Category: northern uganda

the united nations of this rap…stuff

The violence in Karamoja is likely the biggest forgotten, neglected part of what has been called the biggest forgotten, neglected humanitarian emergency in the world. Both UPDF soldiers and rebels have been accused of gross human rights violations, drought is sweeping the northeast, and the violence has gotten so bad that the night commuter phenomenon, previously restricted to areas under LRA attack, is spreading to the region.

Amidst it all, there is hope — in the form of a hip-hop duo called the Rocky Boyz Crew. Ugly-Unit and Legless, its two young members, aim to promote unity and reverse negative perceptions of Karamoja through their music.

Another hip-hop artist in Kampala is doing the same thing. Abramz, a rapper and breakdancer, works in Nsambya, Gulu and Mbale to encourage at-risk youth to work together for social change through Breakdance Project Uganda.

I met Abramz at the Global Kimeeza II conference last month, and his passion for both his art and his work made my insides all smooshy (in a good way). If anyone knows how I can get in touch with the Rocky Boyz Crew and beg them to let me hang out with them for a few days, let me know.

Jay-Z may think he’s the UN of this rap shit, but he clearly hasn’t met these guys.

EDIT: Ariaka’s right. “Rebels” is the term the UPDF has applied to armed Karamojong, who some would argue are protecting their land, cattle and/or families against government attacks.

In which I agree with the LRA

It’s common knowledge by now that the Lord’s Resistance Army have pulled out of the Juba Peace Talks for what feels like the 8027th time, demanding that they be moved to Kenya or South Africa or God knows where, accusing Riek Machar and Sudan of being “Uganda’s allies.”

My gut reaction: more sabre-rattling? More political blustering? Haven’t we had enough? Suck it up and get your asses down to work, gentlemen.

But then I thought about it, and in approximately two seconds, I realized that I am an incredible idiot. It goes back to Deborah Scroggins.

Who had the balls foolish audacity to appoint a senior member of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army as mediator of the peace talks between the LRA and the GoU? The basics of any “history-of-the-conflict-in-thirty-seconds” go like this: LRA = bad. Sudan supports LRA, which also = bad. SPLA fights Sudan, which therefore = good. SPLA = good, and LRA = bad, so GoU supports SPLA.

Again: who’s hairbrained idea was it for Machar to be the one mediating? There isn’t even the pretense of neutrality — regardless of whether or not this nutshell-sized-version of the last twenty years is accurate (and Debbie would most likely argue that it’s not), public perception is that this man owes at least some of his current power to Museveni’s administration.

Of all of the complaints the LRA has lodged since the beginning of the talks six months ago, this is actually legitimate. Which means that I find myself in a rather precarious position: I agree with the LRA. Debbie, love, what have you done to me?

Wimax? Why not?

Andy Mack and Jeremy Goldberg posted an article on Andy’s Global View about the role of emerging technology in post-conflict northern Uganda (from which I stole the title of this post):

Happily, more and more each day it seems that technology is available to help previously left behind regions get on the grid quickly — new products and services that can be deployed in a fraction of the time it would take to rebuild traditional infrastructure. In recent years a whole host of technologies have been developed that could help war-recovering Africa “skip steps” in re-development, in much the same way that the cellphone revolution has brought personal communications to Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya and yes, southern Uganda.

(…)

Three years from now (or even less) I could be in a transformed Gulu, where international and local investors work together seamlessly to get work done. I could be managing my investment from a distance, speaking with my staff from a Skype phone, or perhaps working with a young entrepreneur who learned how to surf the Internet on a $100 laptop.

Mack and Goldberg mention, among other things, Wimax, which can increase wireless internet access in areas without cable or telephone networks. Infocom started installing a Wimax network in Kampala last June, and Celtel has plans to expand Wimax throughout East Africa, but no mention was made of moving this to northern Uganda. Here’s to hoping….

i was going to write about karamoja…

…but Samuel Olara did an amazing job over at the Sub-Saharan African Round Table.

An excellent short history of the Karamojong people in the twentieth century can be found in this interview with Dr. Sandra Gray, an anthropologist who works in the region. The interview ends with the question, “Do these people have any political support within their own country?” Dr. Gray’s answer:

Everybody hates pastoralists. They’re among the last groups in the world it’s still politically OK to trash. They’re derided for letting their sheep and goats and zebu overgraze the land and turn it into desert.

That’s a lie. They did just fine for centuries.

Behold, behold: the NGO spectacle

I met an American undergraduate a few weeks ago who was writing his senior thesis on the “NGO circus” in Uganda.

His point (I think — it was hard to get past his carefully cultivated skepticism and the unlit cigar he carried around in his mouth like an über-cool oral security blanket) was that the proliferation of NGOs in Uganda in the last 20 years has made it more, not less, difficult for the country to develop. He focused on international organizations, but I see the same thing happening at the local level.

I spent last week in Gulu talking to several Ugandan non-profit and community-based groups about their projects. I hoped to learn about national reconciliation from the grassroots level and to come home more informed about what needs to happen in the north for peace to become a reality. Instead, I found myself wading through a swamp of catchy development terminology that didn’t seem to make any more sense to the people I met with than it did to me.

The project leaders talked animatedly to me about microfinance and community mobilization and adult literacy programs. They all wanted to address every single problem in northern Uganda, from HIV to education to arts and sports to cultural renewal to child soldiers to agriculture. One group had a total of three volunteers but was working on eight separate multi-year, multi-district proposals, each covering a multiple aspects of rebuilding. The proposals were full of attractive phrases and energetic language, but after spending an hour with the director, I could tell he had no understanding of the economic theory, organizational principles or sheer manpower required to turn his projects into realities.

Those I spoke with clung to their CBOs and PRSPs and QUIPs as if the very letters would save them. Some seemed to think that creating a successful income-generating activity was as easy as saying “IGA.” It truly was a circus — the directors spouting acronyms like desperate ringmasters while their projects flopped around like mistreated, malnourished performance animals.

Uganda doesn’t need another project proposal from another would-be community leader with an over-inflated vocabulary and no training to back it up. These people are well-meaning, but as influenced as they are by the development industry talk in Uganda, their Big Ideas are just as much top-down (as opposed to local-level) as international initiatives. A thousand times better would be an organization that actually consulted the people around it to find out what they need and how best to achieve it, rather than succumbing to the Ringling-Bros.-esque attraction of development novelty acts.