THE PEOPLE AND OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST

Note: 2 postings today!

THE ACHOLI PERSONALITY--VIGNETTES

Acellum is one of the evening guards. One early morning while I was out on the porch reading, I met him, and he told me his story. In ’94 (at 11 years old) he was abducted by the LRA and forced to become a soldier. He did not tell me the details of his time in the LRA, but he said that if I were to meet him then, I would be extremely scared of him, that he was a very mean man. He was fighting in southern Sudan when, as he put it, “The Lord opened my eyes, and I became born again.” In 2004, he escaped with his wife and children to Gulu. His ancestral land had been sold, so he is now renting property, has 3 children and is struggling to make ends meet and find school fees for those children who are in school.

While a colleague of mine (Catherine) and I were walking to town, we ran into a young lady she had met the year before. This lady had a deformed face, in particular around the jaw area, and she was carrying a one-year-old on her back. Later, Catherine told me that she had been abducted by the LRA at 12 and served as a sex slave. Her face showed part of the abuse she had undergone. Her child’s father was an LRA soldier, but she named the child “Peace.”

Aliker David is an education officer for IC; he’s responsible for our school and teacher assignments. In the first week, he facilitated several meetings regarding the impact of colonialism on education as well as the effects of the war on the educational process. He noted that when the ICC (International Criminal Court) was set up in Uganda in 2002, it was not welcomed by the Acholi because of its position to prosecute the LRA insurgents. The Acholi did not want to be told how to treat the criminals; they wanted to forgive. David emphasized, “Justice is reconciliation.”

This surprised me in view of his story. When David was a young boy, he had been abducted with his brother and a friend. Before arriving at the LRA camp, he and his brother managed to escape; to this day he does not know what happened to his friend. Of his class of 44 students, only 5 graduated from secondary school—many of his classmates were abducted, some murdered, some have just “disappeared.” Yet he spoke of what the Acholi have named “mato oput,” the Acholi term for reconciliation.

I asked someone later what “mato oput” really meant and was told that it is a meeting between 2 people who are enemies—usually one that has been abused by the other. They meet to dialogue and decide together to end the feud. Then they eat a meal out of the same bowl and drink from the same glass to signify that they are now brothers. (This explanation sent chills up and down my spine and brought tears to my eyes.)

We were scheduled to have a night out on the town, and since I wasn’t feeling well, I decided to sleep a little. When I awoke, it was pitch black (no street lights here!), and there was no one to go into town with. I decided to venture out on my own and see if I could find a bodaboda on the way. As I was walking, I heard a male voice behind me, “Excuse me madam. Could I speak? Please?” I tried to ignore it, but the man behind the voice caught up with me (I can tell you that my heart was beating about a million times/minute!) Then he asked me if I was from the IC house and that he was looking for Jamie, our house coordinator (I was relieved). I told him that Jamie was still at the house. He continued to walk with me, and we both tried to flag down a bodaboda. We walked quite a way until finally we found one that was free. Then he said, “Okay, now I go back to the house,” and he turned around and left. It only hit me afterwards that he walked that distance with me to make sure I was safe.

The Acholi speak softly, smile easily and, warm up to you quickly. Once they know you, they treat you like family.

INTERESTING NOTES

The women and young girls carry everything on their heads: 20-litre (4-gallon) “jerry cans” full of water, a tied up bundle of firewood, often cut in 10 ft. long, thick branches, 50 lb. bags of rice…it’s amazing. I also saw a woman dancing with a crate of soda bottles on her head. They load their bikes in the same fashion—everything from furniture to a whole family of five, baby wrapped on the back of mom.

Ugandans—in the capitol or in the countryside—are very clean. They wash their hands before every meal. Each restaurant has a big barrel of water with a spicket at the bottom and a catch bucket below—and they provide soap. Restaurants who do not provide this will have soap and a bowl of water brought to the table before the food is served. They also eat with their hands; the starchy foods—potatoes, rice, posha (corn), cassava—serve as a utensil to scoop up the beans and other soupier parts of the meal.

GREETINGS, DRESS, and other CUSTOMS

Greetings are very important to a Ugandan. If you meet someone, whether in the street or at school, and you’ve already been introduced, you better greet him (which means shaking his hand and saying a greeting). They have about 20 ways to say “Hello, How are you?” and I have learned nearly all of them since they are so widely used. They also have a special way to greet elders or people of higher position. While you shake right hands, you place your left one under your right elbow. Also, if they know you (and sometimes when they first meet you if they feel a connection with you), they will give you a handshake, then a “thumbshake” or just hold your hand the whole time they are speaking to you.

Also, it is perfectly fine for men (or women) to hold hands while they walk together, but you never see couples showing affection of any type in public.

School dress for women is always a long skirt (or dress), a shirt with cap sleeve or more and covered shoes (although my teachers told me that no one follows that rule anymore). Men are supposed to wear ties, but I haven’t seen too many apart from the headmaster (principal) that do.

It is very offensive for a woman to show any part of her body from the waist to the knee. She must wear a slip underneath her skirt in case the outline of her legs could be seen through the skirt in the light. If it is a little short (where the knee would show when sitting down), she could also wear leggings to make sure the knee stays well covered. Most women do not wear bras and many wear very low cut or even transparent tops; they also breastfeed in public. The big deal is the “thigh”—In passing, I saw a man reading a tabloid with this insert on the front: “Women charges 20,000 UGX to touch her thigh.”

Doreen is our (wonderful) cook and Agnus, our housekeeper/laundry lady. They take their jobs very seriously and are almost insulted if we help with the cleaning up; in their culture helping them would mean they are not doing their jobs properly (shucks—can’t do the dishes!). Also, when our water tanks are empty, and someone needs to go to the local well to get some H2O, Doreen is the only one who goes, as many trips as it takes. Yes, so against our nature not to offer help, but if we go, she would be talked about by the other women in the community because she was not doing her job. It makes me realize that we may have the best intentions, but if we do not really understand the people and/or their culture before acting we could offend or even hurt many.

NAMES

Acholi names have great meaning; many parents name their child after an event that occurred around the time their child was born or something to do with the circumstances of their birth. Usually the boys’ names begin with “O” and the girls’ equivalent begins with “A.” For example, a male named Odoch was a breech (sp?) baby; the female would be Adoch. Okello means he followed twins (Akello for women). Otim/Atim = born in a foreign land. Olum means grass—Olum told me his mother didn’t have time to get to the hospital, so he was born in a field. Ojok means the bearer has some physical deformity.

A student (English) teacher is called Kikweranono, which is the Acholi term for “Why do you hate me when I am innocent.” He told me that his mother was not accepted by her husband’s family, and he was the firstborn. (Once married, the couples initially go to live with the husband’s family until they can afford their own housing. They often stay with or near that family for the remainder of their marriage.)

Doreen, our cook, named her first son Torach (death is bad) because her father had died, and she could not afford to continue her studies on her own (she had to marry to survive). Her second son is Odal (you’ve wasted your time) because she felts she had wasted her time, not having finished her studies. She always wanted to be a lawyer, and now her older son is attending university and successfully studying law.

They are also given a Christian name. Sometimes they introduce themselves only with their Christian names because they know it will be easier for us, but a lot of the time, they give you both. Some of the Christian names are a hoot! Our day guard’s name is Abraham Lincoln, and I have a student named Tony Blair!