi, He understood the emergence of an Acholi identity as a final step in a social process that did not Encyclopedia.com. Crazzolara, J. P. (1938). The Acholi have small chiefdoms of one or more villages, each with several patrilineal clans. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/acholi, "Acholi passed through Sudan to the northern Uganda. While rwodi, members of royal lineages, and lineage heads all seem to have been somewhat better off than others before the latter part of the nineteenth century, social stratification appears limited, owing primarily to both limited wealth in the society and redistribution. However, this rebellion was defeated when it attempted to attack The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". A rebellion in 1911 in response to the British confiscation of Acholi guns was the last large-scale conflict in Acholi until Amin came to power in 1971. During Obote's first term as president, and especially during his Colonial rule brought the penetration of a money economy into Acholi, along with the establishment of numerous rural and small-town trading centers and the two major urban centers of Gulu and Kitgum, where a range of local and imported goods are available. Identification. Marriage has been typically patrilocal and patriarchal, with the husband and father as the undisputed head of the household. areas of the Buganda Kingdom and their main trading routes extended eastwards towards Kenya, In the most recent phase of the cycle, beginning in the mid-1980s, Acholi has largely been on the receiving end of the violence. Dholuo An individual had personal claim to land that he and his wife (or wives) had under cultivation or that had been cultivated but was lying fallow, and such rights passed from father to son. Acholi by international trade, and descendants of some of these men used A company limited by guarantee in the UK no. Subsistence and Commercial Activities. last large-scale conflict in Acholi until Amin came to power in 1971. colonial times, were the Acholi stood often in opposition to the British colonial rule, the starting cooperation of their rwot (chief) Aliker with the British, the centre of the colonial Acholi - Minority Rights Group At the height of the insurgency, some 1.8 million people were living in camps in the north, and due to a combination of LRA activities and the Ugandan armys counter-offensives virtually the entire population of Acholiland was displaced. "The Evolution of Ethnicity among the Acholi of Uganda: The Pre-colonial Phase." From the Village to Entebbe: The Acholi of Northern Uganda and the Aristotle wrote that politics stems . Sign up to Minority rights Group International's newsletter to stay up to date with the latest news and publications. "The Ancestral Shrine of the Acholi." their clans, giving them the ability to accumulate wealth and power beyond their rights to land These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. NRA in 1986. Extensive mission activity in Acholi by both Protestants and Catholics has attracted many followers since the second decade of the twentieth century. Apart from hundreds of thousands of deaths and tens of thousands being abducted, Historian Mark Curtis says that after Amin instigated a coup, Britain, the United States, and Israel quietly backed Amin and his campaign against the socialist-leaning President Milton Obote in 1971. The activities of the LRA have been devastating within Acholiland (though they spread also to neighbouring districts and countries).