Wars of the Past and War in the Present: The Lord's Resistance Movement/Army in Uganda

AbstractWar has ravaged Acholiland in northern Uganda since 1986. The Ugandan army is fighting the Lord's ResistanceMovement/Army (LRM/A) rebels. Based on anthropological fieldwork, the article aims at exemplifying the ways in which non-combatant people's experiences of war and violence are domesticated in cosmological terms as strategies of coping, and it relates tales of wars in the past to experiences of violent death and war in the present. There has been a politicized debate in Uganda over whether or not the LRM/A rebels have the elders' ceremonial warfare blessing. In sketching this debate, the article interprets the possible warfare blessing – which some informants interpreted as having turned into a curse on Acholiland – as a critical event that benefits from further deliberation, regardless of its existence or non-existence. It is argued that no warfare blessing can be regarded as the mere utterance of words. Rather, a blessing is performed within the framework of the local moral world. It is finally argued that the issue of the warfare blessing is a lived consequence of the conflict, but, nevertheless, cannot be used as an explanatory model for the cause of the conflict.

Download Full-text

The story of Nana Sita and the Group Areas Act

HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies ◽

10.4102/hts.v77i2.6323 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 77 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Christina Landman

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Social Memory ◽

Passive Resistance ◽

The Past ◽

Resistance Movement ◽

Hard Labour ◽

Historical Thought

Nana Sita (1898–1969) is best known for being the secretary of the Transvaal Indian Congress and for his leadership in the passive resistance movement for which he was incarcerated three times. This article focusses specifically on three more times he was sentenced to hard labour for refusing to submit to the Group Areas Act and to leave his (business and) house at 382 Van Der Hoff Street in Hercules, Pretoria. The main sources for telling the story of Nana Sita’s resistance are interviews with his 93-year-old daughter, a chapter written on him by E.S. Reddy and other unpublished material placed at the author’s disposal by Maniben Sita herself. The focus of the article will be on the religious arguments against the Group Areas Act put forward by Nana Sita himself in his defense during his final trial in 1967.Contribution: Historical thought and source interpretation are not limited to historic texts but include social memory in the endeavour of faith seeking understanding. People of faith in South Africa can only come to grips with reality by engaging with the stories of the past, like that of Nana Sita.

Download Full-text

Neo-Bondage: A Fieldwork-Based Account

International Labor and Working-Class History ◽

10.1017/s0147547910000116 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 78 (1) ◽

pp. 48-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Jan Breman

Keyword(s):

Informal Sector ◽

Colonial State ◽

Nationalist Movement ◽

The Past ◽

Research Theme ◽

Unfree Labor ◽

Bonded Labor ◽

Anthropological Fieldwork ◽

The Relationship ◽

Mode Of Production

AbstractOn the basis of anthropological fieldwork carried out in South Gujarat in the early 1960s, I described and analyzed a system of bonded labor that dominated the relationship between low-caste farm servants and high-caste landowners (Patronage and Exploitation: Changing Agrarian Relations in South Gujarat, India, 1974). More recently, I have gone back to the study of agrarian bondage of the past in order to explore in greater detail the emergence of unfree labor in the precolonial era and comment on its demise as a result of efforts made by the colonial state, the nationalist movement, and peasant activists (Labour Bondage in West India from Past to Present, 2007). A recurrent research theme during my fieldwork in the last few decades has been drawing attention to practices of neo-bondage (neo because the relationship between bosses and workers is less personalized, of shorter duration, more contractual, and monetized) at the bottom of India's informal-sector economy. Additionally, the elements of patronage that offered a modicum of protection and security to bonded clients in the past have disappeared while the transition to a capitalist mode of production accelerated.

Download Full-text

Internetowe wsparcie społeczne

Interdyscyplinarne Konteksty Pedagogiki Specjalnej ◽

10.14746/ikps.2018.23.02 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 29-58

Author(s):

NATALIA WALTER

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

New Media ◽

Social Interactions ◽

Critical Event ◽

Online Social Support ◽

External Resources ◽

Virtual Groups ◽

The Past ◽

Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽

Theoretical Considerations

Natalia Walter, Internetowe wsparcie społeczne [Online social support]. Interdyscyplinarne Konteksty Pedagogiki Specjalnej, nr 23, Poznań 2018. Pp. 29-58. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-391X. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/ikps.2018.23.02 New media are the tools that support human’s intellectual functioning. For many people with disabilities they may become the sole opportunity for accessing information, communicating, learning or working. On the other hand, new media also provide a space for social interactions that could affect the process of coping with critical events, both ordinary and traumatic ones. The key concept for the discussion is internet-based social support, defined as support available online to a person dealing with a critical event which needs to be overcome with external resources coming from virtual groups comprising people experiencing difficulties of a similar nature, in the past or currently. The author posed the question whether internet social support is ubiquitous, and what it manifests itself. To answer this, she conducted quantitative and qualitative research. The data collected then became thebasis for analysis and theoretical considerations.

Download Full-text

Laws, Systems, and Research Designs: A Discussion of Explanation in Archaeology

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/278882 ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 3-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

H. David Tuggle ◽

Alex H. Townsend ◽

Thomas J. Riley

Keyword(s):

Research Design ◽

DOES TRADITIONAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION LEAD TO JUSTICE? — THE MATO OPUT IN NORTHERN UGANDA

Pretoria Student Law Review ◽

10.29053/pslr.v3i.2166 ◽

2009 ◽

Author(s):

Patricia University of Pretoria

Keyword(s):

Conflict Resolution ◽

Justice System ◽

Local Population ◽

Northern Uganda ◽

Criminal Prosecution ◽

The People ◽

The Republic ◽

The Government ◽

The One ◽

Resistance Movement

It has been nearly 22 years since the start of war in northern Uganda, waged by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) under the leadership of Joseph Kony. Kony started this war with the spiritual and traditional belief in the need to defend the Acholi people from the National Resistance Movement (NRM), led by Yoweri Museveni, who took over power in 1986 from the Acholi general Tito Okello. In this war, thousands of people have lost their lives and many others have been adducted. On 13 October 2005 the ICC issued warrants of arrest to the top five commanders. The commanders included Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen and Rasak Lukwiya, who is now deceased. Before these indictments were issued there was a lot of debate on whether these commanders should be tried by the ICC or the traditional justice system. This led to the passing of the Amnesty Act in 2000. ‘Amnesty’ in the Amnesty Act means pardon, forgiveness, exemption, or discharge from criminal prosecution or any other form of punishment by the state. Amnesty is declared in respect of any Ugandan who at any time since 26 January 1986 engaged in, or is engaging, in war or armed rebellion against the government of the Republic of Uganda. However, the people of northern Uganda have resorted to the traditional way of conflict resolution through the mato oput ritual, and the local population prefer this system to the one that the ICC will apply to ensure that justice is achieved. It is important to note that this ritual is performed only among the Acholi people. The question may be posed: what happens to other tribes in the northern part of the country who have also suffered as a result of this conflict? Will they benefit from this traditional ritual practice in that they will be able to forgive the perpetrators and reconcile with them? Will they see this as a form of justice being achieved? Can this ritual be relied on to achieve justice as an alternative to ICC trials? This article will address some aspects of the mato oput ritual and discuss whether justice could be achieved through this traditional method of conflict resolution.

Download Full-text

Hormonal Contraception and Violent Death: The Physiological and Psychological Links

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnbeh.2021.667563 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Angela Lanfranchi

Keyword(s):

Cohort Studies ◽

Prospective Cohort ◽

Hormonal Contraception ◽

Hormonal Contraceptives ◽

Violent Death ◽

American Women ◽

Prospective Cohort Studies ◽

The Past ◽

Large Prospective Cohort ◽

Insight Into

In the past decade, two large prospective cohort studies of British and American women have been conducted which found a statistically significant increase in the risk of violent death in ever-users of hormonal contraceptives. Research on the effects of hormonal contraceptives upon the behaviors of intimate partners and on the physiology of women using hormonal contraceptives has provided insight into the possible basis for the resulting increase in violent death. This review examines the changes that are potential contributors to the reported increase.

Download Full-text

Global Religious History in Theory and Practice

Method & Theory in the Study of Religion ◽

10.1163/15700682-12341524 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 33 (3-4) ◽

pp. 441-462

Author(s):

Michael Bergunder

Keyword(s):

Gender Studies ◽

Religious Studies ◽

Religious History ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Central Research ◽

Research Practice ◽

Empirical Methods ◽

The Past ◽

Anthropological Fieldwork ◽

And Gender

Abstract “Global religious history” derives its name from the German phrase “globale Religionsgeschichte”. This term articulates an approach that aims to be relevant to the whole field of religious studies, and it encompasses theoretical debates, particularly in the areas of postcolonialism and gender studies. Thus, “Global” embodies, acknowledges, and incorporates all prevalent terms of and the parameters for the global constitution of present-day academia and society. “Religious” means that it concerns religious studies. “History” denotes a genealogical critique as the central research interest. Historicization in that sense is not limited to philological research of sources from the past but also relevant to any research based on data from contemporary anthropological fieldwork or other empirical methods. This approach also aims to provide a pertinent influence on research practice, and seeks to circumvent any artificial segregation of theory and practice.

Download Full-text

Violent death, public problems and changes in Argentina

Current Sociology ◽

10.1177/0011392115617990 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 65 (5) ◽

pp. 663-679

Author(s):

Sandra Gayol ◽

Gabriel Kessler

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Violent Death ◽

Innocent Person ◽

Cultural Changes ◽

Public Authorities ◽

The Public ◽

The Past ◽

Social Reaction ◽

The Face ◽

Causal Chains

This article makes connections between violent deaths, public problems and changes seen in the past 30 years in Argentina. The authors argue that the ways in which people were killed, the ways in which their dead bodies were handled and the ways in which the dead and their behaviours were described in terms of morality play a key role in determining social reaction and the challenging of public authorities. It is suggested that shock and outrage in the face of the violent death of a defenceless, innocent person trigger political, social and cultural changes in highly complex ways. Where contemporaries tend to establish almost immediate causal relationships, a retrospective analysis shows that the ruptures and continuities following each death result from a variety of temporal and causal chains. A death’s ability to pose public problems can help us think about democratic processes in Latin America, indicating that democracies in the region are judged in terms of their capacity to solve the public problems embodied by deaths like those analysed here.

Download Full-text

On the issue of formation of the new periodisation of the USSR vs Axis part of World War II: experience of solving the problem

Bulletin of the Kostroma state University ◽

10.34216/1998-0817-2021-27-1-79-86 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 79-86

Author(s):

Alexander I. Ladyga

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Armed Forces ◽

World War ◽

Combat Experience ◽

Armed Struggle ◽

War Economy ◽

The Past ◽

Scientific Schools ◽

The World ◽

Resistance Movement

The article reviews the process of formation and improvement of hypotheses of periodization in the Soviet and Russian historiography of the USSR war against the Axis, the key provisions of these hypotheses are given and revealed. Taking into account the comments of military experts of the past years, the author proposed a periodisation, where the criteria for the division of the war into periods include: changing the war activities ways – the determining criteria; the war activities conditions (the nature of war, coalitions creation or split, changes in the international and internal situation of the warring countries, etc.); organisation, training, combat experience, armed forces (and others) and their influence on the combat capabilities of the army; the level of the struggle of peoples against the occupation, the development of the Resistance movement (including Germany); the evolution of the war economy of the warring countries and its influence on the armed struggle. In the author's periodisation, the periods are divided into stages, taking into account the conditions, features and specifics of war activities. The features and trends of history description at different stages of the evolution of scientific knowledge are identified and the main scientific schools and institutions that studied the periodisation of the World War II East Front are named.

Download Full-text

Outline of activities of the Polish resistance movement in the territory of occupied France

Scientific Journal of the Military University of Land Forces ◽

10.5604/01.3001.0012.2488 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 188 (2) ◽

pp. 31-46

Author(s):

Robert Jagiello

Keyword(s):

Main Subject ◽

European Continent ◽

The Past ◽

Occupied France ◽

Resistance Movement

The article presents an outline of actions of the Polish resistance movement in occupied France. Particular attention has been given to soldiers and partisans who, prior to the invasion of allied forces on the European continent, performed heroic deeds demonstrating bravery and courage of a Polish soldier. The liberation struggles of the Polish nation in the past war are a still lively subject that focuses the attention of both historians and the society. The Polish participation in the liberation of France, especially through the activities of the Polish resistance movement as part of the operation under the codename “Continental Action”, is the main subject of this article.

Download Full-text