Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T05:37:27.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Wars of the Past and War in the Present: The Lord's Resistance Movement/Army in Uganda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Sverker Finnström
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

War has ravaged Acholiland in northern Uganda since 1986. The Ugandan army is fighting the Lord's ResistanceMovement/Army (LRM/A) rebels. Based on anthropological fieldwork, the article aims at exemplifying the ways in which non-combatant people's experiences of war and violence are domesticated in cosmological terms as strategies of coping, and it relates tales of wars in the past to experiences of violent death and war in the present. There has been a politicized debate in Uganda over whether or not the LRM/A rebels have the elders' ceremonial warfare blessing. In sketching this debate, the article interprets the possible warfare blessing – which some informants interpreted as having turned into a curse on Acholiland – as a critical event that benefits from further deliberation, regardless of its existence or non-existence. It is argued that no warfare blessing can be regarded as the mere utterance of words. Rather, a blessing is performed within the framework of the local moral world. It is finally argued that the issue of the warfare blessing is a lived consequence of the conflict, but, nevertheless, cannot be used as an explanatory model for the cause of the conflict.

Résumé

Depuis 1986, la guerre ravage l'Acholiland, dans le Nord de l'Ouganda. L'armée ougandaise s'y bat contre les rebelles de la LRM/A (Lord's Resistance Movement/Army). S'appuyant sur des travaux anthropologiques de terrain, l'article cherche à exemplifier lamanière dont les expériences de la guerre et de la violence par les non-combattants sont domestiquées, en termes cosmologiques, en tant que stratégies de défense, et établit un rapport entre des récits de guerre du passé et des expériences de mort violente et de guerre du présent. Un débat politisé a eu lieu en Ouganda sur la question de savoir si les rebelles de la LRM/A ont reçu la bénédiction officielle des anciens pour se battre. Dans l'esquisse qu'il fait du débat, l'article interprète cette bénédiction éventuelle, que certains informateurs ont interprétée comme s'étant transformée en malédiction appelée sur l'Acholiland, comme un événement critique qui bénéficie de la poursuite du débat, indépendamment de son existence ou non-existence. L'article soutient qu'une simple formulation de mots ne saurait en aucun cas constituer une bénédiction. Une bénédiction serait plutôt pratiquée dans le cadre de l'univers moral local. Enfin, l'article affirme que la question de la bénédiction de la guerre est une conséquence vécue du conflit qui peut néanmoins servir de modèle d'explication de la cause du conflit.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 76 , Issue 2 , May 2006 , pp. 200 - 220
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, T. 1991. ‘Understanding Alice: Uganda's Holy Spirit Movement in context’, Africa 61 (3): 370–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, T. 2005. ‘War and justice in northern Uganda: an assessment of the International Criminal Court's intervention’ (PDF version downloaded 15 March 2005). London: London School of Economics/Crisis States Research Centre. Available online: <www.crisisstates.com>, Email: <[email protected]>Google Scholar
AI (Amnesty International). 1992. Uganda: the failure to safeguard human rights. London: Amnesty International.Google Scholar
AI (Amnesty International). 1997. ‘Breaking God's Commands’: the destruction of childhood by the Lord's Resistance Army. London: Amnesty International.Google Scholar
Angoma, S. O. 2005. ‘Analysing Conflict Resolution in Northern Uganda: based on traditional restorative justice’. MA thesis, Coventry University.Google Scholar
Appadurai, A. 1998. ‘Dead certainty: ethnic violence in the era ofglobalization’, Development and Change 29: 905–25.Google Scholar
Arendt, H. 1970. On Violence. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company.Google Scholar
ARLPI (Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative). 2001. ‘Let my people go: the forgotten plight of the people in displaced camps in Acholi. An assessment carried out by the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative and the Justice and Peace Commission of Gulu Archdiocese’ (PDF version downloaded 3 August 2004). Gulu: Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative and Justice and Peace Commission of Gulu Archdiocese. Available online: < http://www.acholipeace.org/surveyjuly.htm> Email: <[email protected]>.+Email:+.>Google Scholar
