A cross-section of observers, traditional and religious leaders, local and international media stormed Ri-Kwangba last week to witness the historical moment were Joseph Kony, the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) leader was supposed to sign the final peace agreement. The rest of the world held its breath to witness the day that northern Uganda would finally get to normalcy after 20 years of conflict between the Government of Uganda and the LRA rebels.

 The hope for peace in northern Uganda following the Juba talks that have been going on for the past 22months has been cut back by successive postponements. Kony crossed to Central African Republic in February a few weeks before the date that was scheduled to sign the final peace agreement. This was a serious threat to peace in the region as Kony was moving farther from the meeting place. Kony’s flight did not deter the Government’s commitment to the Juba peace process but vowed to continue implementing the undertakings of what they had signed earlier in Juba. Since July 2006, the government and LRA have signed five major agreements which included cessation of hostilities, reconciliation and accountability, comprehensive solutions, permanent ceasefire and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. The Government of Uganda is said to be in touch with the International Criminal Court (ICC). ICC is the international body that indicted Kony and his top officials. Kony and his top officials are wanted by ICC for multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity including rape, murder and the abduction of children. Fearing arrest, Kony has never appeared during the previous peace talks in Juba. He always sends representatives. Kony wants to sign the final peace agreement in person, but from the DRC-Sudan border. The Government of Uganda said that they are willing to approach the UN Security Council to drop the case and have Kony tried in Uganda all contingent upon the signing of the final peace agreement. That raises the question of whether Kony will be tried by the high court in Uganda or the mato-oput (Acholi traditional system in northern Uganda) where he committed the crimes. The ICC warned that only a judicial process capable of dishing out stiff jail sentences for grave crimes will be accepted as an alternative to trial in The Hague. If the Uganda courts are deemed unacceptable by ICC does that mean the UN Security Council will move a motion to defer indictments? These are questions on which millions of people living in squalid camp conditions are hanging.  Kony was supposed to sign the final peace agreement at the beginning of April, but postponed it to April 10^th. Even after having postponed the meeting, Kony still refused to sign the final peace agreement on April 10, 2008. There are several speculations surrounding why Kony refused to sign the final agreement. According to a Ugandan newspaper, New Vision the reasons are:1)      Kony is demanding clarification on mato-oput (Acholi traditional justice). It was suggested that if Kony is not tried by the ICC, then he will be tried by mato-oput. 2)      Kony wants clarification on the operation of the special division of the high court that is to prosecute rebel fighters.3)      There has been pressure from the diaspora political wing who think that the government wants to trick Kony into signing the peace agreement and then hand him over to the ICC soon after.According to another Ugandan newspaper The Red Pepper, Kony is not going to sign the peace agreement because:1)      He wants the UPDF and SPLA in Southern Sudan to disarm 1^st before he can sign the agreement.2)      He wants the ICC to drop all charges3)      He wants all the people in IDP camps to return to their villages first After reading this I wondered if this was the first time Kony saw and read the document for him to realize that there were issues that needed further clarification. Even though Kony says he is still committed to the peace talks, it’s not clear how much longer he will stall before returning to the discussion table.  However, the New Vision reported that Ochora who has met Kony about 8 times in the past year warned that Kony was not committed to the peace talks because there are no incentives in the peace deal. It almost looks like Kony is playing cat and mouse games. “State minister for defence Ruth Nankabirwa regretted the collapse of the talks although the mediator is yet to declare the peace talks officially collapsed” Sunday Vision April 13, 2008. If the talks have failed what’s next? When will they determine that the peace talks have failed and what is the alternative to the peace talks? The government of Uganda signed an agreement with the rest of the countries of the Great Lake region to “root Kony out of his Garamba hideout in case the talks failed” and the US in November 2007 agreed to support the government. Since the peace talks started there has been a semblance of peace in northern Uganda. Some people have left the IDP camps going back to their villages and international and local organizations have started implementing long-term development programs in northern Uganda. However, the Acholis have mixed feelings towards the success of the peace process. Although the government and the LRA agreed to ceasefire, the long term prospects for sustainable peace are still in doubt. LRA remains in the bush threatening to recommence hostilities unless conditions are met. No one wants to return to those dark days, but equally no one is sure, despite the growing international interventions, that peace will hold. Some Acholis believe that the only way to end the insecurity is by continuing the peace process and they will only feel secure if the government and LRA sign the peace agreement. If the final peace agreement is signed what does that mean for the Acholis and how long will it take them to recover from this war?    

