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. NAPE, along with sister organization the National Association for Women's Action in Development, has brought together more than 5,000 women from . [10] General Tito Okello was an Acholi, and came to power in a military coup. A Study of the Acooli Language: Grammar and Vocabulary. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. 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. The available evidence suggests that conflict in Acholi before the end of the nineteenth century, both among Acholi chiefdoms and with neighboring peoples, was neither rare nor endemic. "Kony's Message: A New Koine?". While rwodi, [22], In January 1986, the junta government of Gen. Tito Okello-Lutwa in Uganda was overthrown by Museveni and his NRA rebels. Okot p'Bitek's epic poem, Song of Lawino, debates Acholi customs around the time that Uganda became independent. Malandra, Alfred (1939). [26] Conservative approaches estimates that at least 300,000 people died in the conflict that extended into the Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic. time was critical to the social and political development of the region. Acholi | Encyclopedia.com Corrections? In 2009, Acholi was one of the six Ugandan languages identified as having more than one Religious Beliefs. [19], The religious leaders have tried to help end the conflict in the country of the last two decades and to reconcile the parties. As they have for centuries, Acholi farmers rely mainly on iron hoes and other hand tools. In . Behrend, Heike (1991). Traditionally, land rights were vested in localized patrilineal lineages, under the control and guidance of lineage heads and elders. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. encompasses the six closely related languages Acholi, Adhola, Alur, Kumam, Lango and "At Home in the Village: Growing Up in Acholi." Hunting tracts are owned by clans. The word 'Acholi' is a misnomer that became adopted for convenience over the years. Political Organization. expression of difference, but one of a common political ideology and identity (Whitmire, 2013, 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 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. Orientation The Acholi have small chiefdoms of one or more villages, each with several patrilineal clans. 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. According to the latest census, there are 1.47 million ethnic Acholi in Uganda, amounting to 4.4 per cent of the total population. All affines, meanwhile, are known as "mother." Political Organization. The personal and group loss resulting from death is acknowledged as real and permanent. The Holy Spirit Movement and Its Fight against Evil in the North." subcounty level; and larger zones of the most intensive (and peaceful) Farming and hunting dominated the live in this rural A company limited by guarantee in the UK no. came a new hierarchy of chiefs, clerks, and policemen, all under the "The Concept of Jok among the Acholi and Lango." 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. Thanks for using our World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples! A typical household consists of a nuclear family (husband, wife, and unmarried children), although aged parents, unmarried siblings, offspring of deceased siblings, or others are often household members as well. The Population Geography of Acholi District. Mass meetings were organized separately by Luo people in Kavirondo and the Kikuyu people in Nairobi. L. No. coming from the territory of present-day South Sudan over a period spanning multiple centuries. PDF "Acholi Youth Are Lost": Young, Christian and (A)political in Uganda Odongo, J. M. Onyango-ku-, and J. social control in the area. 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). Tonga Other uncategorised cookies are those that are being analysed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Nairobi: Oxford University Press. He wrote, "Part of the structural causes of the conflict in Uganda has been explained as rooted in the 'diversity of ethnic groups which were at different levels of socio-economic development and political organisation.' in the Western Nilotic branch of Nilo-Saharan. colonial times, were the Acholi stood often in opposition to the British colonial rule, the starting Dholuo, which is spoken in in the West of Kenya. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. 30 Chiefly authority was however not absolute, as power was shared with lineage elders ( ladit kaka) and political authority was mainly vested in . Corn (maize), sorghum, beans, squash, peanuts (groundnuts), and other savanna crops also are grown. At its peak in 2005 over 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 political ramifications for Uganda, however, were severe. Okot p'Bitek (1971). With the coming of the ivory Acholi - Minority Rights Group The settlement of the Acholi in their current territory is compared to the ethnic groups in the occur, however, it was usually limited in scope, with relatively few 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). Localized lineages have been the fundamental social units in Acholi, Social Control. 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. It has similarity with Alur, Padhola language, and other Luo languages in South Sudan Shilluk, Anuak,Pari, Balanda, Boor, Thuri. The Shona-speaking peoples comprise about 80 percent of the population of Zimbabwe,, Swazi Acholi form organisation - New Vision Official into the 1990s, Acholi was the scene of similar levels of conflict. "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). Children are highly prized, and historically a couple did not set up their own household until the birth of their first child, living until then in the household of the husband's mother. other parts of Uganda, where hundreds of thousands of peoplemany As of September 2009, large numbers of Acholi people remain in camps as internally displaced persons. Uganda's current army, various local rebel groups (some headed by apocalyptic "prophets" such as Alice Lakwena), and heavily armed Karamojong raiders have all raped, looted, killed, and destroyed, making any kind of normal life in Acholi impossible. Girling, F. K. (1960). //]]>, ETHNONYMS: Acoli, Acooli; historically: Gani, Lango, Lo-Gang, Shuuli. [26][27], The NRA managed to defeat all the rebel groups except the LRA which culminated in a 20-year conflict. political organisation of the acholi Acholi have played a pivotal role in the turbulent post-independence era. At the height of the insurgency, 1.8 million people in the north were living in camps. Political Organization Defined A political organization subject to Code section 527 is a party, committee, association, fund or other organization (whether or not incorporated) organized and operated primarily for the purpose of directly or indirectly accepting contributions or making expenditures, or both, for an exempt function. This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos. . alongside the other Luo groups in Uganda and Kenya following several waves of migration 1orthern Uganda or Acholiland is formally known as the Acholi sub-region, an area inhab N - ited primarily by speakers of the Acholi language, whom I refer to as the Acholi. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Encyclopedia.com. The Acholi's harrowing ordeal began under Idi Amin's dictatorship in the seventies. The Canadian government, for instance, will be more inclined to fund an organisation whose mandate is continental Africa rather than an association with a very narrow focus on Acholi problems. 2008. Acholi Quarter in Kampala, for example, is largely populated by formerly rural Acholi from Northern Uganda, uprooted by years of conflict and now caught in a situation of prolonged displacement. Latigo (2006), "Northern Uganda", p. 90-92, Branch, A. century, social stratification appears limited, owing primarily to both Further he described how this negative experience led to generally negative attitudes towards 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. 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. [11], After defeating Okello and his Acholi-dominated Uganda National Liberation Army, now-President Yoweri Museveni and his National Resistance Army conducted revenge killings in the north. However, this rebellion was defeated when it attempted to attack These include Christian marriage (with or without bride-wealth), elopement, and single parenthood. Orientation . neighboring peoples, was neither rare nor endemic. Kitgum, Nwoya, Lamwo and Pader. 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. with the British and those who managed to obtain Western education. The primary language of Acholi today is Luo, a Western Nilotic language spoken by groups scattered across East Africa from the southern Sudan to Tanzania; many also speak English and/or Kiswahili. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau. 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 government of Uganda has responded to the conflict by adopting both military and general amnesty strategies. The Acholi live in small hamlets among patrilineal kin. State | Definition, History, Figures, & Facts | Britannica 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. ." 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). Chopi (Storch, 2005), Index of languages, language families, linguistic areas, and ethnic groups.. African languages. M.A. Soon after, the NRM started pacifying the northern region, which is home to several ethnics, including the Acholi and Lango. (unpublished thesis) Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International . All procedures are conducted with care, to attempt to ensure that the spirit of the departed does not become angry. Kinship Terminology. While Bantu speaking groups had begun to occupy In addition to these six languages, some authors also classify Labwor (Ladefoged, Uganda Journal 3(3): 175-202. Approximately 2.1 million Acholi were counted in the Uganda census of 2014, and 45,000 more were living in South Sudan in 2000.[4]. (Ugandan Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs 1997. (1936). aimed at achieving clearly-defined political goals, which typically benefit the interests of their members. have often limited or prevented serious conflict, especially among Mothers are responsible for the initial care of their children and for much of their socialization. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International. "Some Notes on Acholi Religious Ceremonies." . Traditionally, lineage heads and elders were the most knowledgeable aboutand involved withthe lineage and chiefdom jogi, although rwodi also had a role to play in ceremonies involving the latter. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) under the leadership of Joseph Kony has waged a war against Yoweri Museveni's government. The conflict had dramatic effects on the local [CDATA[ deaths. the northern regions, this relationship changed. state, political organization of society, or the body politic, or, more narrowly, the institutions of government. Identification. of mutual intelligibility amongst each other, they were at times interpreted as a dialectal cluster With independence, the Acholi remained marginal within the framework of Uganda as a whole, with one crucial exception: their disproportionate numbers in the police and army. Encyclopedia of World Cultures. This belief underlies the customary land tenure rule that prohibits women from having rights to land independent of their relationship with their father or husband. Museveni has held absolute power since, surviving unrest, civil war, and numerous attempts at coups. The existence of separate chiefdoms was therefore not an At the peak of the conflict, 90% of the Acholi population moved into IDP camps designed as protected villages. Okot p'Bitek (1963). ." Political organizations are those engaged in political activities (e.g., lobbying, community organizing, campaign advertising, etc.) 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. The Acholi sub-region is a part of the administrative region of Northern-Uganda. Acholi Sub-region is consist of seven districts, namely; Gulu, Kitgum, Lamwo, Pader, Agago, Amuru and Nwoya, and are situtated in northern Uganda. That is why the Lango neighbours refer to the Acholi as Ugangi, meaning people of the home. Milton Obote, the independence leader, relied heavily on the support of his fellow Luo-speakers Acholi and Langi in government.