Arendt, H. 2002. Seven Times Seven: the impact of the amnesty law in Acholi. Gulu: Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative.Google Scholar
Behrend, H. 1991. ‘Is Alice Lakwena a witch? The Holy Spirit Movement and its fight against evil in the north of Uganda’, in Hansen, H. B. and Twaddle, M. (eds), Changing Uganda: the dilemmas ofstructural adjustment and revolutionary change. London, Kampala, Athens and Nairobi: James Currey, Fountain Press, Ohio University Press and Heinemann Kenya.Google Scholar
Behrend, H. 1995. ‘The Holy Spirit Movement and the forces of nature in the north of Uganda 1985–1987’, in Hansen, H. B. and Twaddle, M. (eds), Religion and Politics in East Africa: the period since independence. London, Nairobi, Kampala and Athens: James Currey, EAEP, Fountain Publishers and Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Behrend, H. 1998. ‘The Holy Spirit Movement's new world: discourse and development in the north of Uganda’, in Hansen, H. B. and Twaddle, M. (eds), Developing Uganda. Oxford, Kampala and Athens: James Currey, EAEP and Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Behrend, H. 1998. ‘War in northern Uganda: the Holy Spirit Movements of Alice Lakwena, Severino Lukoya and Joseph Kony (1986–1997)’, in Clapham, C. (ed.), African Guerrillas. Oxford, Kampala and Bloomington: James Currey, Fountain Press and Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Behrend, H. 1999. Alice Lakwena and the holy spirits: war in northern Uganda, 1985–97. Oxford, Kampala, Nairobi and Athens: James Currey, Fountain Publishers, EAEP and Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Behrend, H. 1999. ‘Power to heal, power to kill: spirit possession and war in northern Uganda (1986–1994)’, in Behrend, H. and Luig, U. (eds), Spirit Possession, Modernity and Power in Africa. Oxford, Kampala, Cape Town and Madison: James Currey, Fountain Publishers, David Philip and University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Bond, G. C. and Vincent, J.. 2002. ‘The moving frontier of AIDS in Uganda: contexts, texts, and concepts’, in Bond, G. C. and Gibson, N. C. (eds.), Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories: contemporary Africa in focus. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Branch, A. 2004. ‘International justice, local injustice: the International Criminal Court in northern Uganda’, Dissent 51 (2): 22–6.Google Scholar
Branch, A. 2005. ‘Neither peace nor justice: political violence and the peasantry in northern Uganda, 1986–1998’, African Studies Quarterly: the Online Journal for African Studies 8 (2): 1–31.Google Scholar
Brett, E. A. 1995. ‘Neutralizing the use of force in Uganda: the role of the military in politics’, Journal ofModern African Studies 33 (1): 129–52.Google Scholar
Crazzolara, J. P. 1951. The Lwoo Part II: Lwoo traditions.Verona:Museum Combonianum/Instituto missioni africane.Google Scholar
CSOPNU (Civil Society Organizations for Peace in Northern Uganda). 2004. ‘Nowhere to hide: humanitarian protection threats in northern Uganda’ (PDF version downloaded 12 January 2005). Civil Society Organizations for Peace in Northern Uganda, c/o CARE International Uganda. Available online: <www.oxfam.org.uk> Email: <[email protected]>.+Email:+.>Google Scholar
Das, V. 1995. Critical Events: an anthropological perspective on contemporary India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dolan, C. 2005. ‘Understanding War and its Continuation: the case of Northern Uganda’. PhD dissertation, University of London.Google Scholar
Doom, R. and Vlassenroot, K.. 1999. ‘Kony's message: a new Koine? The Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda’, African Affairs 98 (390): 5–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finnstrom, S. 2001. ‘In and out of culture: fieldwork in war-torn Uganda’, Critique ofAnthropology 21 (3): 247–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doom, R. and Vlassenroot, K.. 2003. Living with Bad Surroundings: war and existential uncertainty in Acholiland, northern Uganda. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis/Uppsala Studies in Cultural Anthropology, vol. 35 (PhD dissertation).Google Scholar