“Aren’t you nervous?” my dear friend carefully asked me when I told her that I’d be visiting Uganda. That’s how my parents reacted at first. I told myself it is not because Uganda is part of Africa that they are worried for my travel. Traveling to new places is always uncertain to some extent. However, I couldn’t deny that part of me was more worried than usual. What would I see? How would I feel? What should I expect? Am I mature enough? Above all, the question was ‘why would I want to go visit Africa’? I cannot tell Uganda story leaving out the influence of Kimmie and Youth Action International. I actually met Kimmie at Northfield Mount Hermon High School where Kimmie graduated from.  

During the January term I was staying at Smith College then Caroline Henderson, my dear friend asked me if I wanted to go attend Kimmie’s speech at her old High school. I found it a little bit weird to suddenly be sitting among the High school students. However, the stories Kimmie told were something that I’ve never heard about. I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to do something’. To be honest, it was my first time to hear about the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. I wanted to know more about the international efforts to combat the extreme poverties, mal-nutrition, disease, and civil conflicts. However, I started to wish that I could see with my own eyes what is happening on the other side of the globe.  

When I arrived at Entebbe International Airport in Uganda at around 11pm on Friday March 14^th 2008, Memory (Regional director, East Africa), Agnes (Country representative), and their friend Junior warmly greeted me. The outside was almost completely dark without much of electricity. In Junior’s car on our way to Memory’s place, for a moment I felt surreal with my open eyes blinking in between my own imagination and the reality that was covered by darkness. Memory told me about the on going projects in Uganda and we also shared little bit of our stories about Northampton because Memory graduated from Mt. Holyoke. 

On the next day, Agnes took me to the Kampala town. I can still clearly recall how chaotic it was. The cars were crowded like puzzles. The left over spaced were filled by Boda Bodas (motorcycles). And it was solely up to your shrewd ability, courage, and luck to cross the roads. Agnes held my hand and led our way avoiding cars from all sides. She wondered what I thought of Africa before I went there. I couldn’t give her a satisfactory answer because I was so confused witnessing what I didn’t imagine. There were huge banners of Samsung cell phones and Coca-Cola. There was also a public campaign banner that said, “Have a small family that fits in a taxi” with a picture of children lined up to hope on to a taxi [a taxi in Uganda is a van that carries 14 people]. I was sitting in one of the taxis, and I had to count how many people would fit into a van-sized taxi.  

On Monday, Memory and I went to Munyonyo, a nice convention and resort center for the closing ceremony of Afro-Arab Youth Conference. Libya President Kadhafi gave a closing speech. It was interesting to see that although the conference was for the youths, many of the delegates were over 30 or even 40. At the conference, there was Youth Action International booth where they sold crafts made by youth in urban slum area where I went to visit the next day.  

Mengo Youth Development Youth was operating in urban slum area in Kisenyi with the close support from Uganda YAI partnership. I went to see a wooden classroom for children in slum area. It was good that the children at least had one classroom to go to learn. However, the little size of the class and the noise from outside as the construction of sort was going on worried me about the quality and effectiveness of the education. Then we went ahead to walk around the residential areas. First thing that hit me in the eyes were piles of the wastes on the ground in and near by the water sewage of sort and a little child climbing out from there. I had to smile even though I was looking at the worrisome environment where they were playing in because he greeted me with his cutest dancing movement. Although residential houses were built one next to another, most of the people lacked physical protections. This made me worried about their security and especially that of women and children. Before leaving, we visited one of the vocational training sights for girls and young women in the slum areas. This training was part of the income-generating project. They were learning how to make school uniforms which they would sell to schools, which I thought was a really good income-generating project. 

