Kun Coo Kun Coo – Men for Men and the Curse in a Blessing: Gender and the Orature of War and Peace among the Acholi of Uganda

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe Acholi of Uganda are part of the greater Luo nation that migrated along the River Nile into East Africa. Taking ethnographic and qualitative approaches, I illustrate that Acholi orality comprises two main genera namely: oral anthology of factual narratives treated as te kwaro (roots of ancestry) and fictions (ododo). Both genres enrich contemporary understanding of Acholi relationship with war and peace through various artistic articulations, including songs, dances, life-stories and rituals. However, here, I mainly examine those examples of orality considered to be part of te kwaro to interrogate the stereotype of the Acholi as a warlike people. Relying on the roles women assumed in war and peace times in pre-colonial Acholi as ‘priestesses’ to veto or sanction a war, I demonstrate their aversion to war in three ways. Firstly, I identify oral traditions that portray the ritual sanctioning of war and peace in Acholi culture. Secondly, I revisit narratives of the experiences of two historical women and juxtapose these with an account of the death of a girl-child on the migratory route to show Acholi pursuit of peace. Thirdly, I analyse myel otole – the war dance and the Kalogi song, to illustrate that in Acholi, warfare is a gendered practice regulated through strict societal codes surrounding male and female domains. I conclude that when examining war and peace in Acholi it is crucial to understand the contributions of oral tradition to their social or cultural philosophies.