Child to Soldier: Stories from Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army

by Opiyo Oloya

  There is a need, too, for more comparative studies that look at the experiences of Acholi children and children elsewhere around the globe that are caught in civil conflicts as CI soldiers. Specifically, as the findings in this study suggest in a limited way, more research is needed on how culture might be subverted, manipulated, and deployed in the destructive dynamics of making children become part of the machinery of war. Moreover, such research could delve into the notion of whether children are clueless, helpless, and incapable victims caught in the midst of violent and disruptive conflicts or, as the experiences of LRM/A CI soldiers demonstrate, survivors who utilize various elements of their own culture to survive the experience of war. In fact, while the LRM/A created an Acholi community within which it subverted Acholi culture for war and violence, it also, perhaps unwittingly, simulated relationships of families and community in a manner that enabled its child combatants to retain the desired identity developed prior to abduction (Bruner, 1985; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wertsch, 1985; Wertsch, 1991). The web of relationships that the CI combatants established while in LRM/captivity allowed them to retain their sense of themselves as dano adana.

  In concluding, as they return home, one by one, the former CI soldiers who fought for their lives in the bush as part of the LRM/A have little education, no skills to get good jobs, and plenty of war wounds. Yet they have not given up hope either. After their bitter experiences of suffering in the bush, all my informants are working to better their lives and those of their dependants. ‘Suffering,’ Payaa said, ‘taught me how to endure living on this earth, anywhere.’ Indeed, a case can be made that, in reconnecting with their communities, they are learning to live with death and destruction, pain and suffering. These CI soldiers are practical examples of living with hope without forgetting the past. Their optimism about the future is also the Acholis’ hope for regeneration, renewal, and return to a vibrant culture in which children are children.

  Notes

  Introduction

  1 The Lord’s Resistance Movement/Army is one of numerous insurgencies that arose after President Yoweri Museveni captured power in 1986. Based in southern Sudan and operating mostly in eastern and northern Uganda, the LRM/A is reported by UNICEF to have abducted as many as 20,000 children over a period of ten years.

  2 My father would later add two more wives to his household, but this happened after I had left home and was already either studying at Makerere University in Kampala or living in exile in Canada.

  3 Likely a derivative of ‘Trigger,’ a nom du guerre.

  4 The World Vision Center is run by the international-based, non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) World Vision. It receives and cares for former CI soldiers who were either captured from or released by the LRM/A, or escaped, prior to reuniting them with family members.

  5 I was struck by the absence of anger among the CI soldiers and their somewhat fatalistic attitude about what had happened to them. Jami time ku meno (That’s how it is) was a phrase repeated by many of the children we spoke to at the time.

  6 Beyond the battlefield, the fate of CI soldiers is fiercely contested by international organizations such as Coalition for Child Soldiers and UNICEF which champion their immediate and unconditional release from captivity and military service, even as rebel and military and paramilitary organizations claim de facto control over them. In the case of Uganda, the government of President Yoweri Museveni has recruited into the national army CI soldiers who escaped or were rescued from the LRM/A.

  7 Cape Town Principles and Best Practices on the Prevention of Recruitment of Children into the Armed Forces and on Demobilization and Social Reintegration of CI soldiers in Africa were adopted in April 1997 at a symposium held in Cape Town, South Africa, that was organized by UNICEF and other NGOs working on behalf of CI soldiers. See Kendra E. Dupuy and Krijn Peters, War and children: A reference handbook (ABC-Clio 2010), and a pamphlet by Jean Claude Legrand (1997) titled Cape Town principles and best practices (New York: UNICEF).

  1. Conceptual and Practical Challenges

  1 Tekidi is believed to have been located in present-day Sudan and to be the first major settlement of the Luo, who would later give rise to the Acholi people.

  2 ‘Kuturia’ is likely a vernacularized corruption of ‘Equatoria,’ a province of the Egyptian empire which extended through Sudan to northern Uganda in the 1800s, and which enabled Arab slave traders to extend their hold on part of Acholiland, plundering, taking slaves, and levying taxes. The brutal period that saw much of Acholi in turmoil and in constant war was ended when the British explorer Sir Samuel Baker reached Acholiland in 1864, stopping the slave trade and generally bringing some measure of peace, albeit for a short time.

