The aim of this thesis will be to decipher why Acholi ethnic identity remained such a critical political tool in late and post-colonial Uganda, from 1950-1985, just before the outbreak of civil war in 1986. The thesis will centre not on the inevitability of the war, but will instead focus on the political processes that preceded it. It will seek fill a gap in a historiography of a people whose contribution to the Ugandan nation state goes beyond that of collective suffering, violence, paramilitary warfare and ethnic conflict. To effectively do this there will be an assessment of how Acholi gender, class and social hierarchies, religious identities, regional identifications and the much-touted ‘martial’ identity have been utilised internally and externally to politically reinforce Acholi ethnicity in late-colonial and post-colonial Uganda. Ugandan political engagement has continually allowed the politics of ethnicity to take a centre stage. Even in the present day, Uganda remains ethnically and regionally divided between the ‘North’ and the ‘South’. Bantu-speaking ethnic groups in the southern, central and western Uganda, including the Baganda, Basoga, Bagisu, Banyoro, Batoro, and Banyankole, dominate the South. The North, which is home to the Nilotic groups, encompasses the Acholi, Lango, Madi, Alur, Iteso, and the Karamojong peoples. Historically, the political and ethnic divisions between the peoples of Northern and Southern Uganda have contributed to the country’s contentious post-colonial history. This thesis will argue that political hostilities between the peoples of the two regions were a by-product of the economic and political policies of the colonial government and the administrations that followed. Regional demarcations, sanctioned by the British and adopted by post-colonial regimes, reinforced strong ethnically divided local governments founded on pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial Acholi socio-political institutions. Economic underdevelopment played a large part in fostering political tensions between Northern and Southern Uganda and served as useful tool for Acholi power brokers to negotiate for political and economic capital with the state, by utilising the politics of regional differentiation through the ‘Northern identity.’ Consequently, with onset of decolonisation Ugandan ‘nationalism’ became a localised movement driven by ethnically homogenous local governments and kingdoms. For the Acholi ethnic group, the most visible of their colonial and post-colonial identities has been that of the ‘martial race’. Acholi soldiers joined the army largely as a means to access job opportunities, and by doing so they became the representatives of state coercion and violence. Yet those that joined did not do so to deliberately suppress other ethnic groups: rather employment opportunities were limited in the locality and the army corps provided access to economic and social mobility. Despite being the most visible identity nationally, the ‘martial identity’ has not been the most dominant locally, or even the driving force within the Acholi polity in the last thirty-five years. Acholi late-colonial and post-colonial history has been informed by the historical processes that have shaped the relationship between the Acholi ‘moral ethnicity’ and ‘political tribalism’. The latter provided an opportunity for politically minded Acholi to participate within national politics, yet the former kept them tied to the locality. As the political representation of the Acholi outside the region ‘political tribalism’ was combative, utilising religious, clan, and regional identities to make demands against the state. The prominence of ethnopolitics within national politics ensured that within the repertoire of the Acholi ‘cultural tool kit’, ethnopolitics remained the dominant tool for external political engagement.

The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate the current state of literature surrounding childhood and child agency, and how dominant notions of these concepts result in practical implications pertaining to the nature of the participation of former child soldiers in post-conflict reintegration programmes. As the literature and practice surrounding children in post-conflict environments currently stands, there is a recurring preoccupation with traditional notions of childhood which uphold notions of innocence, vulnerability, and dependency, with only minimal attempts to conceptualise child agency as a crucial factor once the guns have been put down. This ultimately results in former child soldiers being dealt with as objects to be secured, as opposed to fully-fledged participants and agents in their own reintegration processes. This research thereby seeks to answer the question: “How would the formulation of a normative framework of child agency alter the orientation of post-conflict reintegration programmes in the future?” The researcher will engage the matter of child agency in post-conflict reintegration through a critical lens, both in terms of the literary and conceptual foundations contributing towards current narratives, as well as the current state of reintegration programmes as they target former child soldiers in northern Uganda. The qualitative approach of a critical literature review, followed by a critical analysis of the case of northern Uganda, will be employed as the key methods of this research. The literature to be used will be purposively sampled secondary sources. This mini-dissertation upholds the position that, in order for post-conflict reintegration programmes to be successful in their endeavour to reintegrate former child soldiers, children should not be rendered as peripheral actors in these processes. Rather, they should be present as key participatory agents in their own right. / Mini Dissertation (MSS)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Political Sciences / MSS / Unrestricted

