Abstract
Access to land for the Acholi people of northern Uganda still has much in common with understandings of the pre-colonial situation. This paper reflects on how collective landholding has faced over a century of hostile policy promoting land as private property. The notion of coloniality arises in this confrontation: the failure of communication ensuing from understanding Acholi social ordering in terms of false entities; and the foregrounding of land as object. The durability of colonial mechanisms emerges in processes such as the codification of the principles and practices of Acholi ‘customary land’. Pressure for land reform is driven by external bodies, UN agencies, donor governments and international NGOs, claiming to be seeking to protect the interest of the poor. Yet these offer no respite for the growing numbers of landless people – the colonial agenda appears to have its own momentum, serving no one’s interests. Meanwhile misunderstandings and misrepresentations of land holding groups entrenches the subaltern voicelessness of their members, isolating them from any support in dealing with the challenges of too many people on not enough land.
Highlights
Colonial durabilities are typically discussed in contexts of extreme violence and its legacies
Europeans have sought to describe Acholi landholding since they first visited the region in the 1860s and have articulated a need for it to change ever since
Following the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) war, the UN and other donors, in partnership with NGO allies have increased their efforts, coinciding with real problems arising from localised land poverty and the emergence of a class of people with weak family ties
Summary
Colonial durabilities are typically discussed in contexts of extreme violence and its legacies. Access to land for the Acholi people of northern Uganda still has much in common with understandings of the pre-colonial situation.
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