On the next morning, I woke up at 4am to prepare myself to leave for Gulu district in Northern Uganda. I almost fell asleep again when Agnes came to pick me up at around 7 with a biggest Avocado I have ever seen. It was also the best Avocado I have ever tasted. Agnes and I took a bus to Gulu at around 10am. On our way, we passed Wakiso, Luwero, Nakisongola, Masindi, and Lira district where Northern Uganda starts. The bus stopped several times in towns so that the passengers could get snacks from outside the window. There were people selling from smoked bananas, groundnuts, cassavas, smoked meat, sweet bananas, up to live chickens. Agnes generously bought me almost everything so that I could taste everything. Cost of the snacks ranged from 500 UGX (70 cents) to 1000 UGX ($1.42).  

We finally arrived in Gulu after almost 7 hours of long and bumpy ride. Under the blinding sunlight, Robert who was with IYEP greeted us. After unpacking our bags at the hotel, we went to IYEP center and met and interviewed few formerly abducted child mothers and child soldiers.  

The next morning, Robert, Agnes, and I visited Pakwelo primary school. This was a public school with 2026 students but only 25 teachers with 7 classrooms. The classroom buildings were of course better than nothing but poorly equipped with crowded student population. Is it okay or fair for these children to have no desks, no shoes, no backpacks, and to skip breakfast and lunch not because they felt like it but because they don’t have any choice? And especially when the civil war created such hardship. They needed so many basic things that I was overwhelmed. What went wrong? How could a civil war be going on for more than 20 years?  

When we went to Attiack that afternoon, we met formerly abducted child soldiers who were operating little businesses such as selling fish and tomatoes. One of them was a carpenter. I wanted to go see their businesses and I became speechless. The fish were covered with flies and the tomatoes that a child mother was selling were as many as to only fill a small basket. Agnes was worried about girls as young as 15 years old getting married. So she talked to the chief of Attiak. He was fine with that. He even said, “What else can they do? There is nothing to do!” I was offended by the fact that the chief would think that it is okay for a young girl to get married at age 15. However, after looking around the market, I’ve realized that there really needs a significant developmental process, hopefully not solely aid based but industrial based one to empower youth. The lack of sufficient infrastructure, energy, and security were depriving many of the basic human rights from these people. But then that night we visited a friend of Agnes. Her baby had a hole in her heart and was missing the anus. When it comes down to the reality, it is a matter of life and death. What could I do for this crying baby? Why was her husband telling her that she couldn’t go to Kampala because his father said no? This looked like a patriarchy to me. On our way back to our hotel, the husband dropped by to see his other wife.  

On the next day, Agnes and I went back to IYEP center to interview more formerly abducted child mothers and youth. Many of the people I have interviewed were abducted in 1996 and escaped in 2001 or 2002 thus missing out their normal childhood as students. Not only that, once they returned to their hometown, they had to deal with the stigma that was put on to them because of what they were forced to do during the abduction. Maybe because of that, many of them were reluctant to share what they were forced to do during the abduction. While Agnes was still interviewing, I was asked to go to a house of another formerly abducted child mother who just gave a birth to her baby to interview her. After taking group photo, I hoped on to the Boda Boda accompanied by Henry, one of the IYEP leaders. We arrived in the middle of the IDP camps [camps for internally displaced people] and visited Rose. She and her baby were living in one of the residential huts. Being curious, I asked her how the housing works for her and she told me that she pays 30,000 UGX (USD 18) rent per month. Then when I asked her how much she usually earn every month from selling used clothes, it was only about 10,000 ~ 20,000 UGX (USD 6 ~ 12). Her oldest child is 7 years old and goes to primary school. She told me that she has a husband but he is not around much. She also commented, “In [northern] Uganda it is women who are supporting the men.” After we finished the last interview, I felt this diminished pressured by the inability to make a gesture that would have given them a little hope. Under these conditions, discussing a long-term development program probably sounded rubbish. Still, feeling a bit of self-contradiction, I went on to express how I felt about the need for energies and industrial development.  

