Religion is Key to Conflict and Peace in Northern Uganda
DEVELOPMENTS
The most violent hotspot in Africa right now is not the Darfur region of Sudan. Nor is it Somalia or Zimbabwe. The deadliest place in Africa today is in northeastern Congo, where the elusive Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an insurgency that originated in northern Uganda in the 1980s, is wreaking havoc on defenseless Congolese communities. Since September 2008, LRA fighters have attacked dozens of villages and towns, killing over 1,000 civilians and displacing close to 200,000.
Over the years, international media coverage of the conflict has been devoted to the fighting’s religious dimensions. News outlets typically portray the LRA as being driven by a desire to lead Uganda based on the Ten Commandments. Additional attention has been given to Kony’s disturbing use of traditional, Christian, and even occasionally Muslim rituals to brainwash the children his fighters abduct and force to fight. Though there is ample reason to believe that Kony’s religious motivations are more strategic than genuine, the religious dimensions of the conflict’s history must be addressed to achieve sustainable peace.
BACKGROUND
The conflict in northern Uganda began in 1986 when Alice Auma founded the Holy Spirit Movement, a rebel army that aimed to overthrow President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner who had successfully led a rebellion to depose Milton Obote, a northerner. Auma used traditional and Christian beliefs, symbols, and rituals to articulate her cause and unite her soldiers. She claimed to be in the possession of a spirit called “Lakwena” which gave her and her fighters special powers. Alice Lakwena, as she came to be known, gained significant support from local communities—particularly from her Acholi tribe—who feared persecution and marginalization by the newly installed President.
Though the Acholi community is predominantly Christian—with Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Pentecostalism being the largest faith denominations in the area, along with a small Muslim community—local Christian practice often includes a blend of traditional and animist rituals. In particular, a central element of traditional Acholi beliefs is cen, a term encompassing a range of spirits whose interventions affect daily life. Lakwena gained stature by convincing her fighters and community that she could control these spirits.
After Lakwena’s defeat in 1988, Joseph Kony stepped in, claiming to possess the same spiritual powers. He named his new rebel outfit the Lord’s Resistance Army, ostensibly committed to defending the Ten Commandments.
But Kony constructed an entirely new moral order, based on using terror and fear to achieve his goals. When he did not gain support from local communities, he began attacking them, claiming to be “cleansing” the Acholi population. To fill his ranks, he resorted to abducting children. LRA captives typically experience baptism by various rituals and are forced to become sex slaves or soldiers in the rebel army. Tens of thousands of children have met this fate in the more than two decades of the war.
In the years to come, Kony’s band of fighters evolved into a regional menace, serving as a proxy force for Sudan’s Khartoum government against the South in that country’s civil war. Influenced by the Islamic government in Khartoum, LRA rituals are said to have gained some Muslim characteristics in this period. In 2005, the LRA spread into the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.
Two years of peace negotiations with Kony broke down in late 2008. When the rebel leader refused to sign the final peace agreement and resumed attacks on civilians, regional governments launched a new offensive against LRA bases. Aiming to kill or capture Kony and demolish the LRA’s fighting force, the attacks failed, instead provoking the LRA to retaliate with a killing spree unlike any in the war’s two-decade history, which continues today.
At present, no peaceful resolution to the war seems attainable, and military options have likewise failed to end the LRA’s atrocities. With the rest of the world not seized of the matter, the cult-like LRA is likely to have a lease on life for some time to come.
ANALYSIS
Though the LRA originally arose from the political grievances and religious characteristics of the Acholi community, it has evolved into a senseless killing machine, devoid of legitimate cause to continue. Urgent action is needed to stop the LRA’s campaign of violence, followed by investment in long-term recovery and reconciliation for affected communities. A successful strategy must incorporate religious and cultural dimensions.
For example, Kony’s reliance upon religion to exert control over his fighters could be the rebel group’s undoing. He motivates his abductees to fight primarily by convincing them of his unique spiritual power. Therefore, if Kony is removed, the LRA is likely to unravel. A concerted international effort to arrest Kony and other top LRA commanders is needed to end the immediate violence. To limit casualties, such an effort will require planning, coordination, and expertise far superior to previous attempts.
Building sustainable peace, however, will require much more. The divisions between northern and southern Uganda that gave rise to the war will have to be reconciled, and robust investment will be needed to rebuild the communities destroyed by the war. Two key institutions, Ker Kwaro Acholi and the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI), are currently working hand in hand to lead faith-based reconciliation and peacebuilding efforts within northern Uganda. Ker Kwaro Acholi is comprised of traditional Acholi elders, and ARLPI is an interfaith initiative which includes Catholic, Anglican, Pentecostal, and Muslim leaders.
Both Ker Kwaro Acholi and ARLPI have sought to counteract Kony’s claims to religious authority. They have gone on radio programs to invite LRA fighters to escape from the rebel army and return home, and they have helped mediate peace processes. With the support of their communities, they have conducted traditional and religious ceremonies to cleanse villages where death has occurred and to help reintegrate former LRA fighters back into their communities. Clearing the path for national reconciliation and investment in the region, such initiatives will be crucial if Uganda’s cycle of violence is to be ended and a true culture of peace developed.
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Michael Poffenberger is the Executive Director of Resolve Uganda, an advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. Maria Presley is pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.