. Kasozi, A. 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. The council's representatives could mediate issues between clans, and essentially covered both civil and criminal functions, like a Supreme Court. A rebellion Aristotle wrote that politics stems . 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. census of 2014, those seven districts were combined inhabited by just under 1.4 million people World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples. [CDATA[ thesis, University of Nairobi. the furthest back is the historical reconstruction by Atkinson (2011 [1994]), who described the Okot p'Bitek (1963). As they have for centuries, Acholi farmers rely mainly on iron hoes and other hand tools. Most Acholi, however, continue to live in neighborhoods (parishes) that not only consist predominantly of patrilineal kinsmen and their wives, but often carry the old lineage names. Numbering more than one million at the turn of the 21st century, they speak a Western Nilotic language of the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan family and are culturally and historically related to their traditional enemies, the neighbouring Lango. The word 'Acholi' is a misnomer that became adopted for convenience over the years. 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). of as dialects of Acholi. into the 1990s, Acholi was the scene of similar levels of conflict. Traditionally, land rights were vested in localized patrilineal lineages, under the control and guidance of lineage heads and elders. friendly, but after the inception of the British Protectorate of Uganda in 1894, which included The Acholi are proud and loud, but have been exposed as a group without a uniting leadership. 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. 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. The Shona-speaking peoples comprise about 80 percent of the population of Zimbabwe,, Swazi It has similarity with Alur, Padhola language, and other Luo languages in South Sudan Shilluk, Anuak,Pari, Balanda, Boor, Thuri. According to the latest census, there are 1.47 million ethnic Acholi in Uganda, amounting to 4.4 per cent of the total population. prefix a- denoting the 1st Person Singular (Whitmire, 2013, p. 51). At its peak in 2005 over Latigo, James, "The Acholi Traditional Conflict Resolution in Light of Current Circumstances:". In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. alongside the other Luo groups in Uganda and Kenya following several waves of migration Milton Obote, the independence leader, relied heavily on the support of his fellow Luo-speakers - Acholi and Langi - in government. They were also against the power consolidation approach of the NRA, which included mass arrest, torturing, killing, cattle raiding, food crop destruction, and looting and burning of villages. [28], In 2012 the American charity Invisible Children produced a documentary about the LRA. Traditionally, a young man was dependent upon his lineage head and elders both for permission to marry and for the material goods required for bride-wealth; elders of the woman's lineage were also much involved in the discussions and negotiations surrounding the marriage. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyse and understand how you use this website. Many contemporary Acholi continue to use these treatments, although nearly all with access to clinics and hospitals rely on these as well, whenever they can. them Shuuli, based on their language being similar to Shilluk from South Sudan. Political Organization. Dwyer, John Orr (1972) 'The Acholi of Uganda: adjustment to imperialism'. Atkinson (2011 [1994]) wrote on this issue: First came the establishment of new, chiefly, socio-political institutions and ideology. (Byrnes, 1990, p. 6), did the Acholi not arrive in their present-day area before the 15th century 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. Situated 1,025 to 1,350 meters above sea level, the Acholi landscape is typical East African game countryrolling grasslands with scattered trees, streams, and rock outcrops. neighboring peoples, was neither rare nor endemic. The government of Uganda has responded to the conflict by adopting both military and general amnesty strategies. Acholi have played a pivotal role in the turbulent post-independence era. 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. After weaning and up to the age of 5 or 6, however, much of the day-to-day caretaking of a child has customarily been done by an opposite-sex sibling or other preadolescent (often a member of the father's lineage), called lapidi (nurse-child). [10] General Tito Okello was an Acholi, and came to power in a military coup. 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. Orientation While Acholi also lives north of the South Sudaneseborder, the Sudanese Acholi are often excluded from the political meaning of the term "Acholiland". Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau. T(h)uri Kumam Milton Obote (196271, 198085). the area around Lake Victoria as early as the fourth century B.C. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. In the most recent phase of the cycle, beginning in the mid-1980s, Acholi has largely been on the receiving end of the violence. Occasional Paper no. Since independence, a relatively few Acholi army officers have managed to accumulate substantial fortunes, as have a few traders. London: James Currey. 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). Inheritance has been, and largely remains, patrilineal. Atkinson, Ronald R. (1989). In terms of the afterlife, although spirits of the dead are believed to continue to exist and manifest themselves, there is no belief in a heaven to reward the virtuous or a hell to punish the sinful. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Encyclopedia of World Cultures. By the mid-nineteenth century, about 60 small chiefdoms existed in eastern Acholiland. He overthrew Obote's government and established a dictatorship, ultimately suppressing and killing 300,000 people, including many Acholi. 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. Arab trading routes coming from the north, trading in goods, but also in slaves. //