One of the most powerful predictors of success in politics and public policy is the strength of political narratives. But do political narratives represent political reality? President Yoweri Museveni while addressing supporters at Pabbo Catholic Mission, Pabbo Sub County in Amuru said, ”Northern Uganda owes him for fighting tooth and nail to chase away the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgents and ushering peace in the area”.
But one needs to reflect, was Northern Uganda engaged in any internal insurgency prior to the arrival of the NRA?
A common narrative as mentioned by most pioneer insurgents is that, the uprising was in response to human rights abuses and revenge by the NRA under the leadership of President Museveni after overthrowing a northern Uganda led government.
In President Norbert Mao’s words, “if you dig a hole and drop me in, and thereafter throw a rope in the hole for me to get out; do you expect me to say thank you?”
My concern is, why is President Museveni changing the LRA/NRA war narrative? On the face of it, it just looks like he is after winning votes but the real danger is transferring responsibility of the perpetuators of this heinous crime; another danger is misleading the public on who are victims and who are perpetuators and from whom do victims cry for justice?
In my opinion, this political narrative may not represent a political reality; changing the narratives will only deny victims a chance to access justice. Justice delayed is justice denied.
The concept of narratives has become very popular in academic discourse in various disciplines of humanity and social sciences(Buthe,2002;Cornog,2004 et al) as the convictions that humans have a natural tendency to think in narrative form .
As a result, narrative patterns are a crucial tool for the study of human thought (Chafe, 1990). Hence, the ways we “story the world” contribute to our understanding of how we make meaning (Mishler, 1995:117).
In an effort to find meaning, identify roles of victors, victims and perpetuators; we need a truth telling commission instead of distorting the narrative to comply with their ideology as revolutionaries.
Narratives are too serious to be to be dismissed with cynicism. Changing the narratives will only help to insinuate a common narrative that Northern Uganda loves to rebel; hence painting us as sinners and the current leadership as saviors and the conflict as ethnic.
It reframes the role of the current government from perpetuators to victors hence denying the chance for victims to realize justice, find meaning and the truth through a truth and reconciliation commission.
Again in my opinion it’s only a truth and reconciliation commissions that can allow us know the truth, identify the different roles played by the different principles and the possibility for reconciliation and unity to take place in northern Uganda.
While the current narrative continuous to breed anger and frustration from victims who can’t make meaning from their experience nor find justice.
Conclusively, the message we expect from President Museveni to the people of northern Uganda is that of instituting a truth and reconciliation commission and not changing the narratives of the conflict in northern Uganda.
By David Aliker. The writer is a local opinion leader based in Gulu and can be reached on mdaliker@gmail.com
4 Comments
I seriously believe that it was the Acholi intellectuals of your kind, that willingly gave Museveni all the space and freedom to write the LRA/NRA war narrative in his favour. For example, where were you when Museveni was deliberately blaming the LRA for all sorts of atrocities committed in the north? Do you even believe that it was the UPDF that defeated Kony or it was the ICC threat. Remember Mseveni had to invite the international community through the ICC to help him defeat LRA especially having failed totally to neutralize the group. People in the north are quite aware of how helpless the UPDF were in the face any LRA attack. I’m however glad that you have now started the effort to correct the current narrative of the war in the north.
Andrew, every good thing has its timing. Its now time to tell our story through our lenses. Thanks for the feedback.
Andrew,
While I appreciate your attempt at empathizing with the victims of the Museveni-Kony war, I am
afraid that you are doing exactly what President Museveni is doing, deliberately or out of ignorance of what happened, by blaming the victims. I presume that you have not heard of the conspiracy of silence or the concealment of genocide in the noth, not only in Uganda but also internationally. You have
no idea how many times articles or comments written to contest the Museveni narrative were and still are never published in the main stream media. Are you aware that there is agenral bias in radio, TV and print media coverage against any opinion that is different from the NRM-led government narrative? Likewise, the main stream mass media in the western countries are generally interested only in sensational stories about the war and not about the truth. Sensationalism sells newspapers and magazines, increases TV rating etc wheras the truth is too boring to attract readership or TV viewers. If you are interested, I can send you lots of materials that some of us wrote, which obviously you never knew about. Otherwise you would not blame northerners for not writing a narrative from the victims’ point of view.
You are probably going to ask why intellectuals from the north did not create their own mass media to tell their story. It is a fair question. The answer is, yes they did, but just like most endevours,
sometimes such efforts succeed like Nile Journal (http://nilejournal.net/about-us) and Acholi Time but sometimes they do not like Aswa Times which is now defunct, to mention a few.
Keep in mind that the president has the whole national resources at his disposal to propagate his narrative whereas the intellectuals do not. For example, the government was reported to hire one of
the best Public Relations firm, Hill and Knowlton as well as CNN, one of the most viewed news TV in the world to white wash its image. It has been written in local as well as international newspapers and journals that abundant evidence exists of intimidation, illegal arrest, imprisionment, bribery, corruption etc that occur in the service of the 30 year old government. That is a lot to be overcome by northern intellectuals.
In any case, telling the truth is not just a problem for only victims of the war from the north. Rather, it is a national and international problem that should concern all truth loving people.
So let me end by asking you what you have done to propagate a narrative which reflects the truth about the situation in the north before, during and after the war.
Andrew,
While I appreciate your attempt at empathizing with the victims of the Museveni-Kony war, I am
afraid that you are doing exactly what President Museveni is doing, deliberately or out of ignorance of what happened, by blaming the victims. I presume that you have not heard of the conspiracy of silence or the concealment of genocide in the noth, not only in Uganda but also internationally. You have
no idea how many times articles or comments written to contest the Museveni narrative were and still are never published in the main stream media. Are you aware that there is agenral bias in radio, TV and print media coverage against any opinion that is different from the NRM-led government narrative? Likewise, the main stream mass media in the western countries are generally interested only in sensational stories about the war and not about the truth. Sensationalism sells newspapers and magazines, increases TV rating etc wheras the truth is too boring to attract readership or TV viewers. If you are interested, I can send you lots of materials that some of us wrote, which obviously you never knew about. Otherwise you would not blame northerners for not writing a narrative from the victims’ point of view.
You are probably going to ask why intellectuals from the north did not create their own mass media to tell their story. It is a fair question. The answer is, yes they did, but just like most endevours,
sometimes such efforts succeed like Nile Journal (http://nilejournal.net/about-us) and Acholi Time but sometimes they do not like Aswa Times which is now defunct, to mention a few.
Keep in mind that the president has the whole national resources at his disposal to propagate his narrative whereas the intellectuals do not. For example, the government was reported to hire one of
the best Public Relations firm, Hill and Knowlton as well as CNN, one of the most viewed news TV in the world to white wash its image. It has been written in local as well as international newspapers and journals that abundant evidence exists of intimidation, illegal arrest, imprisionment, bribery, corruption etc that occur in the service of the 30 year old government. That is a lot to be overcome by northern intellectuals.
In any case, telling the truth is not just a problem for only victims of the war from the north. Rather, it is a national and international problem that should concern all truth loving people.
So let me end by asking you what you have done to propagate a narrative which reflects the truth about the situation in the north before, during and after the war.