Giants

Bishop Ochola and Sister Tarcisia of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative

Although in titling this entry “Giants”, I could be giving a physical description of the people in NorthernUganda, who rival Steve in height, I am actually choosing this title for more profound reasons.  The last three days we have been surrounded by the giants of the peacebuilding world.  I can’t begin to describe the courage, passion and commitment that these people demonstrate in their day to day interactions with people living in a post conflict society.  The need for trauma healing is tremendous and pervasive.  There is probably no single person you can meet up here who hasn’t been traumatized by the two decades of war out of which Northern Uganda is emerging. 

Adolescent boys and girls who were abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army were forced to become “wives”, porters or soldiers.  As these children grew into adults under captivity, they mothered children, were forced to commit horrendous acts of violence against people in their own or other villages, or were brutalized if caught trying to escape.  Those that were fortunate enough to escape came back to a complexity of problems they are still struggling with.

When a young woman marries in these societies of Northern Uganda, she moves into her husband’s clan.  Her well-being and that of her children become the responsibility of that clan.  When these LRA “wives” escape with their children, the young woman may be welcomed back by her family as an unwed daughter, but her children may not be welcome in a clan that is already struggling to feed and clothe its members.  The young woman then faces the trauma of choosing between the security of living with her family, but without her children or an uncertain life with her children on the street.  Some families, but not all, are breaking tradition and accepting the children into the clan along with their daughter. Those women and children who are not integrated back into the mother's clan become marginalized and carry on as best they can with broken spirits.  Thank God for the Giants who are working on their behalf!

Another trauma that the society is dealing with is reintegration when returning from camps for the internally displaced.  Many children and families have been living in these IDP camps for the last 20 years.  Their needs have been met, however meagerly, by rations from the UN or other aid agencies.  They have had no opportunity to engage in agriculture, which will be their main means of existence now that they have returned home.  Children who have grown up in the camps are now faced with the task of providing for themselves through subsistence agriculture, something they know nothing about.  

Land disputes are a major source of conflict in this “post-conflict” society.  When families return home from the IDP camps they may find someone else farming their land.  From the little that I have learned it appears that land ownership is not established with land titles, but rather through a history of living on and working the land.  So whose land is it when it was left behind for 20 years during life in the IDP camps?

Mennonite Central Committee Current and Past Advisory Team Members

Conflict beyond conflict!  Against this background of such a conflicted society it is hard to know where to start, yet one feels the urgency to begin post haste!  The complexities of the work to be done are overwhelming, but MCC’s partners persevere with a resilience and sense of hope that humbles me.  I will write more about these Ugandan peacebuilders in the days to come as time allows.