Acholi
The acholi people are also known by the names ancoli, ankoli, akoli, gan , gang, shuli or makjuru. It lives in northern Uganda, on the borderlands of South Sudan and northern Kenya. They are of Western Nilotic origin and are part of the Luo ethno-linguistic group. Historically, they experienced a process of miscegenation and cultural hybridization with members of the Madi people. They maintain close relations with the Luo in Kenya and the Shilluk in Sudan from the south. Their name acholi comes from the term given to them by Arab traders in the 19th century, shuˆ li, which means to speak a mixture of Arabic with another language.
They speak Acholi, a language from the edge of the Nilosa-Saharan languages, and from the Southern Luo group. South Sudan the Acholi ethnic group would reach 81,000 people. They are mostly Catholics.
Territory
In South Sudan, their main settlement is located around the town of Opari, within the Eastern Equatoria region. In the territory of Uganda, Acholi are distributed in the country by the districts of Kitgum, Amuru, Pader, Gulu, Abim, Oyam, Kotido, Kaabong and Lira.
Acholi country comprises some 28,000 km² of a region dominated by plateaus and wooded grasslands. The meadows are furrowed by numerous river currents that provide the essential water to counteract the dry climate of the area.
History
Origins
About the year 1000 they lived in the Bahr el-Gazhal area together with other Nilotic herders. For reasons still unknown, they began a population movement to the south together with other peoples of the Luo group. The Acholi settled in present-day Gulu and Kitgum districts in northern Uganda and the contiguous borderlands of South Sudan. In that area it evolved constituting the territory known as Achoiland or the Acholi country. Their domains reached a territorial surface of about 28,000 km².
Information on the Acholi people before the 17th century is sparse. Their ancestors may have arrived as early as the 11th century, when the area's very humid climate became dry enough enough to support agriculture. The area offered natural settlements with good fishing, fertile land, groves of trees, and a good position to watch out for possible invasions. However the first Acholi had to face periods of famine due to the inconstant rains in the area. Its region receives most of the rain from April to October, followed by a harsh dry season.
The ancestors of the modern Acholi people were likely a mix of members of Luo, Eastern Nilotic, and Western groups who converged in the settlement region. Some authors mention a Luo – Madi miscegenation. In this process of meeting of Nilotic peoples in the Acholi country, each group retained its own language and established separate communities throughout the region. Evidence of early agriculture throughout eastern and central Sudan indicates that the first farmers from the east probably settled in Acholi around the century. II or I a. Eastern Nilotic speakers migrated to Acholi between 1000 and 1600, pushing central Sudanese further west. A limited number of Luo-speaking people probably arrived in Acholi in the early 15th century century, settling on the outskirts of the region. Although these towns were politically and administratively independent of one another, the communities shared many economic and social practices. Collectively they became known as acholi. The first Acholi were farmers who grew millet, sesame, sorghum, cattail millet, and vegetables.
Luo-madi integration
Around the middle of the 17th century, the ancestors of the Jie and Lango peoples (long-time rivals of the Acholi) they carried out a series of raids against the Luo and Madi groups. These raids, which lasted well into the 18th century century, contributed to the assimilation of the Luo and Madi into Acholi. Although the Lango and Acholi lived side by side and shared a common language and other cultural traditions, the Lango generally refused to acknowledge any historical link to their Luo neighbors.
Metallurgy
Knowledge of iron working was important to their economic and social evolution from the beginning. The Acholi used two types of hoes to work the land: one in the form of a straight stake and another that formed an angle. It is assumed that these metallurgical skills were contributed by the peoples who arrived from the central region of the Sudan. Without these agricultural implements the savannah would have been almost impossible to work for the first Acholi farmers.
In this economy of the first groups, the traditional livestock farming of the Nilotic peoples also played an important role. Primitive settlements required a coordinated division of labor among the members of the community. Thus, agriculture required intensive labor, carried out by small groups of men who worked large tracts of land. Fishing and hunting were also male responsibility. For their part, the women collected firewood, wild fruits and vegetables in addition to housework, brewing beer and childcare.
Organization and advocacy
The Acholi did not have a formal political structure until the 17th century when chiefdoms were established. They were organized under the authority of the older male in totemic clans governed by the patrilineal lineage with exogamous marriages.
They built fortified villages for defensive purposes. Mainly to protect themselves from possible confrontations with their neighbors from the Lango people with whom they had a long-standing rivalry.
Colonial period
In 1911, the British colonial forces forced the Acholi and the rest of the peoples under their rule to forcefully recruit labor, as well as to hand over the firearms in the hands of their communities. The measures of the colonialists led to an armed conflict that involved permanent raids by the British in the Acholi country to contain the rebellions. In 1913 the Acholi country officially became part of the British protectorate.
20th century
The Acholi suffered genocide during the Idi Amin Dada regime because they were supporters of Milton Obote. When Obote was victorious, the Acholi in the army committed massacres in Amin's home region (West Nile). The military of Acholi origin seized power by overthrowing Amin in July 1985, but defeated by Museveni in 1986 they fled to the North. General Okello's UPDM (Uganda People's Democratic Movement) was formed, who disappeared after death of the general in 1990 after talks by his successor Eric Otema Allimadi with the government, leaving the UDCA (Uganda Democratic Christian Army) as the only opposition force in the area.
The UDCA were the remnants of an army of fanatics who revolted against Museveni in 1987, led by Alice Lakwena and her cousin Joseph Kony. In 1991 it lost close to three thousand combatants and in the following year an even greater number. After unsuccessful talks in 1994, the UDCA organization increased its attacks. Uganda accused Sudan of supporting the rebels. In 1995 the UDCA took the name of the Lord's Resistance Army (Lord's Resistance Army, LRA). In late 1995 the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), allied with Uganda, launched an attack on the LRA and defeated the rebels in their camps. Sudan, but in February 1996 the LRA resumed operations. In 1998 their activities increased, and even more in 1999. Uganda uses the SPLA to combat them; At the outbreak of the Congolese civil war, the Kabila government provided support for the LRA while Uganda favored one of the Congolese factions.
The fighting continued on a small scale for several years, with many atrocities, especially by the LRA, consisting of murders, rapes of men and women to humiliate, frighten and spread AIDS, amputations, slowly burning alive, etc, actions committed by practically all sides. In 2004 a ceasefire was declared.