  3 ‘Bantu,’ according to the colonial ethnic typology, covers most part of south, western, and eastern Africa.

  4 According to the colonial classification, ‘Nilotics’ or Nilotes, people living along the Nile, were generally tall and lean; they are predominantly found in northern Uganda and southern Sudan. Although there are many different languages and cultures among the Nilotes, there is a tendency to regard them as one homogenous group. The resentment that built up against Idi Amin, during his years in power from 1971 to 1979, was later directed at the Acholi, who were seen as ‘Amin’s people’ because of the geographical proximity of Acholi to Arua, Amin’s hometown.

  5 The constitutional crisis of 1966 marked the beginning of an enduring enmity between the Baganda and the Luo generally; Obote was a Luo. The writer made notes of Oyite Ojok’s speech in his diary, and later discussed the implications of the general’s claims in two public addresses on the same day in Gulu town, at Sacred Heart Secondary School and Alokolum Seminary. An address at Layibi College was cancelled when some students threatened violence.

  2. Gwooko Dog Paco (Defending the Homestead),Cultural Devastation, and the LRM/A

  1 Shaka, king of the Zulu, is described as a military genius who, between 1788 and 1828, built an empire in southern Africa that stretched from the Cape to the Zambezi. He kept a standing army and made many changes in the way war was fought in Africa, including the use of assegai (short spears) and shields. His soldiers were also known for wearing slippers on long marches.

  2 Sundiata Keita (c. 1210–60) was the founder of the Mali empire. He is now regarded as a great magician-king, the national hero of the Malinke-speaking people, and one of the greatest empire builders in West Africa.

  3 Mutesa I (c. 1838–84) was a kabaka, or monarch, of Buganda in the nineteenth century. Under his leadership, Buganda became a powerful and influential kingdom in East Africa.

  4 Olara Otunnu, UN under-secretary general for children and armed conflict, in a lecture titled ‘Innocent victims: Protecting children in times of conflict,’ in London, Wednesday, 20 October, 1999. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/children/conflict/english/20oct1999millenn.html (14 February 2009).

  5 Observers believe that this was one of the most bizarre battles ever fought, with HSM soldiers spending much of their time singing rather than fighting, and, although this initially confused the NRA soldiers, many HSM soldiers were killed.

  6 In an interview in March 2000 with a group of freed former child combatants in Gulu Army Barracks, several informants reported that Kony, when referring to Museveni, often used the president’s first name and incorrectly claimed that ‘Yoweri’ meant lating opoko (carrier of the gourd). Before Museveni’s coming to power, cattle herders from western Uganda found employment in Acholiland as herders, generally caring for livestock in the community in return for selling the milk. Though generally respected by the Acholi community, these itinerant herders were sometimes looked down upon, seen as good for looking after cattle and nothing else; hence the reference to ‘opoko carriers.’ The opoko, a long-necked gourd, is used by herders to carry milk to market. The LRM/A likely used the image of the opoko carrier to convince its child fighters that the resistance war against Museveni would be short and successful, presumably because a cattle her
der could not possibly be a good soldier.

  3. Culture, Identity, and Control in the LRM/A

  1 In the now well-publicized video of the failed 1993–4 peace talks, the appearance of LRM/A leader Joseph Kony was heralded by a group of young rebel fighters singing Christian hymns while a catechist dressed in a white robe and wearing a large cross sprinkled unknown liquids on the ground on which the leader later walked. Kony spoke at length at the gathering, referring often to God and making biblical references such as ‘the time will come when lamb with lie down with the leopards.’

  2 After she was abducted on 4 February 1974 in Berkeley, California, by a black radical group known as the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), Patricia Hearst adopted the name ‘Tania,’ wielded machine-guns to help rob banks and convenience stores, and appeared ready to kill to defend the members of the radical organization (Graebner, 2008, 159–61; Hearst, Reeves, & United States District Court for California Northern District, 1976).

  3 Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart of Federal Heights, Salt Lake City, Utah, was snatched from her bedroom in the early hours of 5 June 2002 and kept in captivity for nine months by Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Ileen Barzee. When questioned by suspicious authorities in March 2003, Smart, who was veiled and wearing a wig, denied her identity and instead claimed that her name was Augustine, and seemed concerned about what would happen to Mitchell and Barzee (Haberman & MacIntosh, 2003; Grady, 2003; Krakauer, 2003).

