Can We De-centralise Our Efforts Away From Kampala as A Move to Create Peace in Acholiland?

Zeru O.O.ABUKHA
Frankfurt, Germany

What does one mean by de-centralisation of efforts? What kind of de-centralisation is then viable for peace, security and development in Acoli? What strategies can we resort to, in order to de-centralise our efforts from Kampala? Is this idea still a new one?

What does one mean with de-centralisation of efforts? To me everybody in Uganda has been working hard not only to live in Kampala, but also to have a recognised position in Uganda, hence staying in Kampala. A student studies up to the highest level in Uganda and does not want any more to come home, with exceptions for Christmas and may be Easter and "Uhuru" He lives in Kampala, brings up his children in Kampala and later builds his house in Kampala. He is not only socially but also physically detached from home. If he manages to build a permanent shelter in Kampala, then is sometimes better but up to the late 80's most of us still depended on public allocations of houses. After working for two decades with this kind of life, and in case of death, this person or all his dependants are subjected to a life they might have not known before. He does not want to be in Kitgum or Gulu [not to say "caro" Village]. It can be that he has lost everything and the next thing would be either exile, resistance or aggression. This is not only a case in Acoli but through out the third world there is massive centralisation of efforts in the capital cities. I think if Acolis start thinking about Kitgum and Gulu first, then later about Kampala, London, Bonn or Washington, then there shall be a remarkable change in our society.

A farmer, say, a rice producer in Pabo, works the all year on his crop and at the end of the harvest he comes out with about 40 bags of rice. He now plans to take the rice to Kampala or Malaba and after he sells them he leaves Pabo and starts a business in Gulu with the aim of progressing so that later he would move to Kampala where, when all goes well, he may acquire a passport and begin "international" deals between Dubai-Tokyo-and Kampala. This he calls it progress and development. In fact it is a personal progress for that one time farmer, but for our society, we would have lost this hard worker. Let us put a simple commercial multiplier equation: This one time progressive farmer would have made his production more intensive and employed some factors of production available in Pabo. He would have bought clothes from Gulu or Pabo, hence employing tailors, he would be buying things like salt, sugar, kerosene in Pabo and with the result of making the economy around Pabo move. That there is always a competition to be in the city [Kampala], he, the farmer, has no hesitation to come to the city, after all he can afford it on his own. This progressive man now builds in Kampala and there he starts the life of an Acoli who is not a "la-Caro"-[Villager].

By de-centralising our efforts I mean we must think about the effects of our physical presence outside Acoliland and the value of our efforts we spend to survive outside Acoliland. What could that total to if they were concentrated in our land?. It is not surprising that Idi Amin got very many Acolis lingering around Kampala, because there was no where to go to. Some of them had already stayed for decades in Kampala and as a result could not go back home. The same thing happened when Museveni came in power in 1986. Where in Acoli could one watch the television he had acquired from Kampala, when nobody ever thought of any TV station in Kitgum or Gulu? Where could one take the refrigerators when one does not have a proper residence in Gulu or Kitgum? The answer is simple, people were got in Kampala and burnt on the streets, evacuated from buildings, from jobs and still there was no where to go to. The few who had "de-centralised" their efforts, here I mean, those who had houses and proper residences at home never suffered so much. It showed me that it is easier to loose completely in Kampala than in Gulu or Kitgum.

What kind of de-centralisation is then viable for peace, security and development in Acoli?
De-centralisation of our political efforts (this is not the government de-centralisation taking place now). To me it is quite incorrect when we point fingers to the central government when at the parochial levels the same oppression is being carried out by us. We should concentrate on Identifying our problems first, and here I mean only our problems when employing our political efforts. It is apparently illusionary for me to think there is a common national problem. When one "tribe" or "ethnic group" gets a problem, in most cases it would be resolved, it is because of at least another "tribe", no one now thinks nationally. Our efforts should now be, not to surface top on national politics before tackling our own problems. For example, in Acoliland other people still feel marginalised, what were the causes? Have we done something about it? Do we really have that togetherness feeling of being a common people? If that is not yet cleared from our throats, I feel, we can not yet jump to be Ugandans, and start having the feeling of Ugandaness. I would then say, in exaggerated form, before Abernego Ongom agrees with Jovino Akaki, he must first agree with Olum Zachary; before Norbert Lam Mao condemns violation of Human Rights in Uganda, he must first clear up the one in Acoli (which is what he has ever been doing-thanks to him); and before Owiny Dollo says there is peace in Uganda, he must first check at home. This is what I mean with the de-centralisation of political efforts. We should not start by thinking nationally at all, nowadays nobody or tribe hears what we say unless we support them.

