on Uganda…
My response to this PBS Wide Angle special (link here) on Uganda for the MAICCD program…
My first reaction when it comes to understanding Uganda is to take a step back. I have no frame of reference for relating to the people there. They have seen things and have been forced to live through situations that I can barely even fathom. In February of 2008 I had the opportunity to travel to Uganda and spend two weeks at an orphanage there. One of the things that has stuck with me since then is what one of the house moms told me. As we talked over a simple lunch of beans and posho she spoke quietly about how lucky I am to be an American. How I will get to go back to my home in a few days and they will still be in Uganda. Perhaps wisely I kept my mouth shut rather than try to rationalize some response about their lives being simpler and commenting on the joy they exhibit. As much as my group helped while we were there and as much as we loved playing and hanging out with the kids, there always will be a separation between the utopia we live in and the reality they live in.
As Betty Bigombe said in The Lords Children video the rehabilitation numbers are shockingly low for children who have been pressed into service with the LRA. Beah (2007), a former child soldier in the army of Sierra Leone, writes of a fight between rivals in a rehabilitation camp, “Perhaps the naive foreigners thought that removing us from the war would remove our hatred for the RUF [a rebel group in Sierra Leone]. It hadn’t crossed their minds that a change of environment wouldn’t immediately make us normal boys; we ewre dangerous, and brainwashed to kill.” Even those who respond well to counseling are faced with numerous challenges before they can reintegrate into society. You see some of the social stigma attached to this children by adults who believe the Devil has come into them. The Acholi cleansing rituals may indeed make a difference but if parents or extended family are unable to even attempt the ritual it makes little difference. On top of that, these children are returning to a society that has been devastated by 26 years of continual conflict and ravaged by AIDS and other diseases. According to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) as of January 2009 there are still 853,000 people living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. Furthermore, as hinted at in the film, like many African countries Uganda as a nation is an artificial creation of the European powers who ruled Africa during the colonial period. Tribal identity factors heavily in national politics. Although English is the official language of Uganda, there is a myriad of local tribal languages learned by children as their first language. This all to say that while the tide in the country may be turning toward reconciliation and rehabilitation, there are significant elements living in the southern half of the country and in the government for whom the north is of little concern. Sadly, Uganda’s child soldiers face a long hard road to recovery.
UNHCR page on Uganda: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e483c06#
Wikipedia page on Ugandan Demographics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda#Demographics
Beah, Ishmael. (2007). A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (pp 135). New York, New York: Sarah Crichton Books.
