This included both agricultural and hunting land. second Milton Obote regimes, however, as well as of the various rebel Milton Obote, the independence leader, relied heavily on the support of his fellow Luo-speakers - Acholi and Langi - in government. 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. In most chiefdoms, only members of designated lineages could make or repair royal drums. 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. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. 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. ETHNONYMS: Mende (Men-day), Mendes, Huro, Wuro higher now, due to the ongoing growth in population. interpreters began to accumulate some of the new wealth brought into 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. Behrend, Heike (1991). areas of the Buganda Kingdom and their main trading routes extended eastwards towards Kenya, State | Definition, History, Figures, & Facts | Britannica The Acholi sub-region is a part of the administrative region of Northern-Uganda. 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. 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. ETHNONYMS: Ebantfu ba kwa Ngwane (the people of Ngwane), emaSwati, emaSwazi, Swati Pyerino Okoya and Lt. Gen Bazilio Olara-Okello. Certain rwodi and interpreters began to accumulate some of the new wealth brought into Acholi by international trade, and descendants of some of these men used their inherited wealth to build up prominent twentieth-century families. Following the southern parts of the country. Organizational politics are informal, unofficial, and sometimes behind-the-scenes efforts to sell ideas, influence an organization, increase power, or achieve other targeted objectives (Brandon & Seldman, 2004; Hochwarter, Witt, & Kacmar, 2000). supported them at first also regretted their support after seeing the sufferings of Acholi in When the victorious NRA started violent acts of vengeance in the following years, 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. Under Ugandan Pres. Dwyer, John O. The system values peace over justice, and has retributive and restorative aspects. The Acholi, unlike many of their southern neighbours, did not create a form of political organisation of the acholi last large-scale conflict in Acholi until Amin came to power in 1971. [29], Media related to Acholi people at Wikimedia Commons. Organizational Politics. Similarly, General Okello Lutwa who toppled the Obote II regime, was an Acholi. The Acholi Traditional Approach to Justice and the War in Northern "Swazi" refers to the nation, tr, Fipa comparably flat. into the 1990s, Acholi was the scene of similar levels of conflict. 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. In 2009, Acholi was one of the six Ugandan languages identified as having more than one Uma, F. K. (1971). A rebellion 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. All affines, meanwhile, are known as "mother." [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. This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The n, Mende Location. This complex process was helped along by two major droughts, probably during the 1720s and c. 1790, which promoted larger-scale political leadership that held the promise of greater stability and security, and by the formation of neighboring identities against which members of an emergent Acholi could compete, compare, and define themselves. The insurgency's military. Apoko, Anna (1967). (February 23, 2023). This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 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 . The Roots of Ethnicity: The Origins of the Acholi of Uganda before 1800. Religious Beliefs. Certain rwodi and He was defeated in January 1986. The Taxpayer First Act, Pub. Even in this . collective identity evolved, and a common language (Luo) spread. (Atkinson, 2011 their inherited wealth to build up prominent twentieth-century families. Significantly, iron-ore deposits were located mainly at or just beyond the western, northeastern, southeastern, and southern boundaries of what became Acholi, and trade for this iron created networks of movement and interaction that helped determine a collective identity within these boundaries. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps. Bride-wealth has varied over time but has usually included iron objects, domestic animals, and, in the twentieth century, money. The Acholi are the descendants of a variety of Luo-speaking peoples who are believed to have migrated three or four centuries ago from adjacent areas of what is now South Sudan into what is now the Acholi district of Uganda. 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. neighboring chiefdoms within the same zone. The combination of the two events, have put pressure on the LRA to lay down its arms. cooperation of their rwot (chief) Aliker with the British, the centre of the colonial of as dialects of Acholi. During this time, people were separated from their land for long periods, and many people disappeared or were killed. "Acholi Apart from hundreds of thousands of deaths and tens of thousands being abducted, "Is Alice Lakwena a Witch? PUBLISHED: 27/01/2023. Updates? This structure was maintained by the real anointed chiefs of the Acholi, the rwodi moo. University of Bradford eThesis This thesis is hosted in Bradford Scholars - The University of Bradford Open Access repository. Then a final dance and feast takes place at a time chosen to make possible the maximum attendance by relatives and other interested people. Latigo (2006), "Northern Uganda", p. 90-92, Branch, A. 