Topic
Acholi
About: Acholi is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 278 publications have been published within this topic receiving 4282 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
1 / 2
Papers
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the different stages and content of Acholi nationhood, from vague notions in pre-colonial days, through the building of an ethno-military identity during the colonial period, until the Acholi heyday after Obote II.
Abstract: The article offers a sketch of Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) both in historical perspective and in a wider framework of the world system. The authors discuss the different stages and content of Acholi nationhood, from vague notions in pre-colonial days, through the building of an ethno-military identity during the colonial period, until the Acholi heyday after Obote II. The second period can be described as Acholi-hood on the defensive. Initially, the campaign of resistance fought by the Acholi-dominated Uganda People's Democratic Army (UPDA) still fits into standard conceptions of political resistance. However, social collapse eventually gave birth to Alice Lakwena's Holy Spirit Movement and finally to the LRA. Possessed of a charisma bordering on the prophetic, Kony has forged a new vision of Acholi-hood, based on individual salvation and purity. This 'biblical' vision of political redemption, at first sight an inward-looking strategy, is making this movement extremely vulnerable to outward manipulation. Joseph's face was as black as the night The pale yellow moon shone in his eyes His path was marked By the stars of the Southern Hemisphere Paul Simon JOSEPH KONY s LORD S RESISTANCE ARMY (LRA) is not just another rebellious movement in sub-Saharan Africa. Kony's behaviour, highly sensationalized in the media, has shocked the world and is seriously damaging Uganda's image as a country ready for take-off. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has recently been praised by the World Bank, congratulated by President Clinton and is widely cited as the prototype of a new generation of black leadership. However, he is at the same time confronted with an armed opposition operating along very puzzling lines of conduct. One of the most striking elements of the conflict in northern Uganda is the brutality and apparent arbitrariness of LRA violence. By nature, all rebellions and civil wars make use of violence. Kony's actions, however, Ruddy Doom is Professor and Director of the Centre for Third World Studies (CTWS) at the University of Ghent. Koen Vlassenroot is preparing a PhD on conflict in Central Africa at the CTWS. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.15 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 05:36:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
289 citations
Book•
1 Jan 2008
TL;DR: In this article, tradition-based approaches in peacemaking, transitional justice and reconciliation policies are discussed in the context of the Gacaca courts in Rwanda and the Institution of bashingantahe in Burundi.
Abstract: Introduction: tradition-based approaches In peacemaking, transitional justice and reconciliation policies The Gacaca courts in Rwanda Restorative justice and the role of magamba spirits in post-civil war Gorongosa, Central Mozambique Northern Uganda: tradition-based practices in the Acholi region Reconciliation and traditional justice: tradition-based practices of the Kpaa Mende In Sierra Leone The Institution of bashingantahe in Burundi Conclusions and recommendations.
249 citations
Book•
1 Jan 2010
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the roots of LRA violence and the role of foreign aid and violent conflict in the LRA rebellion in Acholiland in the north of Uganda.
Abstract: * Introduction - Tim Allen and Koen Vlassenroot * Part I: Interpretations of Uganda's war in the north ** 1 Exploring the Roots of LRA Violence: Political Crisis and Ethnic Politics in Acholiland - Adam Branch ** 2 Uganda's politics of foreign aid and violent conflict: The political uses of the LRA rebellion - Andrew Mwenda ** 3 The Spiritual Order of the LRA - Kristof Titeca ** 4 An African hell of colonial imagination? The Lord's Resistance Army/Movement in Uganda, another story - Sverker Finnstrom * Part II: Experiencing the LRA ** 5 Chasing the Kony Story - Mareike Schomerus ** 6 'A terrorist is not a person like me' - an interview with Joseph Kony - Mareike Schomerus ** 7 On the nature and causes of LRA abduction: What the abductees say - Christopher Blattman and Jeannie Annan ** 8 Between two worlds: former LRA soldiers in northern Uganda - Ben Mergelsberg ** 9 Encountering Kony: A Madi perspective - Ronald Iya * Part III: Peace and justice ** 10 Northern Ugandan: a 'forgotten conflict', again? The impact of the internationalization of the resolution process - Sandrine Perrot ** 11 The Role of the Government of the South Sudan in Peace Talks to End the War in Northern Uganda - Ronald R Atkinson ** 12 NGO involvement in the Juba peace talk: the role and dilemmas of IKV Pax Christi - Simon Simonse, Willemijn Verkoren, Gerd Junne ** 13 Bitter Roots: the 'invention' of Acholi traditional justice - Tim Allen ** 14 The ICC Investigation of the Lord's Resistance Army: An Insider's View - Matthew Brubacher * Postscript: a kind of peace and an exported war - Tim Allen, Frederick Laker, Holly Porter and Mareike Schomerus * Bibliography
232 citations
TL;DR: For almost 18 years, the so-called Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has waged war on the Ugandan government and its own people, the Acholi as discussed by the authors, and the robustness of the conflict indicates that the forces working against peace outstrip those working for it.
Abstract: For almost 18 years, the so-called ‘Lord’s Resistance Army’ (LRA) has waged war on the Ugandan government and its own people, the Acholi. The robustness of the conflict indicates that the forces working against peace outstrip those working for it. Analysis of the conflict is often reduced to describing the LRA rebellion as the handiwork of a religious fanatic. However, the social disorder that the National Resistance Movement, led by current President Museveni, inherited in 1986 after the downfall of the Acholi-led Okello regime, contained the root causes for continued insurgency. These were amplified by external circumstances that created the operational leeway for rebellion, gathering force in the absence of a credible Acholi political leadership. A deliverance couched in religious discourse resolved the quandary. The emergence and transformation of the LRA can be made comprehensible only in relation, or even in opposition, to the emergence and downfall of the Holy Spirit Mobile Forces (HSMF) as a radical structure of rejection. Millenarian religious justification contextualizes violence and the use of terror as a means of immobilization and control of the population. As the character and composition of the LRA evolved to include the kidnapping of children, and as the terror escalated, the insurgency became increasingly ensnared in a web of internal contradictions. The result is that the LRA has exacerbated the process of dehumanization the HSMF first set out to counter.
201 citations
TL;DR: Uganda referred the situation concerning the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on December 16, 2003, and it was the first time that a state party had invoked Articles 13(a) and 14 of the Rome Statute in order to vest the Court with jurisdiction as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: On December 16, 2003, Uganda referred the situation concerning the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was the first time that a state party had invoked Articles 13(a) and 14 of the Rome Statute in order to vest the Court with jurisdiction. For both Uganda and the ICC, the case presented an important opportunity. For Uganda, the referral was an attempt to engage an otherwise aloof international community by transforming the prosecution of LRA leaders into a litmus test for the much celebrated promise of global justice. Since 1986, LRA atrocities have wreaked havoc on the Acholi people of northern Uganda. Given the absence of any vital national interests, influential states have not been inclined either to pressure Sudan to stop harboring the LRA or to help government forces confront the insurgents. Instead, the burden was placed on Uganda to negotiate a peaceful settlement with a ruthless, cult-like insurgency. The imprimatur of international criminal justice, sought through the referral to the ICC, was a means of thrusting this long-forgotten African war back onto the international stage.
174 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 13 |
| 2020 | 11 |
| 2019 | 15 |
| 2018 | 15 |
| 2017 | 17 |
| 2016 | 13 |