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Abstract
Ethnic conflict in post-independence Uganda was a consequence of the confrontation between strong, ethnically divided local institutions and the post-colonial push for political centralisation, under the guise of nation building. To strengthen one, the other had to be weakened. Self-governance meant that the stakes for political power sharpened at national and local levels, ensuring that ethnic antipathies became more pronounced. Politicians who had succeeded within local politics were elevated to represent their various ethnic groups at the centre. However, these politicised ethnic demarcations were not, and should not, be considered a product of the Ugandan post-colonial state. Rather, they were a continuation of colonial political structures that had emphasised locality, ethnicities and the ‘tribe’. These were the same power structures that were embedded within Ugandan politics at the eve of independence. Uganda remains regionally divided between the ‘North’ and the ‘South’. Bantu-speaking ethnic groups in the southern, central, eastern and western areas of Uganda dominate the ‘South’. These include the Baganda, Basoga, Banyoro, Bagisu, Batoro and the Banyankole. The ‘North’, which is home to the Nilotic and Central Sudanic-speaking 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. Economic underdevelopment played a large part in fostering political tensions between the two regions, 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’. This article assesses how Acholi politicians utilised and then challenged the Northern identity from 1950 to 1968. It argues that in the face of political marginalisation from the late 1960s, Acholi ethnonationalism, rather than regional affiliations, became the most prominent identity used to challenge state authoritarianism.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr Stacey Hynd at the University of Exeter for all her help and assistance and Jimmy Odong who provided research assistance in Northern Uganda. All the views expressed in this article are my own.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Daily Monitor, 17 January 2011; Daily Monitor, 31 January 2010.
2. Okuku, Ethnicity, State, Power, 16.
3. Olum, Reality Check, 64.
4. Daily Monitor, 17 January 2011.
5. Acholi Times, 10 November 2014, [Accessed 30 January 2015] http://www.acholitimes.com/index.php/acholi-news/2765-mao-faults-government-on-development-projects-in-north.
6. Branch, Displacing Human Rights, 3; The Daily Monitor, 5 January 2011.
7. Seaton, “The New ‘Ethnic’ Wars and the Media”.
8. Carter, “Independence for Uganda”, 375
9. Berman, Eyoh and Kymlicka, eds. Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa, 8.
10. Olum, Reality Check; Chabal, Africa: The Politics of Suffering and Smiling, 4. For classic counter arguments to the theories of development and analysis on neocolonialism, see Young, The African Colonial State, Davidson, The Black Man’s Burden and Rodney, How Europe Undeveloped Africa.
11. Jinadu, “Explaining and Managing Ethnic Conflict In Africa”, 8–9.
12. Young, Readings in African Politics, 1; Martin & Wes, “The Decline of the Africanists”, 24–26.
13. Young, Readings in African Politics, 2.
14. Bayart, The State in Africa; Lonsdale, “Moral Ethnicity and Political Tribalism”; Berman, Eyoh, and Kymlicka, Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa, 5; Berman, “Ethnicity, Patronage and the African State”, 305–341.
15. Vaughan, “Chieftaincy, Politics and Communal Identity in Western Nigeria, 1893–1951”, 283–302; Lonsdale, “Moral Ethnicity and Political Tribalism’; Mamdani, Citizen and Subject; J. Darwin, Britain and Decolonisation.
16. Doornbos, “Linking the Future to the Past: Ethnicity and Pluralism”, 58–59; Berman, Eyoh and Kymlicka, eds. Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa, 3.
17. Posner, “Regime Change and Ethnic Cleavages in Africa”, 1305
18. Posner, “Regime Change and Ethnic Cleavages in Africa”, 1308.
19. Berman, “Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa”, 15.
20. Berman, “Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa”, 26–28. For an excellent analysis on the rise of nativism and local political claims of indigeneity in the district of Kibaale, Uganda, see Green, “Demography, Diversity and Nativism in Contemporary Africa”, 717–736.
21. Jinadu, “Explaining and Managing Ethnic Conflict in Africa”, 10.
22. Mutibwa, Uganda Since Independence, 81.
23. Kasozi, The Social origins of violence in Uganda, 104; Leopold, ‘Sex, Violence and history in the lives of Idi Amin, 321–330.
24. Okuku, Ethnicity, State, Power and the Democratisation Process in Uganda, 115.
25. Mamdani, “Contradictions of the IMF Programme”, 427–467. Also see Baffoe “Structural Adjustment and Agriculture in Uganda”.
26. Thompson, Governing Uganda, 27.
27. Thompson, Governing Uganda,, 27–29; Laruni, “From the Village to Entebbe”, 73–80.
28. For the most comprehensive accounts on earlier Acholi sociopolitical formations, see Atkinson, The Roots of Ethnicity, Girling, The Acholi of Uganda and Dwyer, The Acholi of Uganda: Adjustment to Imperialism.
29. Gertzel, Party and Locality, 15–23.
30. Gertzel, Party and Locality, 22.
31. Uganda National Archives/Entebbe Box 2 Ref 3: Letter from the DC of Lango to the supervisor of Elections, 24 March 1960; Ekeh. ‘Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa, 101.
32. Carter, “Independence for Uganda”, 373.
33. E.M.K. Mulira was a prominent Muganda politician who established the Buganda-based conservative, Progressive Party in January 1955.
34. Leys, An Essay on Politics in Acholi, 29.
35. Dwyer, The Acholi in Uganda, 192.
36. Uganda Christian University/Mukono Box 72 Folder 1: The Women's League of Buganda c. August 1953.
37. Low, Buganda in Modern History, 29.
38. Mutibwa, Uganda Since Independence, 14; Thompson, “Colonialism in Crisis”, 622–623.
39. Odongo, A Political history of Uganda, 25–27; Thompson, “Colonialism in Crisis”, 622–623.
40. Gerzel, Party and Locality, 56.
41. Karugire, The Roots of Instability, 41.
42. Uganda Argus, June 24 1958; Leys, Politicians and Policies in Acholi, 18.
43. Uganda Argus, June 24 1958; Leys, Politicians and Policies in Acholi, 18.
44. Party and Locality, 18.
45. Party and Locality, 62.
46. Uganda Argus, 27 October 1958.
47. Uganda Argus, 27 October 1958.
48. Mutibwa, Uganda Since Independence, 16.
49. Uganda Argus, 8 August 1958.
50. Uganda Argus, 14 August 1958.
51. Uganda National Archives, Entebbe Box 2 Ref 3: DC Lango to Supervisor of Elections, 24 March 1960; DC Acholi to R.C. Peagram, 2 September 1961.
52. Uganda National Archives, Entebbe Box 2 Ref 3: DC Lango to Supervisor of Elections, 24 March 1960; DC Acholi to R.C. Peagram, 2 September 1961.
53. Uganda National Archives, Entebbe Box 2 Ref 3: DC Lango to Supervisor of Elections, 24 March 1960; DC Acholi to R.C. Peagram, 2 September 1961.
54. Uganda National Archives, Entebbe Box 2 Ref 3: DC Lango to Supervisor of Elections, 24 March 1960; DC Acholi to R.C. Peagram, 2 September 1961.
55. Uganda Herald, Vol. LXI No.863. 28 October 1952.
56. Ingham, Obote: A Political Biography, 45. Also see chapters 2 & 3.
57. Uganda National Archives/Entebbe C.3824 Box 29: Letter sent by the ALG as a Petition to James Griffiths, Secretary of State for the attention of the Governor of Uganda, 11 May 1951.
58. Gertzel, Party and Locality, 13.
59. Mutibwa, Uganda Since Independence, 11–12.
60. Young, The African Colonial State, 283–284.
61. Jørgensen, Uganda: A Modern History, 200.
62. Jørgensen, Uganda: A Modern History, 200.
63. Jørgensen, Uganda: A Modern History, 200.
64. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict, 373.
65. Mutibwa, Uganda Since Independence, 26. Quoted from Doornbos, Not All the King's Men.
66. Karugire, The Roots of Instability, 51.
67. Kasozi, The Social Origins of Violence, 59–84.
68. Uganda Argus, 6 January 1964.
69. Kasozi, The Social Origins of Violence, 75.
70. Ingham, Obote: A Political Biography, 132–133.
71. Uganda Argus July-September 1964; Uganda Argus, July 1964.
72. Gulu District Archive Box 533: Replies to Questionnaires on Tribal Composition 4th Ugandan Battalion KAR/7 Appendix ‘A’, circa. January 1950.