Decentralisation of Economic / Business efforts. Somehow, businesses in Uganda are mainly for consumer goods. This makes it viable to operate a private business where the market is (i.e. where more people live). There are definitely very many Acolis who are capable of operating sizeable firms which employ some 50 to 100 or more people each. I would have three appeals to make:

-Try to locate them in our region. (Acoliland) where the majority workers are Acoli.
-If for some reason, say the present insecurity, you cannot put it in the North, please try to employ as many Acolis as possible. Through this you are going to feed very many Acoli whose number you cannot guess.
-If you are employed by an Acoli in his business, do not milk his business and start planning to "begin building in 6 months", because if this business fails you are endangering very many Acoli-lives who depend on this business for normal survival.

I appreciate so much the work of Mr. Justine Okeny and Mr. Dwonga for their efforts to cater for employment opportunities for Acolis in the south. These two men operate Vita Foam and Gulu Foam, and because of insecurity the latter had to be put near the former in Jinja. This is exactly the spirit I would encourage to exist among the Acolis. Instead of personal pride with riches, one could sacrifice that and bring the others near him. The Indians have managed to survive in very many foreign lands with this kind of relationship.

What strategies can we resort to, in order to de-centralise our efforts from Kampala? Encourage very many Acolis to put their permanent buildings in Acoliland. The construction alone is source of employment and secondly it ties those owners to Acoliland.

Encourage business establishments in Acoli, so that employment opportunities are increased.

Acolis should establish their own public body say, "charity body" or "Heritage body" where they spend their hard earned moneys for the purpose of constructing their land with their own means. This, I suppose, shall tie people to their land and make them proud to be themselves.

NB: It is not easy to destroy something when you constructed them by shedding your own sweat. We should start learning that not everything must come from the central government. Is it not a pride if the road from Kitgum to Gulu was "tarmacadamised" by Acolis themselves? Once we have done something on our own, Acoli can turn out to be an example to the rest of the 'nationalities' in Uganda and people shall regret having killed us.

We should maintain the trust among ourselves and trusts on us. Remember it is now an unwritten qualification now existing in Uganda, i.e. The relatively more trusted accountants come from our areas, it might not be a reality, but it is a quality that should never be lost. Whatever we may produce in Acoli should be of distinguish quality, this is the only way with which we can beat our rivals.

No Acoli should voluntarily study anything which he cannot use in Acoliland for immediate development. And emphasis should be diverted from university qualifications to technical or vocational apprenticeships. Technical workers are badly needed in our land now. Instead of demanding a university, we could ask for four more technical schools or vocational training centres.

Is this idea still a new one?
In my feelings, this is not new, but few Acoli have taken it seriously. In the last ten years Acolis have made tremendous efforts to cope with the rest of Ugandans. This was mainly from the young generation in Gulu and Kitgum where one can see very many businesses and buildings springing up. There were also some foreign factors which led to that kind of development. I consider the following foreign factors as being very crucial in the building spree in North. The threat people had from loosing their static wealth [cattle], some of them had to put the whole kraal in their pockets in form of liquid cash. This wealth now was dynamic enough to start going from one owner to another giving chance for other goods also to move. In the intermediary, compensation came for some people who lost their cattle, these people got the compensation in form of liquid money and decided to put all of them in buildings or businesses. The threat that Indians would come back and reclaim their properties also pressurised people to put up their own soon. Most of the Acolis who were outside Uganda due to the present situation in their Country learnt very many things. Especially those in Europe got chances to see how simple it is for a person to erect a house without any big government [public] job, most of them toiled and started erecting buildings. Some people who were evicted from job and government houses in Kampala, but still had some money also put some structures for themselves. Here we have to make two observations:

It actually took a lot of foreign factors, among other things, to force Acolis to think of those businesses or houses, why couldn't they think at that time when there was peace.

It is not difficult, by the way, for Acolis to realise what is good for them. The adjustment, although a recent issue shows that we have slowly realised the importance of Kitgum and Gulu for us as Acoli in Uganda. Now imagine, we had started a long time ago, say before independence, to think about Gulu and Kitgum like this, how far would we have gone with employment, business, shelter and all the social requirements?

WE SHOULD LEARN NOT ONLY TO BE PROUD OF ACOLI WHEN WE ARE IN PIECES, WE SHOULD ALSO BE PROUD OF ACOLI WHEN WE ARE IN PEACE.

There is nothing which cannot be stopped if it can be started, and the same applies to the insecurity in our Acoliland. The only medicine to the situation prevailing is to stick to our Moto; RIBBE AYE TEKO

Thank you.