Politics Religion And The Lord S Resistance Army In Northern Uganda

Christianity, Politics and the Afterlives of War in Ugandasheds critical light on the complex and unstable relationship between Christianity and politics, and peace and war. Drawing on long-running ethnographic fieldwork in Uganda's largest religious communities, it maps the tensions and ironies found in the Catholic and Anglican Churches in the wake of war between the Lord's Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda. It shows how churches' responses to the war were enabled by their embeddedness in local communities. Yet churches' embeddedness in structures of historical violence made their attempts to nurture peace liable to compound conflict. At the heart of the book is the Acholi concept of anyobanyoba, 'confusion', which depicts an experienced sense of both ambivalence and uncertainty, a state of mixed-up affairs within community and an essential aspect of politics in a country characterized by the threat of state violence. Foregrounding vulnerability, the book advocates 'confusion' as an epistemological and ethical device, and employs it to meditate on how religious believers, as well as researchers, can cultivate hope amid memories of suffering and on-going violence.

In the international press, East Africa is depicted as a region mired in civil war, child abduction, rebel militias, Muslim-Christian violence, and grinding poverty. Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) of northern Uganda has become a symbol for the troubles of contemporary Africa. Seen from within, however, an altogether different reality is visible-one in which local communities and their leaders work together to resolve conflict and rebuild their communities. Little known beyond northern Uganda, The Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI) is an inspiring example of one such community organization. The story of ARLPI, examined in this book by philosopher David Hoekema, demonstrates just how much can be accomplished by a small group of dedicated community leaders in a situation where a decade of military force and international pressure have had little discernible effect. Drawing on published sources and interviews with organization leaders and LRA survivors, Hoekema illuminates how both the depredations of the LRA and the healing work of ARLPI are rooted in modern East African history. He documents the courageous work of the Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim leaders who constitute the ARLPI to overcome centuries of mistrust and help bring an end to one of the most horrific conflicts in recent history. Their work, he argues, puts philosophical and theological ideas into practice and in so doing sheds new light on how religion relates to politics, how brutal conflicts can be resolved, and how a community can reclaim its future through locally-initiated initiatives against overwhelming obstacles.

Bard M[µ]land is Professor of Systematic Theology at the School of Mission and Theology in Stavanger, Norway, where he also serves as the President. Mzeland previously served as a chaplain and researcher in the Norwegian Defence Forces. He is the author of many books and scholarly articles within interreligious hermeneutics, systematic theology, and military ethics. His previous book is Enduring Military Boredom (2009). Mland is the founding editor of The Journal of Military Ethics. --Book Jacket.

This book is in the academic discipline of critical biblical studies. It analyses the use of the bible in Uganda with specific refence to the LRA.

This book provides an in depth examination of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which has, for almost 30 years, conducted untold atrocities across the central African nations of Uganda, Southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. Understanding the Lord's Resistance Army Insurgency examines the LRA's emergence and evolution, the ideology, strategy and tactics behind it, motivational aspects of its recruitment, its engagement in peace processes, and a detailed description of leadership and group dynamics. This work is based on a wide range of written sources and extensive interviews with individuals intimately related to the group including top LRA commanders, government sources, victims, child soldiers, abductees and wives of Joseph Kony. Moving past stories of unimaginable brutality, forced recruitment, and the group's mystical belief system, the book provides a well-grounded analysis of the different stages of the LRA's development. It demonstrates how the group represents an obscure case study that challenges many of the common assumptions about the operational dynamics of terrorist organizations. Written to fill a gap in academia in relation to African- and Christian-based terrorism, this book is suited to students, researchers and practitioners in political sciences, war, conflict and terrorism studies, African politics and international relations and development.

For several decades a brutal army of rebels has been raiding villages in northern Uganda, kidnapping children and turning them into soldiers or wives of commanders. More than 30,000 children have been abducted over the last twenty years and forced to commit unspeakable crimes. Grace Akallo was one of these. Her story, which is the story of many Ugandan children, recounts her terrifying experience. This unforgettable book--with historical background and insights from Faith McDonnell, one of the clearest voices in the church today calling for freedom and justice--will inspire readers around the world to take notice, pray, and work to end this tragedy.

The Lord's Resistance Army is Africa’s most persistent and notorious 'terrorist' group. Led by the mysterious Joseph Kony, it has committed a series of horrific human rights abuses, including massacres and mutilations. Since the mid 1980s, it has abducted tens of thousands of people, including large numbers of children forced to train as fighters. The IC in 2005 issued warrants for Kony and his top commanders, and the United States is backing a military campaign against the group. But the LRA survives, continuing to inspire both fascination and fear. Authoritative but provocative, The Lord’s Resistance Army provides the most comprehensive analysis of the group available. From the roots of the violence to the oppressive responses of the Ugandan government and the failures of the international community, this collection looks at this most brutal of conflicts in fascinating depth, and includes a remarkable first-hand interview with Kony himself.