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Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2017

Erin Baines
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
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Summary

We are trying to build a life for ourselves.

– Evelyn Amony

Amongst the war affected in northern Uganda, it is sometimes difficult to disentangle victims and perpetrators. For more than a decade, starting in the early 1990s, young Acholi boys and girls followed their parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts into one of the hundreds of displaced persons camps created by the Government of Uganda. The rebels abducted tens of thousands of children and youth, and if they did not escape or were not released shortly thereafter, they were trained, given a weapon and made to fight. As abducted girls matured, they were forced to marry rebel commanders and give birth, fulfilling the spiritual vision of its leader, Joseph Kony, to create a “New Acholi.” Most were brought to LRA bases in Sudan and, with little hope of escape, they settled to raise their children, run the home and orient newly abducted children. Others – their numbers unknown – were recruited into a camp militia and some later joined or were forced into the Ugandan military as soldiers, or wives to soldiers. Each party to the conflict – the rebels and the Ugandan military – terrorized the civilian population, displacing more young boys and girls, and the cycle continued. Those who avoided recruitment or abduction had to continue to dodge both parties. If either the rebels or soldiers came across civilians, they forced them to pledge allegiance to the cause. If they mixed up a rebel and a soldier – something that was easy to do in the dark, and because both parties to the conflict wore similar uniforms – they were accused of being traitors and punished. It was perhaps no surprise then that so many young men and women who did escape the rebels found it difficult to integrate within communities that had been afflicted and divided by more than two decades of violence. This extends to the children born in the rebel group.

Type
Chapter
Information
Buried in the Heart
Women, Complex Victimhood and the War in Northern Uganda
, pp. xi - xvii
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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  • Preface
  • Erin Baines, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
  • Book: Buried in the Heart
  • Online publication: 05 January 2017
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316480342.002
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Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Preface
  • Erin Baines, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
  • Book: Buried in the Heart
  • Online publication: 05 January 2017
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316480342.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preface
  • Erin Baines, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
  • Book: Buried in the Heart
  • Online publication: 05 January 2017
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316480342.002
Available formats
×