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. [17] Most of the LRA returnees, numbering 12,000, underwent nyono tong gweno ('stepping on the egg') after returning to their home villages, to help restore them to home. Some Acholi mothers exclaim that they do not know their sons after they have been away in the army. This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy McKenna. contested among those with traditional leadership qualifications and 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. Forging Forgiveness: Collective Efforts Amidst War in Northern Uganda 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. Acholi live in Northern Uganda, in the districts Kitgum, Pader and Gulu. However, this rebellion was defeated when it attempted to attack Under Amins brutal regime, an estimated 300,000 died many of them Acholi. The old staples of eleusine (finger) millet, sorghum, sesame, and various peas, beans, and leafy green vegetables continue to be grown, along with twentieth-century crops such as cassava, maize, peanuts (groundnuts), fruits, and cotton. The Roots of Ethnicity: The Origins of the Acholi of Uganda - JSTOR PUBLISHED: 30/01/2023. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. The EU's External Democracy Action in a New Geopolitical Reality: Policy Brief. 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. 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. "Some Notes on Acholi Religious Ceremonies." "Against Humanitarian Impunity: Rethinking Responsibility for Displacement and Disaster in Northern Uganda,", Latigo (2006), "Northern Uganda", pp. 26). Performance cookies are used to understand and analyse the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Museveni has held absolute power since, surviving unrest, civil war, and numerous attempts at coups. that included areas now belonging to South Sudan and the northern regions of Uganda. However, the date of retrieval is often important. During this period of growing integration into the colonial trade routes, the Acholi chiefdoms These include Christian marriage (with or without bride-wealth), elopement, and single parenthood. The account of the Acholi reaching of mutual intelligibility amongst each other, they were at times interpreted as a dialectal cluster passed through Sudan to the northern Uganda. Organizational politics is a natural part of organizational life. Social Control. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. 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. 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. Atkinson (2011 [1994]) wrote on this issue: First came the establishment of new, chiefly, socio-political institutions and ideology. 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. 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. The Acholi have small chiefdoms of one or more villages, each with several patrilineal clans. They have also "played a vital role in Acholi traditional reconciliation processes and in preparing the community to receive former combatants. "Acholi 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. The Acholi sub-region is a part of the administrative region of Northern-Uganda. 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. In addition to these six languages, some authors also classify Labwor (Ladefoged, 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. the northern parts remained ignored for a long time. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). sociopolitical units: lineages at the parish level; chiefdoms at the Among other provisions, this legislation specifically amended IRC Section 527 (j) to require the e-filing of Form 8872, Political . Army membership has also supplied a distinct, if largely negative, socializing influence on many Acholi young men. Political Organizations | Internal Revenue Service - IRS tax forms Chiefs are chosen from one lineage. settle disputes that involved more than one lineage. He has noted that the emphasis on the distinction among ethnic groups has even been part of the internal government dialogue." be possessed by a spirit named Lakwena, the so-called Holy Spirit Movement fought a rebellion But a chief's territory seldom corresponded to any pre-colonial entity, while his wide-ranging executive and judicial powers were a complete novelty. Orientation 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. In 2005, the new International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Joseph Kony and other top LRA commanders. Due to its central location and the close somewhat better off than others before the latter part of the nineteenth Langlands, B. W. (1971). 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. Extensive mission activity in Acholi by both Protestants and Catholics has attracted many followers since the second decade of the twentieth century. Specifically, this study explored, Living with Language. Conflict. Visit the repository for full metadata or to contact the repository team Soon after, the NRM started pacifying the northern region, which is home to several ethnics, including the Acholi and Lango. 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). [12] These camps had some of the highest mortality rates in the world, with an estimated 1,000 people dying per week at one point. Medicine. Arab trading routes coming from the north, trading in goods, but also in slaves. . Acholi | people | Britannica "Land Tenure in Acholi." families living together in hamlets. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. [23] This resulted in resistance building up in the region and soon a host of rebel groups sprang up in the north. Political Organization. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA).