2. The history and politics of ethnicity and language 37
2.4. The Acholi region and language 51
The Acholi sub-region is a part of the administrative region of Northern-Uganda. Following the latest redrawing of the administrative divisions, it contains seven districts; Agago, Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum, Nwoya, Lamwo and Pader. The Acholi region is bordered in the west by the districts 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
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southeast by the Langi region and to the south, across the Nile, by Bunyoro. According to the census of 2014, those seven districts were combined inhabited by just under 1.4 million people with the Gulu district being by far the most populated one (Uganda, 2016).
2.4.1. The genesis of the Acholi
The settlement of the Acholi in their current territory is compared to the ethnic groups in the southern part of the country relatively young. While Bantu speaking groups had begun to occupy the area around Lake Victoria as early as the fourth century B.C. and created larger political formations in the form of chiefdoms and kingdoms by the end of the first millennium A.D. (Byrnes, 1990, p. 6), did the Acholi not arrive in their present-day area before the 15th century A.D. Of their history during this time only little is known. The account of the Acholi reaching the furthest back is the historical reconstruction by Atkinson (2011 [1994]), who described the development of the chiefdom and clan system in the 17th and 18th century that is still a vital element of the social and political environment of the region. Vincent (2012), a Gulu-based journalist who created an account of the history and traditions of the Acholi, wrote that the traditional local forms of organisation were based on smaller units, often only consisting of families living together in hamlets. Farming and hunting dominated the live in this rural environment and larger distances between settlements kept the hierarchical structures comparably flat. The Acholi, unlike many of their southern neighbours, did not create a form of centralised kingdom but instead organised themselves as a collection of smaller chiefdoms. The laws of social life among the Acholi were set up by the elders of the clans, regulating everything from sexual conduct, over blackmailing and stealing, to killing someone (Vincent, 2012, pp. 20- 26).
According to the reconstruction by Atkinson (2011 [1994]), the Acholi as a group emerged alongside the other Luo groups in Uganda and Kenya following several waves of migration coming from the territory of present-day South Sudan over a period spanning multiple centuries. However, to what degree this emergence was accompanied with the creation of a common identity is rather disputed. Atkinson (2011 [1994]) wrote on this issue:
“First came the establishment of new, chiefly, socio-political institutions and ideology. This in turn forged new political entities and identities as well as wider social relations. Finally a common social order and political culture developed, and new society and collective identity evolved, and a common language (Luo) spread.” (Atkinson, 2011 [1994], p. 80)
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He understood the emergence of an Acholi identity as a final step in a social process that did not find its conclusion until the 19th century. Whitmire (2013) on the other hand argued that a common identity had already formed prior to that during the 18th century. As droughts and famines forced groups to move within the Acholi territory and create more cohesive forms of organisation to survive, a common identity had to form to support this new social structure of connected and intertwined chiefdoms. The existence of separate chiefdoms was therefore not an expression of difference, but one of a common political ideology and identity (Whitmire, 2013, p. 41).
The colonial experience of the Acholi differed greatly from the experience of those in the southern parts of the country. Since the British had set up their administrational centre in the areas of the Buganda Kingdom and their main trading routes extended eastwards towards Kenya, the northern parts remained ignored for a long time. Instead, the Acholi were integrated in the Arab trading routes coming from the north, trading in goods, but also in slaves. Vincent (2012)
portrayed this relationship in his account as rather hostile and negative:
“Most of these Arabs carrying business of slave trade were coming from Egypt, they passed through Sudan to the northern Uganda. The first leader was Kuturia as mentioned before. Kuturia Housein fired the first gun shot on Acholiland who had never seen and heard of gun sound, they were used to only lightning thunder sound. These guns brought to the land by Kuturia caused a lot of death in the sub-region of Acholi.” (p. 34)
Further he described how this negative experience led to generally negative attitudes towards outsiders:
“The Arabs had established a killing government on Acholi, some of the chiefs who supported them at first also regretted their support after seeing the sufferings of Acholi in the hands of Arabs, this prompted Acholi not to accept any foreigners on their land any more.” (p. 34)
Even though this contact was described as a grossly negative experience for the Acholi, this time was critical to the social and political development of the region. The main point of contact with the British was through Samuel Baker. He had established the Equatorial Province in 1870 that included areas now belonging to South Sudan and the northern regions of Uganda. It is reported that the Acholi chiefs generally accepted the position of Baker, as he had helped them fight the Arab slave traders and his colonial administration was viewed as not very invasive (Whitmire, 2013, p. 46).
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During this period of growing integration into the colonial trade routes, the Acholi chiefdoms were able gain wealth by trading mainly in ivory. This made the chiefs more independent from their clans, giving them the ability to accumulate wealth and power beyond their rights to land and tributes paid to them. This period of increased contact with non-Acholi accelerated the solidification of an Acholi identity, with their common language becoming an important marker. It was also during this period that the name “Acholi” was coined by the Arab traders, calling them Shuuli, based on their language being similar to Shilluk from South Sudan. This term then morphed into Chuuli, before finally becoming Acholi as it was applicated with the pronoun prefix a- denoting the 1st Person Singular (Whitmire, 2013, p. 51).
The full integration of the Acholi into the British colonial complex happened comparatively late. The relationship between the Acholi and the British had for a long time been rather loose and friendly, but after the inception of the British Protectorate of Uganda in 1894, which included the northern regions, this relationship changed. The Acholi resisted the establishment of the colonial rule in their region for decades, before finally being integrated in the Ugandan territory in the form of the Acholi district (Vincent, 2012). Due to its central location and the close cooperation of their rwot (‘chief’) Aliker with the British, the centre of the colonial administration within the region and the district headquarters were erected in the area of the Payera chiefdom and in 1911 they established here the Gulu township (Whitmire, 2013, pp. 53- 61).
Even though the recent history of conflict can in some ways be tracked all the way back to the colonial times, were the Acholi stood often in opposition to the British colonial rule, the starting point to the most recent violent conflict was the overthrow of the Okello-led government by the NRA in 1986. When the victorious NRA started violent acts of vengeance in the following years, a civil resistance movement started forming in the region. Led by Alice Auma, who claimed to be possessed by a spirit named Lakwena, the so-called Holy Spirit Movement fought a rebellion against the central government. However, this rebellion was defeated when it attempted to attack the nation’s capital Kampala in 1988. At the same time Joseph Kony formed his own rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), echoing some of the spiritual themes used by the Holy Spirit Movement. At first fighting against the insurgence of the army of the central government, the LRA, after losing support from the local population, also turned on the people of northern Uganda, leading raids all over the region. The conflict had dramatic effects on the local population. Apart from hundreds of thousands of deaths and tens of thousands being abducted, many of them children, the conflict led to the displacement of millions. At its peak in 2005 over 1.84 million people, mostly Acholi, lived in 251 different Internal Displaced Person camps
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(UNHCR, 2012). This conflict lasted until 2008 and ended with the LRA fleeing to Eastern Congo.
2.4.2. The Acholi language
In 2009, Acholi was one of the six Ugandan languages identified as having more than one million first language speakers at the time. However, this number is most likely considerably higher now, due to the ongoing growth in population. It is part of the Southern Lwoo languages in the Western Nilotic branch of Nilo-Saharan. The Southern Lwoo language group encompasses the six closely related languages Acholi, Adhola, Alur, Kumam, Lango and Dholuo, which is spoken in in the West of Kenya. As some of these languages show some form of mutual intelligibility amongst each other, they were at times interpreted as a dialectal cluster named “Luo”. In addition to these six languages, some authors also classify Labwor (Ladefoged, et al., 1972; Heine & König, 2010) and Chopi (Storch, 2005) as individual languages, instead of as dialects of Acholi.
Figure 5. Classification of Southern Lwoo after Heusing (2004) and Storch (2005).
Nilo-Saharan
Eastern Sudanic Nilotic
Western Nilotic Eastern Nilotic Southern Nilotic
Burun Lwoo Nuer-Dinka Teso-Turkana Bari Maa-Lotuko
North South Shilluk Acholi Anywa Adhola Jur Alur T(h)uri Kumam Bor Lango Dholuo Chopi (Storch, 2005)
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