This report was prepared as a result of my field work activities carried out from1st August -15th November 2015 in Kathile Sub-county, Kaabong District with a focus on Life with neighbours without guns among the Dodoth Cluster in the Post-disarmament period. The study looked into 1).Socio-cultural activities of the community during the pre, during and post-disarmament period, 2) The relationship that exists between the Dodoth Cluster and those relatively armed neighboring communities like Turkana and Toposa with greater emphasis on the security of their community, 3) the survival strategies in the post-disarmament period and 4) Silent underlying issues in Kathile Sub-county Kaabong District, Karamoja region, Uganda.
As a student of Aarhus University, I traveled to Uganda to carry out the fieldwork after being offered a fieldwork placement opportunity with Caritas Gulu Archdiocese to be part of the Integrated Food Security Project staff which started in 2014 to 2017 and part of the research team on Land Conflict in Akurumo Parish, Orom Sub-county and other planned areas in the Districts of Kitgum, Pader, Agago and Lamwo. The Integrated Food Security Project is being implemented in disadvantaged multi-cultural society in Orom Sub-county and other areas in Palabek Gem in Lamwo district. I was supervised by the both the Project Officer for Caritas Gulu Archdiocese-Kitgum Office and the Executive Director. Both activities were planned and implemented with the guidance of the Supervisors. I had a close contact with my Academic supervisor from Aarhus University, Ass. Prof. Christian B. N Gade who later travelled to Uganda to meet me in regards to my fieldwork.
1.1 Responsibility While With Caritas Gulu Arch Diocese-Kitgum Office
My main responsibility with Caritas Gulu Archdiocese was to help in the implementation of Integrated Food Security Project; show how Food Security achievement can facilitate other components of Human Security in order to empower and guide these communities in their growth and development; help in monitoring and evaluation of the implemented phase of the project; and to be part of the team to carry out research to determine how land conflict hinders implementation of food security in pursuit of achieving livelihoods in the community. This is in line with the aims of the Caritas to work with the poorest of the poor members of the community with a great emphasis on social services and economic development programs. My activities with Caritas were programmed in such a way that I only participated in field activities twice a week and reports are written to that effect. I had a one-week intensive research activities in October 2015 in East Acholi Districts of Kitgum, Pader, Agago, and Lamwo district on land conflict and its effect in achieving food security in Akurumo and Lulwa parishes, Orom Sub-county, Amida Sub-county, Palabek Gem Sub-county, Wol Sub-county and Lira Palwo Sub-county respectively. After completion of the assessment, I was able to utilize other days to collect my data since it was only a 2 hours ride on a motor cycle on an 80 km road from Akurumo to Kathile which made easy planning and utilization of time appropriately.
1.2 Gaining Entry and Establishing Rapport in Data Collection Area
To gain entry into Kathile Sub-county, I considered choosing a site which I was familiar with. I considered Nagolopak village in Akurumo Parish because Caritas Gulu Archdiocese has project beneficiaries in that village and being affiliated to Caritas, it was easier to get contact persons.
The Project Officer introduced me to the Community leaders of Akurumo parish and my purpose of being in Akurumo parish was explained to them as purely for academic; although I would be supporting them in the implementation of the integrated food security programme. Akurumo area is situated along the border of Kaabong and Kitgum District; and is inhabited mainly by the Karimojong origin who migrated and settled in Acholi land for various reasons such as having been disowned by their own clan members because of unsuccessful raids, a new settlement, intermarriages, and famine. They belong to the Acholi administrative set-up but social services like formal education and health services are acquired from Lubalangit Sub-county in Kaabong district. They mainly speak Nyakarimojong and their social cultural practices are more of Karimojong than Acholi although they speak a little bit of Acholi as well. They generally identify themselves as of Mening, Dodoth, Napore or Jie origin. The Karimojong are the group of Nilotic origin that occupied the Plateau plain of Northeastern Uganda and shows a strong Hamites characteristics derived from contact with Galla from Ethiopia; but speak the eastern Nilotic language as compare to the Acholi who speak the western Nilotic language and occupy northern Uganda (Mukherjee: 1985, 22-23). The Karimojong borders Acholi sub-region to the East. Most of these people lived in Manyatta and they have both Acholi and Karimojong names. However, Manyatta in the area of Akurumo areas were dismantled for security reasons.
Most of my time while on fieldwork from 1st August to 15th November 2015, was spent in Akurumo parish and Kathile Sub-county in Kaabong district. I told them my blood lineage and eventually tried to behaved almost like a true Karimojong woman by drinking local drink called Abutya -made out of fermented sorghum or maize (see Annex 1) and learning how to make it, eating boiled beans mixed with maize and above all sleeping on cattle hides as my mattress. Historically, my maternal grandfather came from the Jie cluster from Kotido, even though now they identify themselves as Acholi. Literally, this shows that my mother is a Karimojong and I am a niece in Jie Cluster. According to my mother, her grandfather had several unsuccessful raids while still in Kotido, therefore, He was disowned from his clan and chased away from home. To them, unsuccessful raid is like a curse to the clan that calls for either being beaten to death or be isolated from any community functions and decision making. So my fore grandfather fell a victim and migrated through Orom, Namokora, Pajule to the present Koro in Gulu where they finally settled in the present Angagura in Payira- Lacekocot in Pader District in the early 1910s.