  4 Shawn Hornbeck, who was abducted by Michael Devlin on 6 October 2002, lived in captivity for four and a half years and eventually adopted his abductor’s last name and became Shawn Devlin. Although he reported a stolen mountain bike to police, Hornbeck never revealed to them that he was the missing boy from Richwoods, Missouri (Sauerwein, 2008).

  5 Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped on 11 June 1991 in South Lake Tahoe, California, while on her way to school (Schneider, 1991), remained in captivity for almost eighteen years, and revealed her true identity only when she was confronted by campus officers at the University of California at Berkeley in August 2009. By then, she had had two children with her abductor, Philip Garrido, aged eleven and fifteen (Young & Bane, 2009).

  6 ‘Battle of the Bank Vault,’ Time 82 (18 October 1973): 38–9.

  7 In ‘The Six Day War in Stockholm’ (New Scientist, 61, no. 886 [1974]: 486–7), Nils Bejerot reveals that the pressure from the public was intense to give in to the demands of the hostage takers. It would appear, therefore, that Enmark seemed to reflect the public mood that authorities were being unreasonably firm in not giving in.

  8 ‘Battle of the Bank Vault,’ Time, 38–9.

  9 In the 1990s, dreadlocks became a fad for some Uganda musicians who mostly lived in the larger cities like Kampala and Jinja. In Acholi villages, however, dreadlocks are seen as unhygienic and have an aura of mystery.

  10 Behrend (1999) notes the special purification ritual undertaken after such a killing: ‘The warriors, who were considered impure, sacrificed a black and white billy goat in the bush by running it through with a spear. The men present then collected firewood with their left hands, to make a fire on which they roasted the animal without adding salt. After the meal, they gathered up the bones, threw them in the fire, laid twigs over them, and stamped out the flames until they were extinguished. I was told that the sacrificial animal was killed to pacify the cen, the evil, vengeance seeking spirits of the enemies, who had been killed’ (42).

  11 The controller yard, or the one who controls the yard, was usually a senior member of the LRM/A. According to Dolan (2009), the controllers are chosen by ‘the holy spirit’ and are ‘always men’ (303).

  12 For the U.S. military’s perspective on fraternization, see Major Kevin W. Carter, ‘Fraternization,’ Military Law Review, 113, no. 61 (1986): 77–135.

  13 It is interesting to note that, during the 1993–4 peace talks between the LRM/A and the government of Uganda, rebel leader Joseph Kony respectfully referred to government negotiator Betty Bigombe as ‘Mami’ (mother).

  14 My informants told me that girl-child abductees were married soon after experiencing their first menstrual cycles, and many became pregnant as teens.

  4. The Jola Amayo Stories

  1 A form of hide and seek usually played in the evening where the ‘it’ is blindfolded and his/her back is rhythmically thumped, while all the other children look for safe hiding places. When the thumping ends, the ‘it’ must now search for the hidden playmates – the first person the ‘it’ discovers becomes the ‘it,’ and the game continues.

  2 Kabir is a millet type used in the making of Acholi drinks such as kweete and lacooyi. Radio kabir refers to rumours that are fuelled by a drink or two, and that often are greatly exaggerated depending on how much the storyteller has drunk.

  3 The battle between the UPDF and LRM/A in Nisitu took place not in 1997, as Jola Amayo says, but in early 2002. Uganda formally signed an agreement with Sudan in 2002 allowing the UPDF to pursue the LRM/A inside Sudan in what became known as Operation Iron Fist. The Uganda Monitor of 23 March 2002 reported that a Captain Nsereko of 4 Division Gulu was missing in southern Sudan and was ‘feared dead or captured’ (Kibirige, 2002a). Later, on 28 March, the Monitor stated that Captain Ssekabojja was ‘among Uganda soldiers killed in Sudan’ in firefights with the LRM/A (Kibirige, 2002b), and on 31 March it reported that earlier in February UPDF Captain Bbosa was killed in southern Sudan. It is possible that one of these officers was the casualty Jola Amayo refers to in her narrative. If so, this brings into question when her son Otim was actually born and how old he was when she shot a UPDF captain with Otim tied to her back.

