Multiple memories, tradition and peace building in Acholiland
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56247/qua.366Keywords:
traditional justice, multiple memories, mato oput, LRAAbstract
Traditional justice in northern Uganda has been one of the few resources that the Acholi people have had at their disposal to explain their past. The war started by the LRA in the region from 1986 to 2009 affected all the realities of the society and for more than a decade unofficial memories of the conflict have begun to grow strong on the borders of the state to create other narratives, what we call multiple memories. To do so, the traditional Acholi culture, embodied in the representative figures of the rwodis, has recovered part of its custom to bring closer the construction of a stable and lasting peace.
Although this has not always been the case, and with all the necessary nuances, the mato oput ceremonies have established spaces where the truths of the disputes that arose during and after the conflict have been debated and dealt with from a local perspective. With a strong economic push from NGOs, we can say that today, both the mato oput and the rwodis have been consolidated as main actors of peace transmission and multiple memories.
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