Northern Uganda Messenger Post

The social processes and transformations that created one Acholi elite group after the other can be divided into two; internal and external. The external ones were those imposed by the colonial governments, while the internal ones were induced by social differentiation, inequalities, conflicts and aspirations native to Acholi society. For instance, when the colonial government dethroned traditional chiefs and foisted clerical chiefs in their place, it created latent social animosities and conflicts between royal clans and clans of appointed chiefs who used colonial patronage to develop a cadre of civil servants from their own clans and elite networks that sidelined the aristocratic lineages. Nursing the grudge for their rights to rule by the will of ancient temporal and spiritual traditions, the royal clans actively supported nationalist anti-colonial movements against the British and their clerical collaborators who had usurped their power. Therefore, after independence, former margin...