political organisation of the acholi

The chiefs traditionally came from one clan, and each chiefdom had several villages made up of different patrilineal clans. Uganda, leading raids all over the region. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyse and understand how you use this website. The Acholi were considered a martial people by the British, and many joined the military. Encyclopedia.com. Atkinson, Ronald R. (1994). [10] General Tito Okello was an Acholi, and came to power in a military coup. With colonial rule came a new hierarchy of chiefs, clerks, and policemen, all under the authority of a district commissioner. southern parts of the country. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. 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 activities of the LRA have been devastating within Acholiland (though they spread also to neighbouring districts and countries). When conflict did occur, however, it was usually limited in scope, with relatively few deaths. Religious Beliefs. . A.D. Of their history during this time only little is known. Division of Labor. Contemporary versions or amalgams of these practitioners continue to function in Acholi. 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. expression of difference, but one of a common political ideology and identity (Whitmire, 2013, Subsistence and Commercial Activities. His stated political aims are to rule Uganda according to the Biblical Ten Commandments. Western Nilotic Eastern Nilotic Southern Nilotic, Burun Lwoo Nuer-Dinka Teso-Turkana Bari Maa-Lotuko, North South "Some Notes on Acholi Religious Ceremonies." The settlement of the Acholi in their current territory is compared to the ethnic groups in the Even bride-wealth marriages are now often mainly nuclear-family affairs, and other alternatives to traditional marriage are common. friendly, but after the inception of the British Protectorate of Uganda in 1894, which included This cookie is set by Youtube. 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. Other uncategorised cookies are those that are being analysed and have not been classified into a category as yet. 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. the furthest back is the historical reconstruction by Atkinson (2011 [1994]), who described the Medicine. identity is rather disputed. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. prefix a- denoting the 1st Person Singular (Whitmire, 2013, p. 51). et al., 1972; Heine & Knig, 2010) and Chopi (Storch, 2005) as individual languages, instead 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. Kasozi, A. and tributes paid to them. In . The most common domestic animals are (and have long been) chickens and goats, with some cattle, especially in the dryer portions of Acholi. The Acholi region is bordered in the west by the districts This in turn forged new political entities and identities as well as wider social relations. Notable among the Acholi soldiers who made the ranks were Gen. Tito Okello-Lutwa, Brig. Central to the new order were a set of notions about political leadership in which chiefs (rwodi; sing, rwot ) shared power and decision making with the heads of chiefdoms' constituent lineages; a system of redistributive tribute within each polity, with the chief at the center; and royal, often rainmaking, drums as symbols of sovereignty and authority. neighboring peoples, was neither rare nor endemic. With the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan in 2005, and the establishment of the ex-rebel government in newly independent South Sudan in territory in which the LRA once operated freely, those lines of support have been substantially weakened, if not severed altogether. more. (p. 34). famines forced groups to move within the Acholi territory and create more cohesive forms of Idi Amin was also from north Uganda, but was of the Kakwa people. The size and nature of this occasion depend on the age and status of the deceased, with the most lavish and festive celebrations taking place when the person who died was both aged and important. Nevertheless, many remain in a state of displacement. 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. It has similarity with Alur, Padhola language, and other Luo languages in South Sudan Shilluk, Anuak,Pari, Balanda, Boor, Thuri. This paper is a case study analysis of the sociological phenomena of forgiveness occurring in an ongoing two-decade war in northern Uganda. Encyclopedia.com. supported them at first also regretted their support after seeing the sufferings of Acholi in L. No. Specifically, this study explored, Living with Language. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. In the precolonial era, warfare, herding, and hunting were the domain of men. In most chiefdoms, only members of designated lineages could make or repair royal drums. (unpublished thesis) Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International . It does not store any personal data. to accumulate substantial fortunes, as have a few traders. Nairobi: Oxford University Press. [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. Idi Amin (197179) the Acholi were severely persecuted and their men systematically executed for their past association with the colonial army and for their support of Pres. 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. Even in this . with the Gulu district being by far the most populated one (Uganda, 2016). During Obote's first term as president, and especially during his second term, Acholi soldiers played key roles in the massive conflict in other parts of Uganda, where hundreds of thousands of peoplemany of them innocent civilianslost their lives; from the mid-1980s into the 1990s, Acholi was the scene of similar levels of conflict. "Land Tenure in Acholi." The PEPFAR Uganda 2023 Science Summit on HIV and TB: Following the Science and Sustaining the Gains as PEPFAR Turns Twenty This report is a record of the virtual summit organized by the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Uganda for its stakeholders; Uganda Ministry of Health (MoH) including its Public Health Fellowship Program (PHFP), implementing partners, and . Customs may reinforce social justifications for inequitable land rights for men and women. 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. 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. Led by Alice Auma, who claimed to that included areas now belonging to South Sudan and the northern regions of Uganda. 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. p. 41). southeast by the Langi region and to the south, across the Nile, by Bunyoro. 17 de fevereiro de 2022 / Category . of mutual intelligibility amongst each other, they were at times interpreted as a dialectal cluster Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Certain rwodi and 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. The cookie also tracks the behavior of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. The Acholi resisted the establishment of the Identification. Thanks for using our World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples! The Age-set spokesmen handled affairs involving interclan cooperation. Political Organization. During Obote's first term as president, and especially during his However, during the dry season, as groups of families were forced to congregate around receding water sources, a greater degree of political organization developed. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. The EU's External Democracy Action in a New Geopolitical Reality: Policy Brief. "[9], Milton Obote, the first leader after independence, relied on Acholi Luo people and Langi Nilo Hamites or Ateker peoples in government. The documentary focused on the unofficial discourse of the LRA war and it was largely critical of the Ugandan government role in the LRA war. 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. As some of these languages show some form Girling, F. K. (1960). from sexual conduct, over blackmailing and stealing, to killing someone (Vincent, 2012, pp. Each type of spirit had numerous ceremonies associated with it; many ceremonies included small offerings of food and drink. 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. (1972). Pyerino Okoya and Lt. Gen Bazilio Olara-Okello. Instead, the Acholi were integrated in the While rwodi, Even though this contact was described as a grossly negative experience for the Acholi, this In such a context, the land rights of those with the least power widows, the disabled, the elderly were very insecure. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". 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. PUBLISHED: 27/01/2023. their inherited wealth to build up prominent twentieth-century families. T(h)uri Kumam 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. [16] In addition, the people have important rituals for cleansing homes and sites, to welcome back people who have been away a long time, to clear spirits from places where killings have occurred, and to welcome people who have been captive. 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. Orientation The Roots of Ethnicity: The Origins of the Acholi of Uganda before 1800. Hier sind Acholi-Frauen dafr bekannt, . latest redrawing of the administrative divisions, it contains seven districts; Agago, Amuru, Gulu, Much of that hierarchy continued into the independence era. Social Control. The combination of the two events, have put pressure on the LRA to lay down its arms. Though some sense of a community and identity has persisted among residents, the area is characterized by substandard housing, poor environmental health and limited livelihood opportunities. Since 1996 this policy has expanded to encompass the entire rural Acholi population of four districts, one million people. 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. 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. journalist who created an account of the history and traditions of the Acholi, wrote that the In addition, the peace forums have worked to help establish the Amnesty Commission. Verona: Editrice Nigrizia. Hansen, Holger B., and Michael Twaddle, eds. Webster, J. were able gain wealth by trading mainly in ivory. Identification. Recognized compensation and reconciliation procedures seem to have often limited or prevented serious conflict, especially among neighboring chiefdoms within the same zone. development of the chiefdom and clan system in the 17th and 18th century that is still a vital Kuturia Housein fired the first gun shot on Acholiland who had never seen and Extensive mission activity in Acholi by both Protestants and Catholics has attracted many followers since the second decade of the twentieth century. the nations capital Kampala in 1988. 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. 2008. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps. The Acholi, unlike many of their southern neighbours, did not create a form of Chiefs are chosen from one lineage. 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. "Acholi More commonly, almost any salaried job in the public or private sector represents an income that averages several times that of a member of the majority peasant population. with chiefdoms providing a layer of organization above the lineages from The building of houses and granaries has historically involved both men and women, with each performing specified functions. Malaria and AIDS have been the primary disease causes of deaths. Langlands, B. W. (1971). Similarly, General Okello Lutwa who toppled the Obote II regime, was an Acholi. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. From early on, girls and boys learn gender-appropriate behaviors and activities, and these are reflected in both their play and their chores and other responsibilities. This cookie is set by Facebook to deliver advertisement when they are on Facebook or a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising after visiting this website. 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. Due to its central location and the close Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Organizational politics is a natural part of organizational life. 1544957. organisation to survive, a common identity had to form to support this new social structure of Administrative divisions within Acholi, however, both during colonial occur, however, it was usually limited in scope, with relatively few ETHNONYM: Karanga (historical) Acholi, also spelled Acoli, also called Gang or Shuli, ethnolinguistic group of northern Uganda and South Sudan. Uganda Now: Between Decay and Development. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". Orientation southern part of the country relatively young. Odongo, J. M. Onyango-ku-, and J. of the nineteenth century, both among Acholi chiefdoms and with Pottery and basket making were widespread and relatively nonspecialized arts, carried out by both men and women. In the most recent phase of the cycle, beginning in the mid-1980s, Acholi has largely been on the receiving end of the violence. 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 area around Lake Victoria as early as the fourth century B.C. Milton Obote, the independence leader, relied heavily on the support of his fellow Luo-speakers Acholi and Langi in government. 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. 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. 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. The Acholi people (also spelled Acoli) are a Nilotic ethnic group of Luo peoples (also spelled Lwo), found in Magwi County in South Sudan and Northern Uganda (an area commonly referred to as Acholiland), including the districts of Agago, Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum, Nwoya, Lamwo, Pader and Omoro District. 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. Then a final dance and feast takes place at a time chosen to make possible the maximum attendance by relatives and other interested people. Acholi Sub-region is consist of seven districts, namely; Gulu, Kitgum, Lamwo, Pader, Agago, Amuru and Nwoya, and are situtated in northern Uganda. Spirits of both of these types were generally beneficent. Dholuo, which is spoken in in the West of Kenya. PUBLISHED: 30/01/2023. Orientation Orientation - CORE 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. //]]>, ETHNONYMS: Acoli, Acooli; historically: Gani, Lango, Lo-Gang, Shuuli. 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. By clicking 'Accept', you consent to the use of all the cookies. A company limited by guarantee in the UK no. At its peak in 2005 over Payera chiefdom and in 1911 they established here the Gulu township (Whitmire, 2013, pp. census of 2014, those seven districts were combined inhabited by just under 1.4 million people "Against Humanitarian Impunity: Rethinking Responsibility for Displacement and Disaster in Northern Uganda,", Latigo (2006), "Northern Uganda", pp. But when Idi Amin overthrew Obotes first spell in power, and when Yoweri Musevini ousted Okello, the Acholi paid heavily for their allegiances. When the victorious NRA started violent acts of vengeance in the following years, Kin Groups and Descent. contested among those with traditional leadership qualifications and However, this rebellion was defeated when it attempted to attack As a result, many widowed Acholi have been unable to access their land on return to their homes. before. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. There were the spirits of known relatives, especially lineage ancestors; a second type was the nonancestral jok of the chiefdom as a whole. While Acholi also lives north of the South Sudaneseborder, the Sudanese Acholi are often excluded from the political meaning of the term "Acholiland". Starting in the late seventeenth century, a new sociopolitical order developed among the Luo of Northern Uganda, mainly characterized by the formation of chiefdoms headed by Rwodi (sg. Uganda Journal 7(1): 27-43. 20- Okot p'Bitek's epic poem, Song of Lawino, debates Acholi customs around the time that Uganda became independent. authority of a district commissioner. (Ugandan Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs 1997. 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. named Luo. ETHNONYMS: Ebantfu ba kwa Ngwane (the people of Ngwane), emaSwati, emaSwazi, Swati them Shuuli, based on their language being similar to Shilluk from South Sudan. and slave trades, and the firearms that accompanied them, conflict However, to what degree this emergence was accompanied with the creation of a common This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy McKenna. It refers to people known locally as Luo Gang. Bride-wealth has varied over time but has usually included iron objects, domestic animals, and, in the twentieth century, money. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. At the height of the insurgency, 1.8 million people in the north were living in camps. Encyclopedia of World Cultures. Acholi by international trade, and descendants of some of these men used members of royal lineages, and lineage heads all seem to have been These rebellions sprung up in defiance and from disapproval of the conduct and legitimacy of the new NRA government. find its conclusion until the 19th century. The Lwoo. Arab trading routes coming from the north, trading in goods, but also in slaves. Changing Uganda: The Dilemmas of Structural Adjustment and Revolutionary Change. 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.

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