African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
Politics
Home›African Arguments›Politics›StopKony fine, but North Uganda post-conflict reconstruction is the real story – By Marjoke Oosterom

StopKony fine, but North Uganda post-conflict reconstruction is the real story – By Marjoke Oosterom

By Uncategorised
March 16, 2012
2423
0

The “˜Kony2012‘ documentary film was put online on March 5 by the US-based organisation Invisible Children. Within days, the film helped raise $5 million for the organisation, and within a week attracted 70m viewers worldwide. Although the film shows the acute suffering of LRA victims, especially children, what remains invisible are wounds of a society years after the LRA left. The real story for after Kony2012 is told in the recent film The Governance Gap – which demonstrates that stopping Kony does not put an end to the suffering of the people of Northern Uganda.

The Governance Gap demonstrates the enduring – often invisible – legacy of the LRA war through the story of Nighty, a 44 year old Acholi woman. As Nighty demonstrates, The Acholi developed a “˜survival mindset’ to cope with decades of violence from both the LRA and the Ugandan military. Food and safety became the priority, as opposed to the processes of day-to-day governance.

The conflict undermined the capacity of the Acholi to act effectively as Ugandan citizens and decreased their confidence to re-engage in post-war democratic processes. Having lived in a militarised environment, people are still reluctant to raise issues they perceive to be sensitive. Moreover, they have little experience in dealing with a developmental state. For years, all they asked for was security – now that they have it, many won’t ask for more. This undermines the “˜demand side’ of governance and means that Acholi lack experience in actively engaging in the reconstruction of their region and in decision-making. Nor are they actively invited to participate.

It also shows the gap in how Acholi perceive themselves within Uganda – “˜We are like slaves being brought into Uganda,’ Nighty says. Acholi feel like second-class citizens within the Ugandan state, and current post-war reconstruction efforts do not sufficiently target these feelings.

Existing post-conflict recovery efforts by the government and international donors focus on “˜hardware’ – rebuilding physical infrastructure and services. This is important. As a consequence of the war, poverty in the Acholi region is far worse than in the rest of the country, and is clearly visible. What is less visible is how the past experiences of war and life in the camps have persisted into the present. Interventions should therefore also focus on the “˜software’ – building citizens’ capacity to re-engage in decision-making and democratic processes. And as The Governance Gap shows, reconstruction should include a process of national reconciliation in which the state acknowledges the atrocities committed by the military as well as its failure to end the war. Until now, citizens have had few opportunities to make their voices heard in the reconstruction process.

A campaign film such as “˜Kony2012′ may not be expected to provide the detailed nuance of a story as told by The Governance Gap. What it did, was remind the world of a “˜forgotten conflict’ where injustice had been done to thousands of people since the late 1980s (and don’t forget, not just by the LRA but also by the Ugandan government, and as some would argue, by failing humanitarian actors). And true, Kony and his LRA continue to cause suffering. Every victim is one too many. They need to be stopped. They also need to be brought to justice, whether through the International Criminal Court or local forms of justice that seem more culturally accepted and appropriate.

If Kony is captured this would solve a forgotten conflict, but not its aftermath. Since Kony left Uganda five years ago both the tangible and invisible consequences are still very real. And deserve as much attention as capturing Kony.

Marjoke Oosterom is a PhD candidate in the Participation, Power and Social Change Team at the Institute of Development Studies. She works on citizenship and participation in (post)conflict settings. The film The Governance Gap is based on her PhD research in the LRA affected areas of Northern Uganda, where she spent a year in a rural village just 10km from the border with South Sudan. For More insights from her research see: http://www.hivos.nl/eng/Hivos-Knowledge-Programme/Communities/Post-Conflict-Participation/Blog

Previous Article

Somaliland did not surrender sovereignty by attending ...

Next Article

Democratic change in West Africa – Senegal ...

Uncategorised

0 comments

  1. Arnaud Kalimba 17 March, 2012 at 20:04

    i agree…kony’s war is a ‘forgotten war’ i first came upon the name Kony in 2004…i hadn’t the slightest clue on who the man was…but with time i educated myself…it with that reason that i think the viral video “Stop Kony” is relevant for it shines a light on an individual who despite having left Uganda is now terrorizing the people in DRC.

  2. Uganda – Kony, the LRA and the need for reconstruction | Africa – News and Analysis 18 March, 2012 at 08:17

    […] Existing post-conflict recovery efforts by the government and international donors focus on ‘hardware’ – rebuilding physical infrastructure and services. This is important. As a consequence of the war, poverty in the Acholi region is far worse than in the rest of the country, and is clearly visible. What is less visible is how the past experiences of war and life in the camps have persisted into the present. Interventions should therefore also focus on the ‘software’ – building citizens’ capacity to re-engage in decision-making and democratic processes. Read more… […]

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Politics

    SPLM-DC and the Demise of Great Expectations

  • Politics

    Diary: Somali diaspora under the spotlight- Business as Usual/Cash and Compassion – By Magnus Taylor

  • Politics

    Moreno Ocampo’s Coup de Theatre

Subscribe to our newsletter

Click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • The unaccountability of Liberia’s polluting miners
  • Africa Elections 2023: All the upcoming votes
  • “Poking the Leopard’s Anus”: Legal Spectacle and Queer Feminist Politics
  • Introducing Parselelo and a new climate focus
  • The ‘Hustler’ Fund: Kenya’s Approach to National Transformation

Editor’s Picks

Editor's PicksPoliticsZambia

Zambia’s democracy is still under attack

But now by President Hichilema, the man who vowed to rescue it. When Hakainde Hichilema won Zambia’s August 2021 election, many hoped the assault on democracy that had characterised his ...
  • Asian-African

    It’s time to confront anti-Blackness in Asian-African communities

    By Sabrina Mahtani
    August 5, 2020
  • angola elections The Cidade Alta in Luanda, Angola. Credit: David Stanley.

    The real winners of Angola’s election

    By Cláudio Silva
    September 14, 2022
  • The violent eviction of the Maasai community in Tanzania to create a game reserve recently drew widespread shock and condemnation. Credit: Dylan Conway.

    Fortress conservation is heading for a crisis that can’t come soon enough

    By Simon Counsell
    July 28, 2022
  • In Aksum, Tigrayan region of Ethiopia. Credit: Rod Waddington.

    As a Tigrayan, my bond with Ethiopia feels beyond repair

    By Temesgen Kahsay
    January 12, 2021

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu