From the Village to Entebbe: The Acholi of Northern Uganda and the Politics of Identity, 1950-1985. Submitted by Elizabeth Laruni to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, February 2014. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Elizabeth Laruni 2 Abstract The aim of this thesis will be to decipher why Acholi ethnic identity remained such a critical political tool in late and post-colonial Uganda, from 1950-1985, just before the outbreak of civil war in 1986. The thesis will centre not on the inevitability of the war, but will instead focus on the political processes that preceded it. It will seek fill a gap in a historiography of a people whose contribution to the Ugandan nation state goes beyond that of collective suffering, violence, paramilitary warfare and ethnic conflict. To effectively do this there will be an assessment of how Acholi gender, class and social hierarchies, religious identities, regional identifications and the much-touted ‘martial’ identity have been utilised internally and externally to politically reinforce Acholi ethnicity in late-colonial and post-colonial Uganda. Ugandan political engagement has continually allowed the politics of ethnicity to take a centre stage. Even in the present day, Uganda remains ethnically and regionally divided between the ‘North’ and the ‘South’. Bantu- speaking ethnic groups in the southern, central and western Uganda, including the Baganda, Basoga, Bagisu, Banyoro, Batoro, and Banyankole, dominate the South. The North, which is home to the Nilotic groups, encompasses the Acholi, Lango, Madi, Alur, Iteso, and the Karamojong peoples. Historically, the political and ethnic divisions between the peoples of Northern and Southern Uganda have contributed to the country’s contentious post-colonial history. This thesis will argue that political hostilities between the peoples of the two regions were a by-product of the economic and political policies of the colonial government and the administrations that followed. Regional demarcations, sanctioned by the British and adopted by post- colonial regimes, reinforced strong ethnically divided local governments founded on pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial Acholi socio-political institutions. Economic underdevelopment played a large part in fostering political tensions between Northern and Southern Uganda and served as useful tool for Acholi power brokers to negotiate for political and economic capital with the state, by utilising the politics of regional differentiation through the ‘Northern identity.’ Consequently, with onset of decolonisation Ugandan I 3 ‘nationalism’ became a localised movement driven by ethnically homogenous local governments and kingdoms. For the Acholi ethnic group, the most visible of their colonial and post- colonial identities has been that of the ‘martial race’. Acholi soldiers joined the army largely as a means to access job opportunities, and by doing so they became the representatives of state coercion and violence. Yet those that joined did not do so to deliberately suppress other ethnic groups: rather employment opportunities were limited in the locality and the army corps provided access to economic and social mobility. Despite being the most visible identity nationally, the ‘martial identity’ has not been the most dominant locally, or even the driving force within the Acholi polity in the last thirty-five years. Acholi late-colonial and post-colonial history has been informed by the historical processes that have shaped the relationship between the Acholi ‘moral ethnicity’ and ‘political tribalism’. The latter provided an opportunity for politically minded Acholi to participate within national politics, yet the former kept them tied to the locality. As the political representation of the Acholi outside the region ‘political tribalism’ was combative, utilising religious, clan, and regional identities to make demands against the state. The prominence of ethnopolitics within national politics ensured that within the repertoire of the Acholi ‘cultural tool kit’, ethnopolitics remained the dominant tool for external political engagement. I 4 Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................2 Abbreviations ..............................................................................................................6 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................9 Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.0. Aim ...........................................................................................................10 1.1. Ethnicity and Politics in Post-Colonial Uganda ........................................14 1.2. Definitions and Terminology.....................................................................37 1.3. A Note on the Archives and Sources .......................................................48 1.4. War, Collective Memories and Oral Histories ..........................................50 1.5. Interview Samples and Methodology .......................................................61 1.6. Structure...................................................................................................64 Chapter 2.0. Indirect Rule in Acholi ........................................................................66 2.1. Acholi Challenges to Indirect Rule ...........................................................72 2.2. Christian Missionaries in Acholi ...............................................................78 2.3. The Colonial Market Economy and the Birth of the Ocols .......................83 Conclusion ......................................................................................................92 Chapter 3: Decolonisation and the Acholi, 1950-1962 3.0. Using the Language that they taught us? ................................................95 3.1. Regionalism and the ‘Northern Identity’ ...................................................97 3.2. Clan Politics and the Extension of Chiefly Authority ..............................113 3.3. The Ocols: Party Politics and the Fight for the Locality..........................128 3.4. The Chiefs Fight Back: The Acholi and ‘Laloyo Maber’ .........................137 3.5. Religious Politics and the Ocols.............................................................142 3.6. Domesticity as an Ethnopolitical Factor .................................................152 Conclusion ....................................................................................................158 Chapter 4: ‘Uniting’ the Nation, 1962-1971 4.0. Independence, the ‘Martial’ Identity and Myth of Ugandan Nationalism 1962- 1971 .............................................................................................160 4.1. Uniting the ‘Northerners’: The Battle for the Centre ...............................168 4.2. Politics of the Belly: The Acholi Local Government................................176 4.3. Acholi Ethnonationalism: Fragmenting the ‘Northern Identity’: ..............183 Conclusion ....................................................................................................193 Chapter 5.0. Acholi in the 1970s: The Politics of Survival?................................195 5.1. The fall of the Ocols ...............................................................................197 5.2. State Surveillance and the Rule of Fear ................................................206 5.3. The Militarisation and Rise the Chiefs....................................................216 5.4. The Internal Adjustment to Dictatorship.... .............................................222 5.5. Religious Identities as an Avenue for Political Engagement..................231 5.6. Moving Closer to the Source of Power: Individual versus Collective Agency.... ..............................................................................239 Conclusion... .................................................................................................249 Chapter 6: Uganda After Amin: The Fight for Leadership 6.0: A State in Turmoil: 1979-1980 ...............................................................252 6.1. Coup d’état Politics ................................................................................253 6.2. Civil Disobedience and the Continued Militarisation of Acholi ..............259 6.3. Culture and Party Politics: The Ocols versus the ‘Elders’ ......................277 6.4. Party Politics the Ocols and Obote II .....................................................284 Conclusion... .................................................................................................295 I 5 CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................297 Appendix: Formal and Informal Interviews ............................................................308 Glossary...................................................................................................................310 Bibliography ............................................................................................................312