With this blood lineage, I was advised on the DOs and DON’Ts while interacting with the community by the local security officer in Akurumo. Therefore, I found it easy to start with Karimojong in Akurumo as the basis upon which I could create rapport with people of Dodoth origin and eventually it became a gateway to go in Kathile Sub-county and collect my data. With this good opportunity as an entry point for integration, I was able to stay with a Dodoth family that later directed me to the relatives in Kathile Sub-county, Narengepak, Naramaoi, Nakorichokei and Lokwapo villages. I also got a multi-linguistic interpreters who speaks Acholi, English and Nyakarimojong language fluently.
I also talked to two Uganda People Defense Force (UPDF) army commanders and other local security personnel who later became part of my respondents in Kaabong about my research. I was also advised to contact the Local Council (LC) Chairperson of the areas before getting in contact with my respondents.
I showed the local leaders my fieldwork contract from Aarhus University, letter from Caritas Gulu Archdiocese and my student identity card to gain permission to the community and conduct my study. The clan leaders approved my stay with them for data collection in their area.
I used the personal contact for ease of entry and acceptability to the people the way they are when I encountered them in their local setting. Although some people were deviant and other were professional stranger handlers, I made the LC and clan leaders as the key informant to help identify members of the community with indigenous knowledge about their traditional practices. I also mapped out the setting and develop social network that helped me become familiar with the setting and social organization hence gaining insight understanding of the situation. This network helped to select what to observe and from whom to gather relevant information to answer research questions.
Hanging out was another strategy to gain more trust and develop sense of belonging in the community especially in the marketplaces, drinking joints in the heart of trading centres in Kathile whereby I would move to people during their leisure time, sit and listen to their life stories, where possible pick-up a conversation while they are drinking. In this way getting involved in meeting and conversing with people was easy to develop a concrete relationship with the community members and used informal interviews, observation technique to collect my data especially in village market days. This informal life lived created trust and built strong ties with the community members which created an avenue for openness and gain the sense of belonging making data collection easier.
My expectation to get reliable primary data in Kaabong district about the state of affairs in the post-disarmament period was achieved and will be supplemented with secondary data and other relevant supportive literature review to my shape ideas when writing my thesis. It is my expectation that these legal instruments would validate and give out clear arguments in support of my collected data to generate appropriate solution to solve the research problem in Kathile Sub-county, Kaabong District
2. Disarmament Perspective Worldwide
Since the inception of the United Nations after the World War II, maintenance of peace and security has been the central focus (Dykmann: 2011, 79). Noticeably, UNODA (2015) maintained that “International disarmament agreements established universal norms against weapons that cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering, or whose use would be repugnant to the conscience of humankind†(UNODA: 2015, 1; Gamba, 2014:1). Numerous efforts by UN to effect disarmament with the concentration on big-ticket destructive weapons such as nuclear weapons (UNA-MN, 2014, para, 12-13) was the ultimate goals to be achieved, without immediate attention given to small arm destructive effect imposed on civilian population causing human insecurities. However, it was evidenced that small arms were equally causing more threats to human kind globally especially in socially organized communities up to date. That is why The United Nations eventually adopted “Programme of Action to prevent, combat and eradicate the Illicit trade in small and light weapons in all aspect in 2001, besides, other resolution on disarmament†(Gillis 2009: 60, UNODA, 2008: 4) presumably, after decades of civil wars in mineral rich areas and genocides in many parts of the globe. Consequently, African Union was to address the issues of illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in Africa (UNODA, 2008: 71, Wezeman , 2003: 6).
According to Gillis (2009) “Disarmament is not only about eliminating weapons; it is also about creating opportunities – opportunities to think about security in new ways, to reprioritize our budgets, and to rethink sense of ourselves as nations in community with one another†( Gillis 2009: 7; Gillis, 2012: 7). Nonetheless, the UNODA (2008) resolved that “States should maintain strict regulations on the activities of private international arms dealers and cooperate to prevent such dealers from engaging in illicit arms trafficking†(UNODA: 2008, 71-72; UNIDR, 2006: 142; Gupta, 2000: 376). Accordingly, this is possible because it is politically binding for all members’ states of United Nations of which Uganda is one. In this respect, Uganda has for long struggled to remove guns from the hands of civilian who are socially organized pastoralist-the Karimojong of the Northeastern Uganda. Karamoja region for long had registered low development indicators and low human index and high security threat not only to its inhabitant but to the neighboring communities of the Acholi, Lango, Teso, Sabiny and cross border communities of Kenya and South Sudan because of the availability of illicit guns and light weapons.
As a result, the best justification for peace building interventions as prerequisite for sustainable development to save the humanitarian situations in Karamoja (OPM: 2007, 1), was to disarm the Karimojong warriors and sealed off the borders to stop any gun trafficking. Disarmament strategy took different stages ranging from voluntary to forceful between 2001-2010 to get rid of all illicit guns and ammunition in the hands of Karimojong Warriors, although government capacity to ensure total peace is still limited (ibid: 2007, 2).