Regional and ethnic identities: the Acholi of Northern Uganda, 1950-1968

Abstract

Ethnic conflict in post-independence Uganda was a consequence of the confrontation between strong, ethnically divided local institutions and the post-colonial push for political centralisation, under the guise of nation building. To strengthen one, the other had to be weakened. Self-governance meant that the stakes for political power sharpened at national and local levels, ensuring that ethnic antipathies became more pronounced. Politicians who had succeeded within local politics were elevated to represent their various ethnic groups at the centre. However, these politicised ethnic demarcations were not, and should not, be considered a product of the Ugandan post-colonial state. Rather, they were a continuation of colonial political structures that had emphasised locality, ethnicities and the 'tribe'. These were the same power structures that were embedded within Ugandan politics at the eve of independence. Uganda remains regionally divided between the 'North' and the 'South'....