I was a primary three pupil at the Native Anglican Church (ANC) Dicwinyi Primary School in Palabek Division Headquarters, now Palabek Town Council when Uganda got its political independence from the British Colonial masters on October 09, 1962. It was so glamorous when I reflect on that particular day, sixty years later. The holding of the new Uganda National Flag, the smart cotton khaki uniform with the national flag badge tucked on our left breasts, the white canvass boots white black shocks as we marched past to the tunes of brass band being played by pupils of our rival only other school of the Roman Catholic Church School. The joy, verbal abuses by the two rival schools through songs as to which of the two school pupils took the day was another thing. I was about to turn ten years later on November 07, 1962.
The future looked promising then. The economy was none to compare with in the region, the peace and harmony in society, the discipline by which our different Churches enforce Church attendance; then, and I thought I would go and study either Law or Political Science at university. The rest is now history. Studies up to university remained a dream. That peace we enjoyed on October 09, 1962, was shuttered before we could even hold the next general election. Talk of Uganda Crisis. Acholi has been on the receiving end of endemic politically engineered killings from day one of the crisis, which began about two years after independence to date as you read this piece.
Several factors contributed to the stalled development of Uganda. Key among them includes:
1. Colonial mistakes
Our British colonial masters made the fundamental mistake of portioning Acholi, which was a single nation, into two different states Sudan (now South Sudan) and Uganda. This is because they had realized that the tribe would be impossible to colonize unless they are prevented from staying as one unit in the same way their collaborator in the south, the special status of Baganda remained a single entity throughout colonization; a fact that remains the single mistake destabilizing Uganda to this day. The borderline became the symbol of dividing the Acholi which you only cross if you have visa permit. The colonialists disempowered our cultural chiefs and our social setup but instead promoted collaborators and empowered them by sending the children of such collaborators to school. They became the new elite political class today.
This tool of keeping Acholi in perpetual division is perfected by all the subsequent independent political governments which sub-divided the Achioli into several autonomous administrative units disguised as taking services nearer to the people. The cultural institutions are now more of politicians than cultural leaders. Palabek Division at the time of independence in 1962 is now split into six autonomous sub-counties and one Town Council. Coming out with one ordinance against the rampant sale of cultural land, the single reason for land related conflicts has remained a dream.
The second colonial mistake, which is Acholi’s biggest asset, is their large swaths of fertile land, which the colonialist designated for growing only cotton and tobacco as cash crop, the two seasonal crops, which one has to plant on yearly basis. On the other hand Buganda region had coffee, which one plants only once and then harvest on yearly basis having been spared from yearly tilling of land to plant coffee.
Although coffee growing is now being introduced in Acholi sub-region, it has yet to be embraced by the majority peasants who are also land owners, let alone planting at commercial level.
It is very common to see large swaths of idle land in Acholi without being put in use for year in and year out; a fact that has attracted land grabbing and land related conflicts caused by massive unscrupulous sale of land.
The third colonial mistake is the physique factor of an Acholi boy- “tall, dark, well-built and honest”. And because of their built-up, an Acholi is only fit to be in the forces; army, police and prison. It is well documented that the tribe received more coffins of politically engineered killings than any other tribe in the country since the Second World War to date.
2. Mistakes by the NRM
By 2026, Ugandans will have been ruled by a single leader, General Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Kaguta Museveni for forty years- all his six predecessors having ruled for only 24 years combined.
He ascended to power with the anti-Northerner (read Acholi) sentiments, used his military credentials to make sure his enemies are buried and should not rise again economically, socially and politically.
The second big mistake was to destroy socio-economic infrastructures which were built by his arch enemy, the late Dr. Obote- the Cooperative Movement, the railway transport and Uganda Airlines in favor of free economy controlled by few connected cronies. We don’t have to mention education and health sectors which are all rotting under his watch.
I don’t have to even talk about the rise of secularism, fake pastors using satanic power to derail our youths from restoring moral values; but instead we witness the promotion of boozing and wild living. Churches are nearly empty except for few urban churches.
The Acholi is yet to feel the relief the Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo and the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Nobert Mao will play in the transition talks. We are yet to witness what those two midwives will do to suppress anger against the longest regime, or, the two will be like leaders before them- Jacob Oulanyah or Lt. General Paul Lokech.
Fast forward to Saturday, October 01, 2022, eight days to the D-Day, Mega FM radio station where the Moderator, Stephen Balmoi, hosted The Secretary Manager of West Acholi Cooperative Union, Mr.Ogen Bob Albert, on its weekly Te-Yat (under the tree) to discuss the paradigm facing Acholi sub-region; abject poverty despite the availability of the most fertile, virgin and underutilized land resource. The program, which airs between 10.00 am to 12.00 noon, and where I was privilege to be a pioneer panelist on the program right from Radio Freedom days to around 2004 before misfortune struck me and I left the show, was initially meant to end the rebellions in the region since 1986 and bring development.
The best question which came out, and which determined the angle the discussion was taking is; are co-operatives the magic bullet to drive Acholi out of poverty where report says stands at 68%? Is the chest thumbing in front of regional leaders necessary if not the quest to be the Center of Gravity of Africa?