  Another possibility is that the 1997 battle refers to a clash between the LRM/A and the SPLM/A, when the latter overran the position of the former at Aruu Junction (Schomerus, 2007, 21). The question then would be about the identity of the dead captain whom Jola Amayo killed, whether he was part of the SPLM/A or a UPDF officer who had accompanied SPLM/A fighters into Sudan. The latter scenario, though unlikely because of the later date of the official agreement allowing Uganda troops in Sudan, is not inconceivable.

  5. The Ringo Otigo Stories

  1 As discussed below, the date of Ringo’s abduction conflicts with a key event in which he was both a witness and a participant. The abduction of 139 girls from St Mary’s Secondary School in Aboke occurred on the evening of 10 October 1996, about two or three days after Ringo’s own abduction. His detailed eyewitness account of the key events that happened when the Aboke girls were abducted provides support for his claim that he was physically present at the time. The date he gives for his own abduction could therefore be a slip of memory or simply a wishful attempt to bring it closer to another key event in his life, his birthday. A more probable explanation is that children undergoing the transformation into soldiers are subjected to the most intense emotional and psychological stresses that make them oblivious to all but the most salient events during that period.

  2 It is not surprising that Otigo’s figures conflict with those given in de Temmerman’s Aboke Girls: Children Abducted in Northern Uganda. The account by Otigo is mostly from the point of view of an abductee who was privy only to some of the details of the transaction.

  3 The Dinka, one of the main ethnic groups in southern Sudan, made up the bulk of the SPLM/A, which was fighting the Khartoum government. In 1995 an agreement signed in Nairobi, Kenya, between the government of Sudan and the SPLM/A, led by Dr John Garang, created the semi-autonomous Government of South Sudan (GOSS). In 2011, after a referendum, the Republic of South Sudan became a fully independent state.

  Conclusion

  1 The movie Blood Diamond, for example, does end on a positive note as the main character escapes the killing field, but, generally, it stereotypes the child combatant as a victim.

  2 Strong and sustained advocacy has resulted in hard-won rights for children, starting with the UN’s enactment of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989 and its adoption o
f the optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict in May 2000. According to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (2004), the adoption of the optional protocol by the General Assembly was a clear signal that ‘it was no longer acceptable to use children in war.’

  3 Sverker Finnstrom, in chapter 6 of his book Living with Bad Surroundings, discusses in detail the uprooted pumpkin proverb in context of the Acholi crisis today (Finnstrom, 2008, 197–232).

  4 I witnessed first-hand the degradation of Acholi culture in March 2000 when I visited Pagak camp for the burial of a Gulu city councillor. I did not know the deceased but the occasion provided me an opportunity to visit the displaced-persons camp near Awer, twelve kilometres west of Gulu town. On arrival, the Catholic Mass conducted near the graveside was already in progress. What struck me was the total lack of concern of other camp dwellers whose homes were contiguous to the home of the deceased. Instead of responding with what is known as ringo koko (running to cry on the grave of the deceased) (Ocitti, 1973, 23), most seemed unmoved and uninterested. This was the first indication I had that life in the camp was different from the life that I had experienced growing up in the village of Pamin-Yai.

  5 The answer to the problem of spontaneous fires in the Anaka camp, and in other camps for displaced persons, may actually be found on North American farms where hay is grown to feed livestock. Two weeks after my trip to the Anaka camp, I spoke by phone with Professor Lester Vough, a specialist in ‘forage crops extension’ and a leading expert on hay fire at the University of Maryland, who told me that the fires in Anaka are similar to hay fires on North American farms. He explained that, when freshly cut wet and green grass is piled in a heap, chemical reactions produce a steady amount of heat that is released into the bale. American farmers describe the rising temperature inside the pile of hay as ‘sweating’ or ‘going through a heat.’ Over time, especially when the moisture cannot escape, heat is trapped inside the hay and the temperature may build dangerously. At about 150 degrees Fahrenheit, the hay turns black and spontaneous fire can begin in the haystack. Vough speculated that the people of the Anaka and other camps were thatching their homes with wet fresh green grass, which indeed was true. ‘When you think about it, green grass does not usually burn by itself, but when left in a thick mat, the green grass begins to decay thereby releasing heat which builds in six to eight weeks into the potential for fire,’ he told me.