Doom, R. and Vlassenroot, K.. 2005. ‘“For God and my life”: war and cosmology in northern Uganda’, in Richards, P. (ed.), No Peace, No War: an anthropology of contemporary armed conflicts. Oxford and Ohio: James Currey and Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Fithen, C. and Richards, P.. 2005. ‘Making war, crafting peace: militia solidarities and demobilization in Sierra Leone’, in Richards, P. (ed.), No Peace, No War: an anthropology of contemporary armed conflicts.Athensand Oxford: Ohio University Press and James Currey.Google Scholar
Gersony, R. 1997. ‘The anguish of northern Uganda: results of a field-based assessment of the civil conflict in northern Uganda’. Kampala: report submitted to United States Embassy, Kampala, and USAID, Kampala.Google Scholar
Girling, F. K. 1960. The Acholi ofUganda. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Grove, E. T. N. 1919. ‘Customs of the Acholi’, Sudan Notes and Records 2(3): 157–82.Google Scholar
HRW (Human Rights Watch). 1997. The Scars ofDeath: children abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. New York: Human Rights Watch.Google Scholar
HRW (Human Rights Watch). 2003. ‘Abducted and abused: renewed conflict in northern Uganda’ (PDF version downloaded 11 July 2003). Available online: <http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/uganda0703/> Email: <hrwdc@ hrw.org>.+Email:+.>Google Scholar
HURIPEC (Human Rights and Peace Centre). 2003. The Hidden War: the forgotten people. War in Acholiland and its ramifications for peace and security in Uganda (PDF version downloaded 2 December 2003). Kampala and Vancouver: Human Rights and Peace Centre (Makerere University), in association with Liu Institute for Global Issues. Available online: <http://allafrica.com/peaceafrica/resources/view/00010178.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Hutchinson, S. E. 1998. ‘Death, memory and the politics oflegitimation: Nuer experiences of the continuing second Sudanese civil war’, in Werbner, R. (ed.), Memory and the Postcolony: African anthropology and the critique of power. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, S. E. 2001. ‘A curse from God? Religious and political dimensions of the post-1991 rise of ethnic violence in South Sudan’, Journal of Modern African Studies 39 (2): 307–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchinson, S. E. and J. M. Jok. 2002. ‘Gendered violence and the militarization of ethnicity’, in Werbner, R. (ed.), Postcolonial Subjectivities in Africa. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Kapferer, B. 2002. ‘Introduction: outside all reason - magic, sorcery and epistemology in anthropology’, in Kapferer, B. (ed.), Beyond Rationalism: rethinking magic, witchcraft and sorcery. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Lamwaka, C. 1998. ‘Civil war and the peace process in Uganda, 1986–1997’, East African Journal of Peace and Human Rights 4 (2): 139–69.Google Scholar
Lamwaka, C. 2000. ‘“Beyond the Face of the Storm”: the peace process in northern Uganda 1986–2000’ (unpublished book MS).Google Scholar
Lamwaka, C. 2002. ‘The peace process in northern Uganda 1896–1990’, in Okello, L. (ed.), Protracted Conflict, Elusive Peace: initiatives to end the violence in northern Uganda. London: Conciliation Resources and Kacoke Madit. Also available online: <http://www.c-r.org> Email: <[email protected]>.Google Scholar
Leopold, M. 2000. ‘Alice Lakwena and the holy spirits: war in northern Uganda 1986–97’, review article, African Affairs 99 (396): 470–2.Google Scholar
Leopold, M. 2005. ‘“Why are we cursed?” Writing history and making peace in north west Uganda’, Journal ofthe Royal Anthropological Institute 11 (2): 211–29.Google Scholar
Lloyd, A. B. 1907. Uganda to Khartoum: life and adventure on the Upper Nile. London and Glasgow: Collins’ Clear-Type Press.Google Scholar
Lloyd, A. B. 1948. ‘Extracts from “Mengo notes” part V: Acholi country 1 and Acholi country 2’, The Uganda Journal 12 (1): 82–92.Google Scholar
Nyeko, B. and Lucima, O.. 2002. ‘Profiles of the parties to the conflict’, in Lucima, O. (ed.), Protracted Conflict, Elusive Peace: initiatives to end the violence in northern Uganda. London: Conciliation Resources and Kacoke Madit. Also available online: <http://www.c-r.org> Email: <[email protected]>.Google Scholar
Odoki, S. O. 1997. Death Rituals among the Lwos of Uganda: their significance for the theology ofdeath. Gulu: Gulu Catholic Press.Google Scholar
O'Kadameri, B. 2002. ‘LRA/Government negotiations 1993–94’, in Lucima, O. (ed.), Protracted Conflict, Elusive Peace: initiatives to end the violence in northern Uganda. London: Conciliation Resources and Kacoke Madit. Also available online: <http://www.c-r.org> Email: <[email protected]>.Google Scholar
