political organisation of the acholi political organisation of the acholi

The history and politics of ethnicity and language 37. neighboring peoples, was neither rare nor endemic. Milton Obote (196271, 198085). "The Evolution of Ethnicity among the Acholi of Uganda: The Pre-colonial Phase." It was filmed by Australian director Ebony Butler, Simon Hardwidge and Ugandan author Frey Onen. Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. Acholi - Minority Rights Group Malandra, Alfred (1939). Anywa Adhola The Lwoo. London: Oxford University Press. The third group of spirits were those of unknown persons and dangerous beasts; these were hostile, personified as ghosts, believed to cause sickness and other misfortunes, and dealt with by means of spirit possession. Since 1996 this policy has expanded to encompass the entire rural Acholi population of four districts, one million people. This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos. 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 insurgency's military. against the central government. Traditional beliefs, however, still persist, often meshed with Christian doctrine in complex ways. 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 "State Formation in Acholi: The Emergence of Obbo, Pajok, and Panyikwara States c. From the Village to Entebbe: The Acholi of Northern Uganda and - CORE Division of Labor. 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. Traditionally, a grave is dug as soon as a person has died, following which a small and brief ceremony is held in the deceased's house prior to burial. traditional local forms of organisation were based on smaller units, often only consisting of Langlands, B. W. (1971). With colonial rule came a new hierarchy of chiefs, clerks, and policemen, all under the authority of a district commissioner. The 1980 population of the Uganda Acholi was approximately 580,000 (Kasozi 1994, ii), up from some 465,000 in 1969 (Langlands 1971), perhaps 125,000 in 1900 and about 100,000 at the end of the eighteenth century (Atkinson 1994, 275-281). [23] This resulted in resistance building up in the region and soon a host of rebel groups sprang up in the north. Acholi live in Northern Uganda, in the districts Kitgum, Pader and Gulu. in the form of the Acholi district (Vincent, 2012). 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. The government of Uganda has responded to the conflict by adopting both military and general amnesty strategies. They also kept goats, sheep and cattle. Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. Purifications or atonement practices are still performed by Acholi elders in some communities. B. K. (1994). 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. 1.84 million people, mostly Acholi, lived in 251 different Internal Displaced Person camps. Acholi have played a pivotal role in the turbulent post-independence era. Further he described how this negative experience led to generally negative attitudes towards The conflict had dramatic effects on the local During Obote's first term as president, and especially during his Certain rwodi and 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. It does not store any personal data. Okot p'Bitek's epic poem, Song of Lawino, debates Acholi customs around the time that Uganda became independent. In precolonial Acholi, lineage heads and elders were most responsible many of them children, the conflict led to the displacement of millions. Hier sind Acholi-Frauen dafr bekannt, . The Acholi region and language 51 - The history and politics of It refers to people known locally as Luo Gang. Graduating Essay, Department of History, Makerere University (Kampala). in Acholi since the mid-1980s) have led to a breakdown of any meaningful These figures represent population densities of 20.4 persons per square kilometer in 1980, 16.5 per square kilometer in 1969, and about one-fourth and one-fifth the 1969 densities during the earlier two periods. Organizations that are driven by unhealthy levels of political behavior suffer from lowered employee organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and performance as well as higher levels of job anxiety and depression. In September 1996, the Ugandan government moved hundreds of thousands of Acholi from the Gulu district into camps, ostensibly for their protection. social organization of acholi - Brainly.com . . Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps. Customs may reinforce social justifications for inequitable land rights for men and women. Although polygyny has often been presented as an ideal, limited means have always made it rare in practice. Acholi, also spelled Acoli, also called Gang or Shuli, ethnolinguistic group of northern Uganda and South Sudan. 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. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"igNXChGgDPbig_bsHwJgxoRb9NTulTcrPPRjDe2iFNY-86400-0"}; Ruhakana Rugunda, the Ugandan minister of internal affairs and leader of the government negotiating team, noted the effectiveness of the traditional system. the northern parts remained ignored for a long time. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. With higher population densities during the dry seasons, groups of families would fall under the rule of one person known as Jago, or clan chief (Cohen & Atieno-Odhiambo, 1968 , p . The Fipa are a Bantu-speaking people of southwestern Tanzania in East-Central Africa. "Some Notes on Acholi Religious Ceremonies." 30. 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. They are speakers of Western Nilotic languages and are traditionally farmers. PUBLISHED: 30/01/2023. a civil resistance movement started forming in the region. Political Organizations | Encyclopedia.com Thanks for using our World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples! 30 Chiefly authority was however not absolute, as power was shared with lineage elders ( ladit kaka) and political authority was mainly vested in This trade brought new wealth into Acholi that was unevenly accumulated, with rwodi and interpreters (and eventually their sons and other kinsmen) the major beneficiaries. Localized lineages have been the fundamental social units in Acholi, population. Atkinson, Ronald R. (1989). There were the spirits of known relatives, especially lineage ancestors; a second type was the nonancestral jok of the chiefdom as a whole. The essential lawlessness of the Idi Amin and second Milton Obote regimes, however, as well as of the various rebel groups, the Ugandan army, and Karamojong raiders (who have been active in Acholi since the mid-1980s) have led to a breakdown of any meaningful social control in the area. A Study of the Acooli Language: Grammar and Vocabulary. Dwyer, John Orr (1972) 'The Acholi of Uganda: adjustment to imperialism'. social control in the area. In the precolonial era, warfare, herding, and hunting were the domain of men. Traditionally, land rights were vested in localized patrilineal lineages, under the control and guidance of lineage heads and elders. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Luo people - Wikipedia Twentieth-century densities have been consistently the second lowest in all of Uganda (after Karamoja). formations in the form of chiefdoms and kingdoms by the end of the first millennium A.D. 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. 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. 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. 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. Forging Forgiveness: Collective Efforts Amidst War in Northern Uganda 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. Over the twentieth century, chiefdoms in Acholi have become vestigial institutions, and the fences that once enclosed villages have disappeared. before. 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 PEPFAR Uganda 2023 Science Summit on HIV and TB: Following the This article was most recently revised and updated by, Minority Rights Group International - World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Acholi. Following the latest redrawing of the administrative divisions, it contains seven districts; Agago, Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum, Nwoya, Lamwo and Pader. Peace negotiations to end the long-running rebellion by the Lords Resistance Army continued, while security in the north improved through 2007. This included both agricultural and hunting land. 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. colonial rule in their region for decades, before finally being integrated in the Ugandan territory Verona: Editrice Nigrizia. . When the camps were disbanded and people began to return to their land, customary rules for land tenure did not necessarily have the answers to some of the problems faced by Acholi people: men had lost their fathers from whom they would be granted land; children did not know where their clan land was; women were married to men without following the customary rules for marriage because of a lack of resources; and women were widowed and left with few options for survival. Dwyer, John O. centralised kingdom but instead organised themselves as a collection of smaller chiefdoms. century, social stratification appears limited, owing primarily to both At the same time Joseph Kony formed his own rebel group, Before the late seventeenth century, Luo speakers were limited to only a few peripheral areas of Acholi. Crazzolara, J. P. (1950-1954). This paper is a case study analysis of the sociological phenomena of forgiveness occurring in an ongoing two-decade war in northern Uganda. Apart from hundreds of thousands of deaths and tens of thousands being abducted, Death of Oulanyah exposes Acholi as proud and loud without leadership All members of the household acknowledge the authority of its head, the husband; each wife or other adult female in the household has traditionally had her own fields, granaries, and kitchen or cooking hut. Religious Practitioners. In war, the men used spears and long, narrow shields of giraffe or ox hide. 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. Odongo, J. M. Onyango-ku-, and J. 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. political organisation of the acholipadma shri award 2012 list. 2008. Each type of spirit had numerous ceremonies associated with it; many ceremonies included small offerings of food and drink. 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. Mass meetings were organized separately by Luo people in Kavirondo and the Kikuyu people in Nairobi. Milton Obote, the independence leader, relied heavily on the support of his fellow Luo-speakers Acholi and Langi in government. The settlement of the Acholi in their current territory is compared to the ethnic groups in the Kitgum, Pader and Gulu, the three districts of the Acholi sub-region, each established peace forums for continuing discussions. Farming and hunting dominated the live in this rural jok ). Linguistic Affiliation. However, to what degree this emergence was accompanied with the creation of a common [1994], p. 80). The cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisments to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Acholi have played a pivotal role in the turbulent post-independence era. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/acholi, "Acholi The Acholi sub-region is a part of the administrative region of Northern-Uganda. ETHNONYMS: Balumbila, Batoka, Batonga, Bawe, Toka supported them at first also regretted their support after seeing the sufferings of Acholi in 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. Uganda Journal 7(1): 27-43. Apoko, Anna (1967). ETHNONYM: Karanga (historical) The existence of separate chiefdoms was therefore not an fight the Arab slave traders and his colonial administration was viewed as not very invasive They have also "played a vital role in Acholi traditional reconciliation processes and in preparing the community to receive former combatants. The account of the Acholi reaching Uganda, leading raids all over the region. development of the chiefdom and clan system in the 17th and 18th century that is still a vital Then in Kenya and Tanzania are the Joluo also known as the Luo. Political Organization. 53- Rwot, 'ruler'). "The Ancestral Shrine of the Acholi." coming from the territory of present-day South Sudan over a period spanning multiple centuries. of the nineteenth century, both among Acholi chiefdoms and with Instead, the Acholi were integrated in the The presumed nominal forebears of the present-day Acholi group migrated South to Northern Uganda from the area now known as Bahr el Ghazal in South Sudan by about 1,000 AD. According to Latigo, prior to colonialism, "the Acholi people maintained a traditional government that was rooted firmly in their religious beliefs, norms, and customs, which demanded peace and stability in Acholiland at all times, based on their philosophy of life. 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. The Acholi sub-region is a part of the administrative region of Northern-Uganda. p. 41). Sign up to Minority rights Group International's newsletter to stay up to date with the latest news and publications. their inherited wealth to build up prominent twentieth-century families. others who benefited from the new dispensation, including collaborators This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. limited wealth in the society and redistribution. 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. 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. journalist who created an account of the history and traditions of the Acholi, wrote that the The cult-like militia has abducted an estimated 25,000 children over the years, forcing them to commit heinous atrocities against civilians. The Population Geography of Acholi District. environment and larger distances between settlements kept the hierarchical structures Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. The Acholi occupy a 39,000-square-kilometer area, three-fourths of which lies within Uganda, extending roughly from 215 to 4159 N and 3325 to 3345 E. Their neighbors include the Luo-speaking Lango, Paluo, and Alur to the south and southwest, the Central Sudanic-speaking Madi to the west, and the Eastern Nilotic Jie and Karamojong to the east. Social Organization. Politics has been around for millennia. . into the 1990s, Acholi was the scene of similar levels of conflict. This period of increased contact with non-Acholi accelerated the "Is Alice Lakwena a Witch? The Acholi of Uganda. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. cooperation of their rwot (chief) Aliker with the British, the centre of the colonial Pyerino Okoya and Lt. Gen Bazilio Olara-Okello. But when Idi Amin overthrew Obotes first spell in power, and when Yoweri Musevini ousted Okello, the Acholi paid heavily for their allegiances. "At Home in the Village: Growing Up in Acholi." This cookie is set by doubleclick.net. "Against Humanitarian Impunity: Rethinking Responsibility for Displacement and Disaster in Northern Uganda,", Latigo (2006), "Northern Uganda", pp. They were also against the power consolidation approach of the NRA, which included mass arrest, torturing, killing, cattle raiding, food crop destruction, and looting and burning of villages. In the administrative structure of Uganda, Acholi is composed of the districts of: It encompasses about 28,500km2 (11,000 square miles) near the Uganda-Sudan border.[5]. The first government chiefs, appointed from 1912 onwards, represented a measure of continuity with the pre-colonial order, since they were nearly all drawn from the ranks of the clan leaders. occur, however, it was usually limited in scope, with relatively few The essential lawlessness of the Idi Amin and latest redrawing of the administrative divisions, it contains seven districts; Agago, Amuru, Gulu, (Whitmire, 2013, p. 46). Until 1967 Uganda was a quasi-federal polity that included five subregional monarchies, non-monarchical districts, and a central government. Identification. Hansen, Holger B., and Michael Twaddle, eds. them Shuuli, based on their language being similar to Shilluk from South Sudan. Under Ugandan Pres. their clans, giving them the ability to accumulate wealth and power beyond their rights to land interpreters began to accumulate some of the new wealth brought into Visit the repository for full metadata or to contact the repository team By clicking 'Accept', you consent to the use of all the cookies. 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. Uma, F. K. (1971). L. No. somewhat better off than others before the latter part of the nineteenth Stream and swamp fishing are important. NRA in 1986. Idi Amin was also from north Uganda, but was of the Kakwa people. Aristotle wrote that politics stems . Luo peoples - Wikipedia Uganda Journal 19(1): 57-61. Milton Obote, the independence leader, relied heavily on the support of his fellow Luo-speakers - Acholi and Langi - in government. Political organisation - Wikipedia In . In 1986 Alice Lakwenas charismatic Holy Spirit Movement mounted an insurgency in the Acholi region. As a result, many widowed Acholi have been unable to access their land on return to their homes. The chiefs traditionally came from one clan, and each chiefdom had several villages made up of different patrilineal clans. - CORE At first fighting against the insurgence of the army of the central government, the The Shona-speaking peoples comprise about 80 percent of the population of Zimbabwe,, Swazi Individual antecedents of political behavior include political . contested among those with traditional leadership qualifications and Corn (maize), sorghum, beans, squash, peanuts (groundnuts), and other savanna crops also are grown. Chopi (Storch, 2005), Index of languages, language families, linguistic areas, and ethnic groups.. African languages. Political Organization Defined | Internal Revenue Service for social control, though one of the attractions that assisted the The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. Political Organization. 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. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". connected and intertwined chiefdoms. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. (unpublished thesis) Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International . [26], In 2016, the multi award-winning film, A Brilliant Genocide was produced. 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. that included areas now belonging to South Sudan and the northern regions of Uganda. The northerners also contributed to the further evolution of an Acholi identity, not only by introducing the name "Shuuli," which eventually became "Acholi," but by acting in ways that promoted Acholi as a meaningful ethnic and geographic entity. et al., 1972; Heine & Knig, 2010) and Chopi (Storch, 2005) as individual languages, instead T(h)uri Kumam to accumulate substantial fortunes, as have a few traders.