Death and Afterlife. 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. Deep-rooted divisions and polarization remain between different ethnic groups, and these have been greatly exacerbated by the way in which the countrys leadership has developed since independence. PDF Publications | International IDEA This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy McKenna. [26] However, it successfully popularised the LRA in the West. 1 Northern Uganda or Acholiland is formally known as the Acholi sub-region, an area inhab-ited primarily by speakers of the Acholi language, whom I refer to as the Acholi. Lineage heads, assisted by lineage elders, organized both production (based on cooperative village-lineage labor) and reproduction (through the control of the material means and ideological rules of marriage). Since independence, formal schooling has provided a strong socializing influence from outside the home for more and more Acholi, especially those attending secondary school. All lineage males, for example, are called "grandfather," "father," "brother," or "son," and all (likely resident) females "sister" or "daughter," depending upon their generational relationship to the speaker. Mothers are responsible for the initial care of their children and for much of their socialization. In 2005, the new International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Joseph Kony and other top LRA commanders. Contemporary versions or amalgams of these practitioners continue to function in Acholi. Vincent (2012). Ironworking, mainly but not entirely confined to certain lineages, appears to be almost as ancient as agriculture, going back perhaps to the first millennium b.c. Conflict. Acholi men say, Property cant own property, and the notion of women having independent land rights is an anomaly to them. 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 Since the British had set up their administrational centre in the The main point of contact 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. Over the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some seventy chiefdoms were founded throughout the area that became Acholi, leading to the development of a new social order and political culture, the spread of a new language (Luo), and the evolution of a new society and collective identity. Purifications or atonement practices are still performed by Acholi elders in some communities. NRA in 1986. World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples. population. We hope you find it interesting. 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. 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. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile. collective identity evolved, and a common language (Luo) spread. (Atkinson, 2011 Payera chiefdom and in 1911 they established here the Gulu township (Whitmire, 2013, pp. Given the low population densities and minimal land pressure, almost anyone who was willing to clear and work unused land has been welcomed by lineage heads responsible for such land and, while they functioned, by the rwodi of chiefdoms within whose domains the land lay. Aristotle wrote that politics stems . )[9], "Since independence in 1962, Uganda has been plagued by ethnically driven, politically manipulated violence referred to by some as a history of 'cycles of revenge and mistrust'. centralised kingdom but instead organised themselves as a collection of smaller chiefdoms. Under Amins brutal regime, an estimated 300,000 died many of them Acholi. Since independence, a relatively few Acholi army officers have managed to accumulate substantial fortunes, as have a few traders. Due to a changing economy, after the 1950s, fewer Acholi was recruited to the armed forces but continued to be associated with them in popular mythology and stereotypes. Hunting tracts are owned by clans. (Ugandan Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs 1997. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. The civil war devastated the lives and livelihoods of the Acholi people of the north. Even in this . Since 1996 this policy has expanded to encompass the entire rural Acholi population of four districts, one million people. Idi Amin (1971-79) the Acholi were severely persecuted and their men systematically executed for their past association with the colonial army and for their support of Pres. Encyclopedia.com. Acholi Sub-region is consist of seven districts, namely; Gulu, Kitgum, Lamwo, Pader, Agago, Amuru and Nwoya, and are situtated in northern Uganda. laws of social life among the Acholi were set up by the elders of the clans, regulating everything Peace negotiations to end the long-running rebellion by the Lords Resistance Army continued, while security in the north improved through 2007. 26). Women also provide major labor in the fields, as well as being responsible for most child rearing and all cooking and other food-preparation tasks. Atkinson, Ronald R. (1994). Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press. This conflict lasted until 2008 and ended with the LRA fleeing to Eastern 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. Dwyer, John Orr (1972) 'The Acholi of Uganda: adjustment to imperialism'. majority peasant population. Recognized compensation and reconciliation procedures seem to formations in the form of chiefdoms and kingdoms by the end of the first millennium A.D. Situated 1,025 to 1,350 meters above sea level, the Acholi landscape is typical East African game countryrolling grasslands with scattered trees, streams, and rock outcrops. latest redrawing of the administrative divisions, it contains seven districts; Agago, Amuru, Gulu, The Acholi sub-region is a part of the administrative region of Northern-Uganda. Under Ugandan Pres. The conflict", UGANDA: 1,000 displaced die every week in war-torn north - report | Uganda | Refugees/IDPs, UGANDA/DRC: OPERATION RUDIA II UPDATE 2009-06-29, "The Anguish of Northern Uganda - Section 1 - Uganda", Sample of written Acholi from the Language Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acholi_people&oldid=1142669727, All articles with bare URLs for citations, Articles with bare URLs for citations from March 2022, Short description is different from Wikidata, "Related ethnic groups" needing confirmation, Articles using infobox ethnic group with image parameters, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. They have also "played a vital role in Acholi traditional reconciliation processes and in preparing the community to receive former combatants. 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. social control in the area. Divorce, which can occur for numerous reasons, is not uncommon and may or may not involve return of the bride-wealth; children, as members of the father's lineage, usually either stay with the father or return to him later. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. They also oversaw village-lineage ritual and chiefdomwide ritual, were the main advisors to their rwot, and were responsible for most of the social control exercised in Acholi. During Uganda's colonial period, the British encouraged political and economic development in the south of the country, in particular among the Baganda. (unpublished thesis) Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International . The dry season is long and hot, with temperatures that can reach more than 35 C. Demography. journalist who created an account of the history and traditions of the Acholi, wrote that the The political ramifications for Uganda, however, were severe. 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. These guns brought Malaria and AIDS have been the primary disease causes of deaths. [29], Media related to Acholi people at Wikimedia Commons. Since the entrenchment of colonial rule, an average of 10 to 20 percent of adult Acholi males at any one time have been involved in migrant labor or employment in the police or army that has taken them from their home and families. 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. political organisation of the acholipadma shri award 2012 list. Since the Lords Resistance Army was largely pushed out of Northern Uganda, the majority of Acholi more than 80 per cent have been able to return to their homes. Identification. "The Evolution of Ethnicity among the Acholi of Uganda: The Pre-colonial Phase." However, to what degree this emergence was accompanied with the creation of a common Administrative divisions within Acholi, however, both during colonial Similarly, General Okello Lutwa who toppled the Obote II regime, was an Acholi. Classics in African Anthropology - International African Institute When conflict did Doom, Ruddy and Koen Vlassenroot. This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos. came a new hierarchy of chiefs, clerks, and policemen, all under the Relatively small numbers of Acholi have filled middle-level or senior civil-service positions in independent Uganda. In war, the men used spears and long, narrow shields of giraffe or ox hide. A rebellion and created larger political With colonial rule came a new hierarchy of chiefs, clerks, and policemen, all under the authority of a district commissioner. Despite the years of leadership by men from the North, that region continued to be marginalized economically after independence, and has suffered higher rates of poverty than other areas of the country. [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. Latigo, James, "The Acholi Traditional Conflict Resolution in Light of Current Circumstances:". With the coming of the ivory and slave trades, and the firearms that accompanied them, conflict became more frequent, more deadly, and more widely spread. 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 . and tributes paid to them. "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). Acholi's role in the colonial economy was confined mainly to the peasant production of cotton as a cash crop and the provision of recruits for the colonial army or police and migrant labor for the more "developed" Buganda. Political Organization. It is In addition, the peace forums have worked to help establish the Amnesty Commission. Despite their common language and ethnic designation, the Acholi of Uganda and the southern Sudan have distinct origins and developed along different historical trajectories; the remainder of this cultural summary will focus on the more populous Uganda Acholi. 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. The LRA has been targeting civilians, the majority being their own tribe, the Acholi. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Political Organizations | Internal Revenue Service - IRS tax forms Men have also traditionally played a significant role in agriculture, especially for such time-limited, labor-intensive tasks as clearing, planting, and harvesting (often as part of lineage-based cooperative labor teams). The Lwoo. Due to its central location and the close Wright, A. C. A. In most chiefdoms, only members of designated lineages could make or repair royal drums. common identity had already formed prior to that during the 18th century. At first fighting against the insurgence of the army of the central government, the This paper is a case study analysis of the sociological phenomena of forgiveness occurring in an ongoing two-decade war in northern Uganda. The Acholi have small chiefdoms of one or more villages, each with several patrilineal clans. With colonial rule Once chiefdoms were established, Acholi religious beliefs focused on three types of spirits (jogi; sing. The Acholi of Uganda. from sexual conduct, over blackmailing and stealing, to killing someone (Vincent, 2012, pp. In precolonial Acholi, lineage heads and elders were most responsible 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. organisation to survive, a common identity had to form to support this new social structure of in the form of the Acholi district (Vincent, 2012). David Oyite-Ojok | Military Wiki | Fandom