Omara-Otunnu, A. 1992. ‘The struggle for democracy in Uganda’, Journal of Modern African Studies 30 (3): 443–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Omara-Otunnu, A. 1995. ‘The dynamics of conflict in Uganda’, in Furley, O. (ed.), Conflict in Africa. London and New York: I. B. Tauris Publishers.Google Scholar
Omona, G. 2005. ‘Retreat for Acholi leaders: together making a difference for peace’. Unpublished report, Acholi Leaders’ Retreat, Paraa, 23–26 June 2005. Gulu: ACORD Uganda.Google Scholar
Onyango-Odongo, J. M. 1998. ‘The Rebel War in Northern Uganda’. Gulu: The Forum (unpublished book MS).Google Scholar
Ottemoeller, D. 1998. ‘Popular perceptions of democracy: elections and attitudes in Uganda’, Comparative Political Studies 31 (1): 98–124.Google Scholar
Otunnu, O. 2002. ‘Causes and consequences of the war in Acholiland’, in Lucima, O. (ed.), Protracted Conflict, Elusive Peace: initiatives to end the violence in northern Uganda. London: Conciliation Resources and Kacoke Madit. Also available online: <http://www.c-r.org> Email: <[email protected]>.Google Scholar
Oywa, R. 1995. ‘Uganda’, in Bennett, O., Bexley, J. and Warnock, K. (eds), Arms to Fight, Arms to Protect: women speak out about conflict. London: Panos.Google Scholar
P'Bitek, O. 1971. Religion ofthe Central Luo. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau.Google Scholar
Pirouet, M. L. 1991. ‘Human rights issues in Museveni's Uganda’, in Hansen, H. B. and Twaddle, M. (eds.), Changing Uganda: the dilemmas of structural adjustment and revolutionary change. London, Kampala, Athens and Nairobi: James Currey, Fountain Press, Ohio University Press and Heinemann Kenya.Google Scholar
Postlethwaite, J. R. P. 1947. I Look Back. London and New York: T. V. Boardman and Company Ltd.Google Scholar
PVP (People's Voice for Peace). n.d. Men and Armed Conflict: Gulu district, northern Uganda 1986–1999. Gulu: People's Voice for Peace.Google Scholar
RLP (Refugee Law Project). 2005. ‘Peace first, justice later: traditional justice in northern Uganda’ (PDF version downloaded 12 July 2005). Kampala: Refugee Law Project, Working Paper No. 17. Available online: < www.refugeelawproject> Email: <research@refugeelawproject. org>.+Email:+.>Google Scholar
RLP (Refugee Law Project). 2005. ‘Whose justice? Perceptions of Uganda's Amnesty Act 2000: the potential for conflict resolution and long-term reconciliation’ (PDF version downloaded 12 July 2005). Kampala: Refugee Law Project, Working Paper No. 15. Available online: <www.refugeelawproject> Email: <research@refugeelawproject. org>. Email: .' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=RLP+(Refugee+Law+Project).+2005.+‘Whose+justice?+Perceptions+of+Uganda's+Amnesty+Act+2000:+the+potential+for+conflict+resolution+and+long-term+reconciliation’+(PDF+version+downloaded+12+July+2005).+Kampala:+Refugee+Law+Project,+Working+Paper+No.+15.+Available+online:++Email:+.>Google Scholar
Safholm, P. 1973. The River-Lakes Nilotes: politics of an African tribal group. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis/Studia Sociologica Upsaliensia (PhD dissertation).Google Scholar
Schoenbrun, D. L. 1993. ‘A past whose time has come: historical context and history in eastern Africa's Great Lakes’, in Mudimbe, V. Y. and Jewsiewicki, B. (eds), History Making in Africa. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University.Google Scholar
Speke, J. H. 1863. Journal ofthe Discovery ofthe Source of the Nile. Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood and Sons.Google Scholar
Tambiah, S. J. 1990. Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Turshen, M. 2001. ‘An analysis of systematic rape and sexual abuse of women during armed conflict in Africa’, in Moser, C. O. N. and Clark, F. C. (eds), Victims, Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, armed conflict and political violence. London and New York: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Usher-Wilson, L. C. 1947. ‘An Acholi hunt’, The Uganda Journal 11 (1): 30–7.Google Scholar
Van Acker, F. 2004. ‘Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army: the new order no one ordered’, African Affairs 103 (412): 335–57.Google Scholar
Vincent, J. 1999. ‘War in Uganda: north and south’, in Reyna, S. P. and Downs, R. E. (eds), Deadly Developments: capitalism, states and war.Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach Publishers.Google Scholar
Young, A. 1995. The Harmony of Illusions: inventing post-traumatic stress disorder.Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar