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. [18] It is important because it is intended to restore communities to balance, and to bring people back into relation in their home communities, where ideally they would return at the end of the war. comparably flat. southern part of the country relatively young. Pottery and basket making were widespread and relatively nonspecialized arts, carried out by both men and women. ." Organizational Politics. Contemporary versions or amalgams of these practitioners continue to function in Acholi. Before the late seventeenth century, Luo speakers were limited to only a few peripheral areas of Acholi. Uganda Journal 19(1): 57-61. Recognized compensation and reconciliation procedures seem to Administrative divisions within Acholi, however, both during colonial "Against Humanitarian Impunity: Rethinking Responsibility for Displacement and Disaster in Northern Uganda,", Latigo (2006), "Northern Uganda", pp. point to the most recent violent conflict was the overthrow of the Okello-led government by the Hier sind Acholi-Frauen dafr bekannt, . 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). In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. Marriage. ETHNONYMS: Afipa, Wafipa 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. An Exploration of Linguistic Practices and Language Attitudes in Gulu, Northern Uganda. Linguistic Affiliation. They are speakers of Western Nilotic languages and are traditionally farmers. Malaria and AIDS have been the primary disease causes of deaths. The main point of contact The cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisments to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. Army membership has also supplied a distinct, if largely negative, socializing influence on many Acholi young men. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. Nairobi: Oxford University Press. The Acholi or Acoli are part of Luo-speaking Nilotic people of East Africa who lives predominantly in Northern Uganda (an area commonly referred to as Acholiland), including the districts of Agago, Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum, Nwoya, Lamwo, and Pader; and Magwe County in South Sudan. Over the twentieth century, chiefdoms in Acholi have become vestigial institutions, and the fences that once enclosed villages have disappeared. State | Definition, History, Figures, & Facts | Britannica 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. (Byrnes, 1990, p. 6), did the Acholi not arrive in their present-day area before the 15th century The cookie also tracks the behavior of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. It is part of the Southern Lwoo languages Webster, J. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Acholi conceive of death as an inevitable, personal defeat and tragedy, against which there is no ultimate defense. Sociopolitical organization - Acholi Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). p. 41). L. No. This article was most recently revised and updated by, Minority Rights Group International - World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Acholi. Vincent (2012). (1955). The Acholi live in small hamlets among patrilineal kin. From the Village to Entebbe: The Acholi of Northern Uganda and the organisation to survive, a common identity had to form to support this new social structure of with the British was through Samuel Baker. Encyclopedia.com. It does not store any personal data. common identity had already formed prior to that during the 18th century. 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. Precolonial trade, both within Acholi and throughout the region, focused mainly on obtaining iron ore and finished iron products in exchange for baskets or products of the farm, herd, or hunt. against the central government. 30 Chiefly authority was however not absolute, as power was shared with lineage elders ( ladit kaka) and political authority was mainly vested in 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. Langlands, B. W. (1971). Verona: Editrice Nigrizia. colonial times, were the Acholi stood often in opposition to the British colonial rule, the starting In . 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. PDF CORE - Aggregating the world's open access research papers 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. Trade. Political Organization. This cookie is set by Youtube. Orientation The conflict", UGANDA: 1,000 displaced die every week in war-torn north - report | Uganda | Refugees/IDPs, UGANDA/DRC: OPERATION RUDIA II UPDATE 2009-06-29, "The Anguish of Northern Uganda - Section 1 - Uganda", Sample of written Acholi from the Language Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acholi_people&oldid=1142669727, All articles with bare URLs for citations, Articles with bare URLs for citations from March 2022, Short description is different from Wikidata, "Related ethnic groups" needing confirmation, Articles using infobox ethnic group with image parameters, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. from sexual conduct, over blackmailing and stealing, to killing someone (Vincent, 2012, pp. With colonial rule [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. Religious Beliefs. 1 Northern Uganda or Acholiland is formally known as the Acholi sub-region, an area inhab-ited primarily by speakers of the Acholi language, whom I refer to as the Acholi. A single rainy season, from April-May to October-November, produces a reliable annual rainfall nine years of every ten, ranging from 102 centimeters in the central and western portions of Acholi to only 51 centimeters in much of the north and east. The first government chiefs, appointed from 1912 onwards, represented a measure of continuity with the pre-colonial order, since they were nearly all drawn from the ranks of the clan leaders. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy McKenna. Jur Alur The Population Geography of Acholi District. Subsistence and Commercial Activities. David Oyite-Ojok | Military Wiki | Fandom Odongo, J. M. Onyango-ku-, and J. Milton Obote (196271, 198085). 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. Further he described how this negative experience led to generally negative attitudes towards 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. encompasses the six closely related languages Acholi, Adhola, Alur, Kumam, Lango and PUBLISHED: 30/01/2023. neighboring peoples, was neither rare nor endemic. supported them at first also regretted their support after seeing the sufferings of Acholi in 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. Similarly, General Okello Lutwa who toppled the Obote II regime, was an Acholi. 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. Acholi officers now expected Obote to appoint an Acholi to replace Oyite Ojok. Doom, Ruddy and Koen Vlassenroot. The documentary was met with mixed reactions, with many people familiar with the situation dubbing it a shallow and money-grabbing scheme. [26][27], The NRA managed to defeat all the rebel groups except the LRA which culminated in a 20-year conflict. friendly, but after the inception of the British Protectorate of Uganda in 1894, which included The rwot was the most important political, economic and social personality in the political entity of 'chiefdoms', which were installed in Acholiland in the late seventeenth, early eighteenth century. Movement. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. other parts of Uganda, where hundreds of thousands of peoplemany There were the spirits of known relatives, especially lineage ancestors; a second type was the nonancestral jok of the chiefdom as a whole. 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. Since independence, a relatively few Acholi army officers have managed to accumulate substantial fortunes, as have a few traders. Since 1996 this policy has expanded to encompass the entire rural Acholi population of four districts, one million people. Sign up to Minority rights Group International's newsletter to stay up to date with the latest news and publications. of the West Nile, to the north by the South Sudan, to the east by the Karamojong region, to the, 23 Each Ugandan district has a language board responsible for implementing policies on indigenous language. In the pre-colonial era, all the Acholi believed in the same superior being, YA Latwer. 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. [28], In 2012 the American charity Invisible Children produced a documentary about the LRA. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. came a new hierarchy of chiefs, clerks, and policemen, all under the This has continued in various guises ever since. Inheritance has been, and largely remains, patrilineal. The council's representatives could mediate issues between clans, and essentially covered both civil and criminal functions, like a Supreme Court. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 2.4. 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. 3 vols. Orientation Dwyer, John Orr (1972) 'The Acholi of Uganda: adjustment to imperialism'. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Acholi: Talking Politics in Northern Uganda - Unizin Further tidying up and smoothing over the grave take place within the week. Over the second half of the nineteenth century, Acholi was incorporated into international trade networks through the activities of northern, Arabic-speaking ivory and slave traders. before. That is why the Lango neighbours refer to the Acholi as Ugangi, meaning people of the home. Twentieth-century densities have been consistently the second lowest in all of Uganda (after Karamoja). were able gain wealth by trading mainly in ivory. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Acholi, also spelled Acoli, also called Gang or Shuli, ethnolinguistic group of northern Uganda and South Sudan. Finally a common social order and political culture developed, and new society and Most prominent among them was the Uganda People's Army (UPA) in Teso and Lango sub region, the West Nile Bank Frontiers (WNBF) in the West Nile region, the Uganda People's Democratic Army, the Holy Spirit Movement and the LRA in the Acholi region. Most political organizations take the form of a voluntary association of persons or organizations that pools its members' and constituents' financial and other resources, and engages in conventional political actions to affect policy-making outcomes. 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. [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. This period of increased contact with non-Acholi accelerated the Conflict. formations in the form of chiefdoms and kingdoms by the end of the first millennium A.D. The cult-like militia has abducted an estimated 25,000 children over the years, forcing them to commit heinous atrocities against civilians. Hansen, Holger B., and Michael Twaddle, eds. Kuturia Housein fired the first gun shot on Acholiland who had never seen and be possessed by a spirit named Lakwena, the so-called Holy Spirit Movement fought a rebellion (1972). Following the "Land Tenure in Acholi." 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. The earliest modern African political organization in Kenya Colony sought to protest pro-settler policies, and increased taxes on Africans and the despised Kipande (Identifying metal band worn around the neck). Politics has been around for millennia. 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. Relatively small numbers of Acholi have filled middle-level or senior civil-service positions in independent Uganda. last large-scale conflict in Acholi until Amin came to power in 1971. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Women daubed the walls with mud, decorating them with geometrical or conventional designs in red, white or grey. administration within the region and the district headquarters were erected in the area of the the area around Lake Victoria as early as the fourth century B.C. At the peak of the conflict, 90% of the Acholi population moved into IDP camps designed as protected villages. Under Amins brutal regime, an estimated 300,000 died many of them Acholi. From the beginning, the Acholi were marginal compared to Britain's concern with Buganda, at the core of the colony. ETHNONYMS: Mende (Men-day), Mendes, Huro, Wuro Traditionally, land rights were vested in localized patrilineal lineages, under the control and guidance of lineage heads and elders. 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. of the nineteenth century, both among Acholi chiefdoms and with The Age-set spokesmen handled affairs involving interclan cooperation. 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. Atkinson (2011 [1994]) wrote on this issue: First came the establishment of new, chiefly, socio-political institutions and ideology. 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. The Acholi region and language 51. [6] While Acholi also lives north of the South Sudanese border, the Sudanese Acholi are often excluded from the political meaning of the term "Acholiland". As some of these languages show some form more. (p. 34). (Whitmire, 2013, p. 46). 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]. This special access to Uganda's security forces has alternately presented opportunity and danger as a succession of regimes replaced one another in a cycle of political violence often played out in ethnic (or "tribal") terms. NAPE, along with sister organization the National Association for Women's Action in Development, has brought together more than 5,000 women from . 13.4 Organizational Politics - Organizational Behavior Colonial rule brought the penetration of a money economy into Acholi, along with the establishment of numerous rural and small-town trading centers and the two major urban centers of Gulu and Kitgum, where a range of local and imported goods are available. Under Ugandan Pres. . passed through Sudan to the northern Uganda. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The LRA received much of its financial, logistical and military support from the Khartoum government in neighbouring Sudan. in Acholi since the mid-1980s) have led to a breakdown of any meaningful While rwodi, members of royal lineages, and lineage heads all seem to have been somewhat better off than others before the latter part of the nineteenth century, social stratification appears limited, owing primarily to both limited wealth in the society and redistribution. Uma, F. K. (1971). Even in this . members of royal lineages, and lineage heads all seem to have been In precolonial Acholi, lineage heads and elders were most responsible 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). Acholi Sub-region is consist of seven districts, namely; Gulu, Kitgum, Lamwo, Pader, Agago, Amuru and Nwoya, and are situtated in northern Uganda. [26], In 2016, the multi award-winning film, A Brilliant Genocide was produced. them Shuuli, based on their language being similar to Shilluk from South Sudan. 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.