73. Doornbos, “The Uganda Crisis and the National Question”, 265.
74. Gulu District Archive Box 533: Replies to Questionnaires on Tribal Composition 4th Ugandan Battalion KAR/7 Appendix ‘A’, circa. January 1950.
75. Kasozi, The Social Origins of Violence, 83; Omara-Otunno, “Politics and the Military in Uganda”, 77.
76. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict, 374.
77. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict, 373.
78. Mazrui, Soldiers and Kinsmen in Uganda, 15.
79. Lewis, “Social Security and Tribalism”.
80. Kitgum District Archive: District Intelligence Report c. 1968.
81. Uganda Argus, 14 February 1966.
82. Parsons, Army Mutinies and the Making of Modern East Africa, 179.
83. Interviews conducted in Gulu, Kitgum, Kampala and Entebbe with Acholi Informants from November 2011 to August 2012.
84. Uganda Argus, 3 March 1966.
85. Uganda Argus, 2 February 1966.
86. Uganda Argus, 26 September 1960.
87. Uganda National Archive, Entebbe: Political Activities: summary of the Development of the Acholi District (secret) c.1968; Kitgum District Archive: County Chief Agago to DC Gulu, 4 April 1966.
88. Uganda National Archive, Entebbe: Political Activities: summary of the Development of the Acholi District (secret) c.1968; Kitgum District Archive: County Chief Agago to DC Gulu, 4 April 1966.
89. Gulu and Kitgum District Archives: District Intelligence Reports. 1964–1971.
90. Uganda Argus, 20 April 1968.
91. Kitgum District Archive: District Special Branch Officer to Senior District Special Branch Officers, East Acholi, 21 January 1965.
92. Kitgum District Archive: District Special Branch Officer to Senior District Special Branch Officers, East Acholi, 21 January 1965., Report to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mr Akena-Adoko from the Chief General Service Officer Kitgum, 8 August 1969; Kitgum District Archive: Report to the District Police Commander, Gulu from Q.C. Police Kitgum, 13 December 1969.
93. Uganda National Archive/Entebbe: Political Activities: summary of the Development of the Acholi District (secret) c.1968.
94. Uganda National Archive/Entebbe: Political Activities: summary of the Development of the Acholi District (secret) c.1968.
95. Gulu District Archive, Box 542: Memorandum by the President, 23 March 1968 (points summarised).
96. Although members of the Acholi council strategically emphasised isolated incidences of nepotism by the Obote administration, there is no indication that during Obote's first presidential term there was any substantial economic development in Lango in relation to Acholi. In fact, Obote structurally continued the colonial trend of underdevelopment of the region relative to the South. See Bangugire, “Uneven and Un-balanced Development”.
97. Gulu District Archive, Box 542: Memorandum by the President, 23 March 1968 (points summarised).
98. Gulu District Archive, Box 542: Memorandum by the President, 23 March 1968 (points summarised).
99. Uganda Argus, 4 April 1968 (quotation paraphrased).
100. Uganda Argus, 4 April 1968 (quotation paraphrased).
101. Gulu District Archive, Box 542: Memorandum from the DP office in Gulu to ‘All Acholi People’ April 1968 Received in the office of the DC, 1 May 1968.
102. Gulu District Archive, Box 542: Memorandum from the DP office in Gulu to ‘All Acholi People’ April 1968 Received in the office of the DC, 1 May 1968.
103. Kitgum District Archive: Intelligence Committee Minutes, 30 March 1968.
104. Kitgum District Archive: Intelligence Committee Minutes, Intelligence Committee Minutes c. July 1968.
105. Kitgum District Archive: Intelligence Committee Minutes, Intelligence Report, 13 December 1969.
106. Kitgum District Archive: Intelligence Committee Minutes, Tiberio Okeny, National Organiser of the DP to the President of Uganda, 19 February 1969.
107. Branch, Displacing Human Rights, 58; Laruni, “From the Village to Entebbe”, Chapter 4.
108. Karugire, Roots of Instability in Uganda, 94.
109. Branch, Displacing Human Rights, 154.