As our last stop we went to meet Rubanga Konya Group, a women’s group started in 2002 to combat the economic challenges from the civil war. Kony Paco means care takers. When there was a lot of instability in the region because of civil war, parents lost their kids to the [Lord Resistance Army Rebels (LRA)] rebels. Some died, some came back but traumatized or injured. So the women came up with this group to provide help to conflict in Northern Uganda by counseling one another and by implementing financial empowerment programs with IYEP. Their biggest challenge was to support education of the children and the place to market their goods such as paper jewelries and fish from their community fishponds. I bought some jewelry from a woman and hoped to find a market in U.S. for these women. The woman gave me a blue necklace and told me it’s a gift for my mother. I thanked her for her kindness.  

Heading back to Kampala the next day, I thought about the past days and became entangled in my feelings of friendship towards wonderful people I’ve met in Northern Uganda, frustration and anger towards their difficult circumstances, and anxiety and needs for a decisive action. I was quite exhausted both physically and mentally so I was really happy to finally reach to Kampala and see Memory again. That night Memory again cooked me a delicious dinner and we cheered over our strawberry juice that tasted a little bit artificial. Before I knew it was time for me to go back to Smith. Despite the rain, on our way to the airport, we managed to buy a big avocado, two boxes of Tammy’s [cereal with fruit chunks], pina colada, and yellow banana for me to bring back to U.S. to preserve my memory in Uganda for a bit longer. At the airport, looking at the photos and videos that I took in the last 9 days, I realized how much I had experienced. As much as I was glad that I started this journey, I now have a greater responsibility to let other people know about what I experienced and to take continuous and effective actions towards the change.

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an Acholi-based opposition group led by Joseph Kony has been fighting first against president Museveni’s government, and currently against other Acholi peoples. The Acholi are an ethnic group who live in Northern Uganda. Though Kony, leader of the LRA reportedly believes he has been chosen by God to overthrow president Museveni and establish a government based on the Ten Commandments, and a purified Acholi race, the LRA has yet to explain its goals or put forth any sort of political agenda.
The current war which has been going on for over 20 years has displaced over 1.6 million people in Northern Uganda. Most of whom live in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, describes Northern Uganda as “the world’s terrorism epicenter. Nowhere in the world do we have large areas where between 80 and 90 percent of the population are terrorized into camps by violence.” It is also estimated that by 2004, more than 25,000 children had been abducted, and that currently 80 percent of the fighters in the LRA are children. (Pawns of Politics: Children, conflict and peace in Northern Uganda, World Vision, 2004) 

The two decades of conflict in Northern Uganda have greatly affected the Acholis both socially and economically. The 1995 Attiak massacre has especially devastated the region and turned the once very prosperous townships into their worst conditions. Moreover, LRA child soldiers were forced to attack villages, shoot and cut off people’s lips, ears, hands, feet, or breasts, at times force-feeding the severed body parts to victims’ families. Some cut open the bellies of pregnant women and tear their babies out. Men and women were also gang-raped. 

Farming, which is the main source of livelihood, has been limited by the insecurity, as people can not access land for farming. This has increased the level of poverty and has made Acholis vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, child abuse, etc. During the 20 years of conflict in the region, the youth were the most affected because they were the primary targets of the conflicting parties. The youth were abducted especially by the rebels and recruited into their fighting ranks at school going ages and thus missed out the opportunity to attend formal education or gain other skills to empower them economically. 

During my visit to northern Uganda, some of the children I met were born in camps and are teenagers now. The only life they know is living in camps. Most of them have never been to a town or village to experience what it is like to live a normal life outside the camp. A major concern in northern Uganda is demobilization and reintegration for children and youth who were once abducted by LRA. I still worry if real peace will be achieved through the peace talks; for physical and emotional healing for all of the children who are trying to lead “normal lives” after their escape from the rebels and for those who are still in captivity. 

The resilience of the Acholi people is remarkable. They are extremely hopeful for peace so that they can return to farming their ancestral homelands. The stories I heard during my visit to Gulu gave me much respect for people who have endured and survived the war.