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How did governance in Acholi dovetail with violence?

This thesis applies interdisciplinary approaches to explore interactions between
two forms of community governance in Acholiland from 1898 to 2010, locating itself within
Peace Studies. One form, kaka, was “traditional”, featuring varied forms of “facultative
mutualisms” among two or more gangi agnates – with one gang as dominant in the
realm. Gangi were kinship-based polities. Like kaka, gangi manifested autopoietic
attributes and strong internal “fiduciary cultures”. Then in the 1900s, kaka as governing
systems were reshuffled under colonialism and a tribal unit, the Acholi Local Government
was created and was subordinated to the Uganda state. Unlike kaka, Acholi Local
Government was hierarchal and has consistently been redesigned by various postcolonial
governments in their attempts to renegotiate, reshape and control the Acholi
people.
The study advances a concept of community governance as “socialpolitical”
and moral, and counters that kaka was about brotherhoods - not rulersubject
relationships. It further distinguishes what was “traditional” from “customary”
systems, and demonstrates how colonialism in Acholiland, and a crisis of legitimacy
manifested in a trifurcation of authorities, with: i) the despotic civil service - the
“customary system”, fusing modernity and the African tradition, ii) a reshuffled kaka
system as traditional, and, iii) the cross-modern, manifested as kinematic lugwok
paco, linking ethno-governance with the nascent national and global arenas.
The study concludes that both colonialism and “coloniality” have reshuffled
the mores of kaka along an African neo-patrimonial legitimacy. Conversely,
Acholiland is a “limited statehood” – manifesting a higher order of societal entropy -
where the “rule by law and customs” dovetail with violence and poverty,
demonstrating a genre of exceptionalism.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/15707
Date January 2015
CreatorsOloya, John J.
ContributorsPankhurst, Donna T., Francis, David J.
PublisherUniversity of Bradford, School of Social and International Studies
Source SetsBradford Scholars
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, doctoral, PhD
Rights<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>.

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