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Nancy Muturi / The country of Uganda has an HIV rate of approximately 6.3% countrywide, but in northern Uganda rates have been significantly higher (UNAIDS, 2011). In northern Uganda, a region that has faced decades of war and conflict, 1.2 million people live with HIV. The Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) are used as the theoretical framework in examining how on the ground development practitioners create programming that is the most beneficial in behavior change. Both theories have been used extensively in the design and implementation of HIV/AIDS prevention programs. However, there tends to be little consistency among scholars on what types of behavior change approaches are the most effective, especially in those countries that are most impacted by the AIDS epidemic. The goal of this study was to examine the views of practitioners who work directly with recipients and identify some of the most effective strategies and messages tailored for Northern Uganda based on the EPPM and SCT. A qualitative approach was used in the study. A sample of current, or past long-term (at least two years working in the field) development practitioners from international agencies such as the United States Peace Corps, USAID, International Rescue Committee (IRC), among others. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews, which were conducted online due to geographic constraints of the interviewees, with selected participants currently scattered throughout the United States and sub-Saharan Africa. The study reports practitioners’ views on most effective communication strategies and messages based on experiences while working in northern Uganda. Some of the variables examined include the strategies for changing the belief systems of the population that curb the spread of the AIDS epidemic; self-efficacy strategies; and the nature and level of fear appeal appropriate for the Northern Ugandan situation; and their overall view. Findings of the study indicate respondents feel fear appeal messaging may be ill suited for use in Northern Uganda. Culture-centered approaches may be of best use during the transition from war to reconciliation. Results of the study will help to inform future HIV/AIDS prevention programs on best practices that are both theory and research based.

Student Number : 0417597W - MSc(Med) research report - School of Public Health - Faculty of Health Sciences / Objectives The study evaluated the effectiveness of the “Mato-Oput 5” curriculum in changing children’s attitudes towards conflict and violence and preventing violent acts by them; specifically, it determined attitudes differences between children exposed to and those not exposed to the intervention, and compared rates and trends of pupil-perpetrated intentional (violent) and severe intentional incidents among the children who were taught and those were not taught the curriculum. Methods and setting The study was analysis of secondary data from a community trial. The original study had been conducted in a war affected rural district in Northern Uganda in 2002. Results The intervention and control groups had comparable demographic characteristics, attitudes towards conflicts and violence, and rates of intentional and severe intentional incidents (violence) before intervention. After intervention, they remained comparable with regard to their demographic characteristics and rates and trends of intentional and severe intentional incidents. Their attitudes towards conflicts and violence, however, differed significantly, with the intervention group tending towards forgiving of offenders, and away from forceful response to provocation more than the control group. Both groups had post-intervention rate reductions in intentional incidents, and rate increments in severe intentional incidents. The pre-intervention incident rates in the intervention and control groups were 270/1000 and 370/1000 respectively, while the post-intervention rates were 190/1000 and 350/1000 respectively. Before intervention, seven in every 1000 incidents in the intervention group required school first aid or treatment in a health facility (severe incidents) as compared to 12 in every 1000 in the control group. These rates increased to 150/1000 and 160/1000 respectively after intervention. Conclusions The Mato-Oput 5 curriculum was effective in changing children’s attitudes towards conflict and violence: the intervention group tended towards forgiveness of offenders and non-forceful responses to provocation more than the control group. The rates and trends of pupil-perpetrated intentional (violent) and severe intentional incidents in the two groups of children, however, remained comparable.

The northern region of Uganda has been plagued by violent conflict for over two decades. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been waging war against the current government of Uganda under the leadership of President Museveni. The Acholi community resident in the North of Uganda has been most affected by this war. In recent years however Northern Uganda has enjoyed relative calm following an agreement for the cessation of hostilities between the LRA and the government to allow for peace talks. Following the anticipated end of this conflict, the international community, the government and local organisations have engaged in a number of interventions and mechanisms that would assist in peace building. A fundamental intervention that has been formulated and administered to this end is the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme for the ex-LRA combatants. The DDR process has had the sole objective of enabling formerly abducted children to transform their lives from violence into civility and community. It has been the premise that if this transformation were to occur then societies could be made peaceful. There has been growing support for these programmes but there has been very little analysis done of the utility of these programmes and the consequential impacts that these programmes have on the local indigenous communities. Though well intentioned, there is much work to be done to assess the utility and success of reintegration initiatives in granting the formerly abducted children and local populations' lifestyles that are reasonably free from fear and want.

