their clans, giving them the ability to accumulate wealth and power beyond their rights to land Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. census of 2014, those seven districts were combined inhabited by just under 1.4 million people B.A. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". "Kony's Message: A New Koine?". Social Organization. Millet is the staple food of the Acholi, and tobacco is grown for trade. The Central Lwo during the Aconya. 30 Chiefly authority was however not absolute, as power was shared with lineage elders ( ladit kaka) and political authority was mainly vested in 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. 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. [10], The Acholi are known to the outside world mainly because of the long insurgency of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony, an Acholi from Gulu. Women daubed the walls with mud, decorating them with geometrical or conventional designs in red, white or grey. L. No. Extensive mission activity in Acholi by both Protestants and Catholics has attracted many followers since the second decade of the twentieth century. Individual antecedents of political behavior include political . The Acholi of Uganda. . London: Oxford University Press. Medicine. With colonial rule Most Acholi also continue to live in thatched, round mud houses, although wealthier Acholi and those who live in town or near major roads have square houses of mud or block, with iron or tile roofs. The chiefs traditionally came from one clan, and each chiefdom had several villages made up of different patrilineal clans. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. the area around Lake Victoria as early as the fourth century B.C. The Age-set spokesmen handled affairs involving interclan cooperation. Among other provisions, this legislation specifically amended IRC Section 527 (j) to require the e-filing of Form 8872, Political . These rebellions sprung up in defiance and from disapproval of the conduct and legitimacy of the new NRA government. In the pre-colonial era, all the Acholi believed in the same superior being, YA Latwer. In contrast, the Acholi and other northern ethnic groups supplied much of the national manual labour and came to comprise a majority of the military, creating what some have called a "military ethnocracy". Acholi have played a pivotal role in the turbulent post-independence era. Okot p'Bitek's epic poem, Song of Lawino, debates Acholi customs around the time that Uganda became independent. Latigo (2006), "Northern Uganda", p. 90-92, Branch, A. to the land by Kuturia caused a lot of death in the sub-region of Acholi. (p. 34). Identification. However, this number is most likely considerably The available evidence suggests that conflict in Acholi before the end Jur Alur Atkinson, Ronald R. (1994). Due to its central location and the close Since the British had set up their administrational centre in the Soon after, the NRM started pacifying the northern region, which is home to several ethnics, including the Acholi and Lango. //]]>, ETHNONYMS: Acoli, Acooli; historically: Gani, Lango, Lo-Gang, Shuuli. Thanks for using our World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples! This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy McKenna. Purifications or atonement practices are still performed by Acholi elders in some communities. "[9], Milton Obote, the first leader after independence, relied on Acholi Luo people and Langi Nilo Hamites or Ateker peoples in government. 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. supported them at first also regretted their support after seeing the sufferings of Acholi in These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. in Acholi since the mid-1980s) have led to a breakdown of any meaningful The system values peace over justice, and has retributive and restorative aspects. In East African Childhood: Three Versions, edited by L. K. Fox, 43-75. 2.4. He understood the emergence of an Acholi identity as a final step in a social process that did not Over the twentieth century, chiefdoms in Acholi have become vestigial institutions, and the fences that once enclosed villages have disappeared. ." Orientation find its conclusion until the 19th century. [22], In January 1986, the junta government of Gen. Tito Okello-Lutwa in Uganda was overthrown by Museveni and his NRA rebels. "At Home in the Village: Growing Up in Acholi." [26] Conservative approaches estimates that at least 300,000 people died in the conflict that extended into the Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic. The political ramifications for Uganda, however, were severe. London: James Currey. 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. journalist who created an account of the history and traditions of the Acholi, wrote that the Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International. Crazzolara, J. P. (1938). The Acholi were considered a martial people by the British, and many joined the military. "Land Tenure in Acholi." came a new hierarchy of chiefs, clerks, and policemen, all under the Conflict. latest redrawing of the administrative divisions, it contains seven districts; Agago, Amuru, Gulu, The Population Geography of Acholi District. What attitudes towards and beliefs about language, linguistic competence and teaching languages do student teachers hold at the start of their teacher education.. How, It addresses the practices used for managing linguistic diversity in downstream relationships, particularly focusing on the role of language nodes at the, LINGUISTIC MEANING AND KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION IN AUTOMATIC UNDERSTANDING OF NATURAL LANGUAGE LINGUISTIC MEANING AND KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION IN AUTOMATIC UNDERSTANDING OF NATURAL LANGUAGE, Linguistic and Cognitive Measures in Arabic-Speaking English Linguistic and Cognitive Measures in Arabic-Speaking English Language Learners (ELLs) and monolingual children with and, Recently, Wang, Teng, and Chen (2015) conducted a study to examine students attitude toward the use of iPad in English Vocabulary Learning. Inheritance. 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. We have a small favour to ask: if you appreciate our work, would you mind considering making a donation to support our work? Identification and Location. 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. Historian Mark Curtis says that after Amin instigated a coup, Britain, the United States, and Israel quietly backed Amin and his campaign against the socialist-leaning President Milton Obote in 1971. "The Concept of Jok among the Acholi and Lango." 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. However, during the dry season, as groups of families were forced to congregate around receding water sources, a greater degree of political organization developed. Despite their common language and ethnic designation, the Acholi of Uganda and the southern Sudan have distinct origins and developed along different historical trajectories; the remainder of this cultural summary will focus on the more populous Uganda Acholi. in the Western Nilotic branch of Nilo-Saharan. somewhat better off than others before the latter part of the nineteenth This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos. In addition to these six languages, some authors also classify Labwor (Ladefoged, Nairobi: Oxford University Press. . Our interactive map highlights countries most at risk of genocide and mass killing. The Acholi have a modified Iroquois kinship-terminology system, reflecting Acholi's patrilineal and patrilocal ideology. Behrend, Heike (1991). By the mid-nineteenth century, about 60 small chiefdoms existed in eastern Acholiland. 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 hands of Arabs, this prompted Acholi not to accept any foreigners on their land any The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visted in an anonymous form. It is part of the Southern Lwoo languages 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. The LRA has been targeting civilians, the majority being their own tribe, the Acholi. against the central government. The word 'Acholi' is a misnomer that became adopted for convenience over the years. Organizational Politics. [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. 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. Chiefs are chosen from one lineage. Arab trading routes coming from the north, trading in goods, but also in slaves. political organisation of the acholipadma shri award 2012 list. Social Control. It has similarity with Alur, Padhola language, and other Luo languages in South Sudan Shilluk, Anuak,Pari, Balanda, Boor, Thuri. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. the northern regions, this relationship changed. 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. ETHNONYMS: Balumbila, Batoka, Batonga, Bawe, Toka The Taxpayer First Act, Pub. the furthest back is the historical reconstruction by Atkinson (2011 [1994]), who described the This made the chiefs more independent from 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. Graduating Essay, Department of History, Makerere University (Kampala). Historically, the most important public ceremonies were probably those associated with birth, planting, harvesting, and the killing of a large animal or another human being. Specifically, this study explored, Living with Language. The insurgency's military. 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 . encompasses the six closely related languages Acholi, Adhola, Alur, Kumam, Lango and This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. outsiders: The Arabs had established a killing government on Acholi, some of the chiefs who ETHNONYMS: Afipa, Wafipa 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. This structure was maintained by the real anointed chiefs of the Acholi, the rwodi moo. 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. An individual had personal claim to land that he and his wife (or wives) had under cultivation or that had been cultivated but was lying fallow, and such rights passed from father to son. Identification. Further he described how this negative experience led to generally negative attitudes towards point to the most recent violent conflict was the overthrow of the Okello-led government by the Classification of Southern Lwoo after Heusing (2004) and Storch (2005). A rebellion in 1911 in response to the British confiscation of Acholi guns was the last large-scale conflict in Acholi until Amin came to power in 1971. [7] During the second half of the nineteenth century, Arabic-speaking traders from the north started to call them Shooli, a term which was transformed into 'Acholi'.[8]. Administrative divisions within Acholi, however, both during colonial rule and since independence, have often reflected preexisting sociopolitical units: lineages at the parish level; chiefdoms at the subcounty level; and larger zones of the most intensive (and peaceful) interpolity interactions at the county level. in the form of the Acholi district (Vincent, 2012). of them innocent civilianslost their lives; from the mid-1980s This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. As some of these languages show some form "[15] Although they were believed to have supernatural powers, the chiefs ruled through a Council of Clan Elders, so they never ruled singlehandedly. This included both agricultural and hunting land. (1976). 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. Each type of spirit had numerous ceremonies associated with it; many ceremonies included small offerings of food and drink. higher now, due to the ongoing growth in population. B. K. (1994). The most common domestic animals are (and have long been) chickens and goats, with some cattle, especially in the dryer portions of Acholi. During Obote's first term as president, and especially during his Traditionally, land rights were vested in localized patrilineal lineages, under the control and guidance of lineage heads and elders. The relationship between the Acholi and the British had for a long time been rather loose and Vincent (2012). This book presents seminal anthropological works from that period by p'Bitek himself and by Frank Girling, who was researching among the Acholi when p'Bitek was a teenager. Tonga Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Following the [10] General Tito Okello was an Acholi, and came to power in a military coup. This term then With colonial rule came a new hierarchy of chiefs, clerks, and policemen, all under the authority of a district commissioner. Kinship Terminology. PUBLISHED: 30/01/2023. When the victorious NRA started violent acts of vengeance in the following years, contested among those with traditional leadership qualifications and Changing Uganda: The Dilemmas of Structural Adjustment and Revolutionary Change. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Orientation The largest political unit was the tribal section, regarded as the geographical nation. 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. The essential lawlessness of the Idi Amin and second Milton Obote regimes, however, as well as of the various rebel groups, the Ugandan army, and Karamojong raiders (who have been active in Acholi since the mid-1980s) have led to a breakdown of any meaningful social control in the area. Boys and girls are typically socialized into distinct gender roles, and do household and other chores accordingly. During this period of growing integration into the colonial trade routes, the Acholi chiefdoms The Holy Spirit Movement and Its Fight against Evil in the North." The Acholi's harrowing ordeal began under Idi Amin's dictatorship in the seventies. 1.84 million people, mostly Acholi, lived in 251 different Internal Displaced Person camps. connected and intertwined chiefdoms. According to the [CDATA[ became more frequent, more deadly, and more widely spread. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any payment information on a server. of the nineteenth century, both among Acholi chiefdoms and with 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). Whitmire (2013) on the other hand argued that a The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. Linguistic Affiliation. authority of a district commissioner. Localized patrilineal lineages, some of which have "brother" lineages of the same or different name in other parts of Acholi, have long been the fundamental social and economic units in Acholi. Stream and swamp fishing are important. As of September 2009, large numbers of Acholi people remain in camps as internally displaced persons. expression of difference, but one of a common political ideology and identity (Whitmire, 2013, The full integration of the Acholi into the British colonial complex happened comparatively late.