Justice and rape on the periphery: the supremacy of social harmony in the space between local solutions and formal judicial systems in northern Uganda

Abstract

In the Acholi sub-region of Uganda, historically and geographically peripheral since the colonial era and the epicenter of over 20 years of war – there is a peculiar manifestation of what appear to be contradictory phenomena: brutally violent retribution and extraordinary forgiveness. This article suggests that both responses to wrongdoing are motivated by the same supremely important value of social harmony.

The article focuses on one crime, rape, and examines what justice means for Acholi women in the vacuum of justice created by the decayed state of former local methods of responding to wrongdoing and the still inadequate role and legitimacy of Uganda's judicial system and the International Criminal Court. The research indicates that notions of appropriate punishment are oriented by the degree to which the perpetrator is seen as important to future social harmony. The various responses to rape are a product of dynamics in the justice gap, and, I want to suggest, are illustrative of responses to crime or wrongdoing more generally.

The article highlights the centrality of two integral aspects of lived Acholi reality: there is a profound value of social harmony, and a deep distrust of higher authorities to dispense justice in their interest. Women's experiences after rape in this study underscore the importance of an arbiter of injustice that has earned moral jurisdiction on a local level. When authority is recognized and trusted, parties typically accept the outcome of arbitration, restoring broken social harmony. However, without moral jurisdiction, outcomes of such processes are viewed with suspicion and usually exacerbate existing tensions.

Keywords:

• rape
• justice
• social healing
• northern Uganda
• Acholi
• transitional justice
• war

Notes

1. The quote is from one of a series of interviews I conducted with her in June 2008 for “No Cheap Forgiveness,” in “The Quest for Reconciliation,” an unpublished volume edited by Dean Peachey. All other direct quotations of women are from author's interviews and participant observation during this study. Specific dates are not included for confidentiality.

2. Brunk, “Restorative Justice and the Philosophical Theories of Criminal Punishment,” 31–56; Zehr, Changing Lenses.

3. See, for example, Allen, “The Violence of Healing,” 101–28; Allen, Trial Justice.

4. See, for example, Pain, The Bending of Spears; Justice and Reconciliation Project, The Cooling of Hearts; Hovil and Quinn, Peace First, Justice Later; CSOPNU, The International Criminal Court Investigation in Northern Uganda.

5. For examples of in-depth discussions of (and different perspectives on) such rituals see: Allen, “The International Criminal Court and the Invention of Traditional Justice in Northern Uganda,” 147–65; Atkinson, The Roots of Ethnicity; Finnstrom, Living With Bad Surroundings; Harlacher et al. Traditional Ways of Coping in Acholi; Girling, The Acholi of Uganda; Ocitti, African Indigenous Education; p'Bitek, Artist the Ruler; p'Bitek, Religion of the Central Luo.

6. See, for example, Allen, “The International Criminal Court and the Invention of Traditional Justice in Northern Uganda,” 147–65.

7. International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), http://www.ictj.org and African Transitional Justice Research Network, http://www.transitionaljustice.org.za. Cobban, Amnesty After Atrocity?, Teitel, Transitional Justice and Moon, Narrating Political Reconciliation, among others, have consistent elements to the definition as phrased here.

8. The legal notions and Acholi social interpretations of rape inform this work, however they deserve much more attention than the scope of this article allows and are discussed in detail in “Acholi Love” and “Consent and Rape: When Does ‘No’ mean No?” draft papers by the author. See also p'Bitek's earlier essay of the same title, “Acholi Love,” 29–33.

9. Allen, “The International Criminal Court and the Invention of Traditional Justice in Northern Uganda,” 147–65.

10. Gready, “Analysis: Reconceptualising Transitional Justice,” 3–21.

11. See Girling, The Acholi of Uganda, 193.

12. Branch, “Exploring the Roots of LRA Violence,” 25–44.

13. See also, Finnstrom, Living With Bad Surroundings, 94–7.