The impact of returning home after the twenty-year armed conflict in the Acoli sub-region in Uganda: the case of Nwoya

Abstract

A number of successive coup d’états in Uganda from the Amin coup in 1971, the Okello coup in 1985, followed by Yoweri Museveni’s seize of power in 1986 marked the beginning of the twenty-year war by the remnants of the Acoli Generals, Alice Lakwena and Joseph Kony, armies against the Government army for supremacy over Acoliland. The insurgency forced some of the educated Acoli to flee into exile, while the majority was forced into the Internally Displaced People’s Camps (IDPs) from the 1990s up to 2006, when the LRA fled from Uganda. The Camps were disbanded and the IDPs began to return to their former land. However, many of the returnees found their land taken over by those who had returned earlier or the rich who had bought their land, thus sparking new land conflict in Acoliland. The impact of the twenty years in the Camps fractured traditional Acoli culture but did not break the people’s resilience. This article explores the impact of the LRA armed conflict on the Acoli population with special emphasis on internal displacement. The methodology used was qualitative where data was collected using open-ended questionnaires, interview guides for focused group or individual discussions and personal observation.