Hey friends, family, and anyone else who stumbles across this blog. I here it is real chilly in
Cinci. It has been beautiful in San Diego. Actually, seasonably warm, in the 70's! I started work at Invisible Children last Monday and we got right into it. We have learned about the history of the war in Northern Uganda, which I will brief you on what I know. Here is the short version.
There has been a civil war raging in Northern Uganda for about 22 years, now going across borders. BUT, this conflict has been going on far longer, which has been about 100 years.
Starting in the 1830's
Arabic's came down to Northern Uganda by the Nile and
abducted the people there. They called them
Acholi meaning "I am human". In the 1860's the British came into the country to find the source of the Nile, exploring. There was then the Berlin Conference which was this idea of dividing and
conquering, which was led by King Leopold of
Belgium. Eventually Protestant and Catholic missionaries came in and
stole peoples land. (ex. "Close your eyes to pray" then they took the peoples land!) By 1894 the Kingdom of Uganda was divided into tribes by the way they looked. This idea of
colonization stayed around.
Jumping to 1962, King
Mutesa became president and Uganda gained
Independence. Then this guy Milton
Obote, well, the Prime Minister, basically said "F you
Mutesa" and overthrew
Mutesa's reign.
Obote then decides to go to Singapore for a commonwealth summit and asks this guy
Idi Amin (who was apart of the British colonial regiment) to watch over while he was gone (they had already had some tension between them though). While
Amin was watching over, he decided to take over. About 300,000+/- ended up dead through this military coup, ethnic persecution, and political repression. (1971)
Then....this guy who goes by the nickname M-7 (
Yoweri Museveni) who was in his 20's and going to school in
Darsalam gets together with his
roomates and friends (
Gurang,
Kigami,
Kibila...I think that's how you spell them) to take over east Africa.
Amin was exiled.
Obote decided to take over again, after
Museveni took over.
Museveni said "No way
Obote!" This is when 100-300,000 more died through this conflict. A theory is that
Museveni and his crew would dress up like
Obote and his
regeim and blame
Obote for killings...ex. "Look at what
Obote did".
1985- Tito
Okello (was president for 6 months) took sides with M-7(
Museveni) and they meet in Nairobi, Kenya to sign an agreement to share power. They came back to Uganda and he decided to tell
Okello to peace out and leave. (People think they can never trust him because he was unfaithful to his signing in Kenya with
Okello). M-7's army came in to take over while that agreement was going on. (lots of back stabbing in history) This is when it all started....
1986-The Holy Spirit Movement (
HSM) came in to play, led by Alice
Lakwena. They were supporting a spiritual movement focusing on the ten commandments and promoting peace. This faltered and a man by the name of Joseph
Kony said "Hey I am her cousin". He took control of this movement and transformed it into the
LRA (Lord's Resistant Army). They did not get the same support as the
HSM got because of their extreme tactics, so with not as much support these rebels resorted to abducting children and putting them in their ranks. (and estimate is 90% of the
LRA's troops are children) Some really intense stuff!
This is why many children started commuting at night (finding a place to hide), so the
LRA would not abduct them to be in their army at night time. Through the efforts of the international community there has been more attention put on this crisis. In 2001 the
LRA was listed as a terrorist organization. 3 peace agreements have been met on and signed, but there are 2 more agendas remaining. (5 agenda items have to be agreed on). It's getting close to an end, and we can smell the peace ahead.
All of this said, this is why I am on this tour. I want to get the word out about what is happening in Northern Uganda. The
LRA is moving into the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan, and maybe moving into the Central African Republic still
abducting children with the youngest on his front line. This is a political movement and we want to see people raise a voice this year about it.
I will write more, soon, about my thoughts, but for now...keep it humble. Love you guys.