The question of what agenda drives NGO peacebuilding in post-conflict setting has been raised in a number of literatures which make generalized conclusions that NGOs tend to respond to the liberal peace agenda, and in the process co-opt local peacebuilding initiatives. Liberal peace agenda refers to the post-conflict peacebuilding approach based on the promotion of democracy, economic liberalization, human rights and the rule of law. As such, NGOs are seen as privatizing peacebuilding, marginalizing local initiatives and applying unsustainable approaches to peacebuilding in post-conflict contexts. Provoked by these assertions, I conducted field research in northern Uganda, which up to 2006 had experienced 22 years of conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and Government of Uganda (GOU). I contend in my findings that while to some extent the generalized observations made by liberal peace critics are true, they fail to fully engage with the micro aspects of post-conflict peacebuilding. The macro-analytic assertions of the liberal peace critics ignore the plurality of the NGO peacebuilding practice, the diverse internal organizational culture, and the complexities and diversities of the contextual dynamics of post-conflict settings. My research was based on a micro level analysis and demonstrated that the peacebuilding process in northern Uganda was interactive, and, as such, engendered diverse encounters of sense-making, relationship building and co-construction of peacebuilding discourse and practice between NGOs, donors and local community. The study shows that peacebuilding was essentially relational and developed through a process of relational constructionism, which denotes social processes of reality construction based on relational encounters.

Recent debates on transitional justice have concerned whether the field responds to the needs of victims who have suffered serious crimes. At the global level, the International Criminal Court (ICC) serves as the most visible institution of transitional justice and is most famous for its prosecutions of war criminals. Critics of the Court question its relevance to victims and allege that it embodies a Western form of justice, prioritizing retribution over restoration of victims' lives and societies. Often overlooked, however, is the Court's sister organization, the Trust Fund For Victims (TFV). Also established by the Rome Statute, the TFV is mandated to deliver court-ordered reparations to victims as well as to provide assistance to those affected by crimes under ICC jurisdiction. This assistance mandate creates a novel opportunity to reach a wide scope of affected individuals and to bring international justice directly to those who need it most. This thesis reviews research on transitional justice and employs the Trust Fund as a case study of localizing transitional justice through reparative assistance. This study concludes that the reparative assistance, when designed to respond to victims' needs, has material and symbolic significance to victims that meet the goals of transitional justice.

No description available.

The Northern region of Uganda has been plagued by violent conflict for over two decades. The Lord¿s Resistance Army (LRA) has been waging war against the current government of Uganda under the leadership of President Museveni. The Acholi community resident in the North of Uganda has been most affected by this war. In recent years however Northern Uganda has enjoyed relative calm following an agreement for the cessation of hostilities between the LRA and the government to allow for peace talks. Following the anticipated end of this conflict, the international community, the government and local organisations have engaged in a number of interventions and mechanisms that would assist in peace building. A fundamental intervention that has been formulated and administered to this end is the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme for the ex-LRA combatants. The DDR process has had the sole objective of enabling formerly abducted children to transform their lives from violence into civility and community. It has been the premise that if this transformation were to occur then societies could be made peaceful. There has been growing support for these programmes but there has been very little analysis done of the utility of these programmes and the consequential impacts that these programmes have on the local indigenous communities. Though well intentioned, there is much work to be done to assess the utility and success of reintegration initiatives in granting the formerly abducted children and local populations¿ lifestyles that are reasonably free from fear and want. / John & Elnora Ferguson Trust

The question of what agenda drives NGO peacebuilding in post-conflict setting has been raised in a number of literatures which make generalized conclusions that NGOs tend to respond to the liberal peace agenda, and in the process co-opt local peacebuilding initiatives. Liberal peace agenda refers to the post-conflict peacebuilding approach based on the promotion of democracy, economic liberalization, human rights and the rule of law. As such, NGOs are seen as privatizing peacebuilding, marginalizing local initiatives and applying unsustainable approaches to peacebuilding in post-conflict contexts. Provoked by these assertions, I conducted field research in northern Uganda, which up to 2006 had experienced 22 years of conflict between the Lord¿s Resistance Army (LRA) and Government of Uganda (GOU). I contend in my findings that while to some extent the generalized observations made by liberal peace critics are true, they fail to fully engage with the micro aspects of post-conflict peacebuilding. The macro-analytic assertions of the liberal peace critics ignore the plurality of the NGO peacebuilding practice, the diverse internal organizational culture, and the complexities and diversities of the contextual dynamics of post-conflict settings. My research was based on a micro level analysis and demonstrated that the peacebuilding process in northern Uganda was interactive, and, as such, engendered diverse encounters of sense-making, relationship building and co-construction of peacebuilding discourse and practice between NGOs, donors and local community. The study shows that peacebuilding was essentially relational and developed through a process of relational constructionism, which denotes social processes of reality construction based on relational encounters.