Conflict, Displacement, and Interfaith Activism

The Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative was formed in the late 1990s, when courageous leaders of Protestant, Catholic, and Muslim communities set their differences aside to help their communities cope with LRA occupation. An initial goal was passage of an amnesty law, inspired in part by post-apartheid reconciliation efforts in South Africa, that would encourage rebel soldiers to return to their communities without fear of imprisonment, or worse. Two other important developments followed: forced relocation of most rural residents from their villages to overcrowded internal displacement camps, where they were confined for a decade or more; and nighttime movements of children still living in rural villages to the school grounds and churchyards of the towns, where they would be safe from nighttime raids. Religious leaders joined the “night commuters” to sleep in their courtyards, and this development at last brought wider attention to the suffering caused by the LRA conflict.

Religion and Culture in Uganda

In the past two centuries, relations among Protestant, Catholic, and Muslim communities in Uganda have been marked by competition and mistrust more than cooperation. The interfaith initiative of northern religious leadersv is a noteworthy exception. In this chapter the history of these communities is briefly reviewed, setting the background for the group’s formation. An important historical event that helped bring Catholics and Protestants together was the execution of 45 Christian pages to the Buganda king in 1886. Mention is also made of the far more prominent role that religion plays in public life in East Africa than in Europe and North America, and of the persistence of traditional beliefs and practices.

From Kingdoms to Protectorate to New Nation

To set the background for the civil war in northern Uganda and the interfaith organization that was created to work for its resolution, the present chapter reviews the history of the region. Beginning with indigenous populations organized into kingdoms and ethnic communities, the slave trade that linked East Africa with the Middle East, and the competition among European powers for regional control, the chapter traces the transition from British protectorate to independent nation and the tumultuous period that followed, under the repressive regimes of Milton Obote and Idi Amin.

Healing Conflict and Building Community

Four questions about healing after conflict that were posed in the Introduction are taken up once more in this closing chapter. Divisions created by colonialism, it is argued, can be overcome, as can longstanding conflicts among ethnic groups and religious communities. ARLPI’s work demonstrates that locally grounded initiatives, guided by close relationships with those most affected, can achieve outcomes that many would consider unattainable. The story of ARLPI also shows that political authority and accountability are richer and more complex phenomena than those of formal government. In an era when political and religious differences impede progress and stifle constructive discourse in so many nations, the religious leaders of northern Uganda exemplify an alternative route to profound social change that is not founded on political theories but on courageous and steadfast shared commitments to seek what is best for all in a community.

Perpetrators and Victims Return Home

With the LRA’s withdrawal from Uganda and its release of those who had been abducted, ARLPI redirected its efforts to rehabilitation and reconciliation, as described in this chapter. Priorities included forming local communities to direct these efforts, creating mechanisms to resolve land disputes, and overcoming the mentality of dependence instilled in IDP camps. Traditional Acholi rituals helped facilitate the return to their former communities of both LRA combatants and those they had abducted. This chapter also recounts the remarkable story of a man who, after serving as a high-ranking officer and then escaping from the LRA, overcame others’ skepticism and mistrust, earned a university degree, and today works in youth empowerment.

Politicians and Prophets

Yoweri Museveni, who took power in a military coup, has subsequently been elected seven times as president, defying constitutional limits. During his four decades in office two rebellions arose in northern Uganda, motivated both by ethnic and regional conflict and by leaders’ claims of spiritual authority: Alice Lakwena’s short-lived Holy Spirit Movement and Joseph Kony’s far more enduring, and far more destructive, Lord’s Resistance Army. This chapter recounts the rise of these movements, the reasons for their success, the effects on the region of LRA dominance, and some international entanglements that impeded resolution of the conflict.

Peace Comes to Northern Uganda

In the early 2000s the civil war in northern Uganda raged on, and ARLPI continued to pursue its goals of assistance to the war’s victims and advocacy for a resolution. Growing international awareness brought more humanitarian assistance and more pressure on the Ugandan government to end the suffering; but government attacks continued, and brutal reprisals followed. Indictment of LRA leaders by the International Criminal Court in The Hague complicated the peace process, because of fears of arrest and extradition. ARLPI and other concerned observers succeeded at last in convening peace talks in Juba in 2006, leading to the withdrawal of LRA forces from Uganda in the years following, in spite of the lack of any formally authorized agreement.

How the World Sees Uganda

In the late 19th century explorers and missionaries brought home accounts of the interior regions of East Africa that fed the curiosity—and exploited the credulity—of audiences in Europe. Some saw a continent of cruel tyrants exploiting their people and enslaving, if not cooking and eating, their adversaries. Others found an Eden of harmonious living in happy isolation from the corruptions of the outside world. In 2012 another similarly distorted image of Uganda was viewed a hundred million times around the world when it was posted online by an activist group seeking the military defeat of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. As a foil to such exaggerated pictures, the author recounts the testimony of an LRA survivor concerning her years in captivity and her life after escaping.