The Acoli: Who are they? By Oceng Oyugi Pingom.

THE ACOLI PEOPLE. WHO THEY ARE.

I am writing from London, England. land of the English people. The English people have their culture, traditions, laws, rules, and ways of life and thinking [to which some grossly refer as "western ways."]

The Acoli [pronounced, but not spelt, "Acholi"] are the native people of Acoliland in northern part of Uganda [in East Africa.; bordered by the Sudan to the north; Kenya to the east; Tanzania to the south; Rwanda to the south-west; Congo Kinshasa [Zaire] to the west.]

Acoliland. very beautiful [lash green during rainy seasons; breath-taking, scenic views in the hilly parts.] extremely fertile. abounds in fauna and flora. very rich in a variety of natural resources.

Hostile foreign mass media [together with their agents and stooges within Uganda.] have, for very many years since the start of the Museveni's era up to date, portrayed the Acoli people in the most misleading manner.

The Acoli people. friendly. warm-hearted. welcoming. peace-loving. hard-working. upright. intelligent. They will, however, not want to be told what to do [within their land boundaries] by outsiders. who could be from within [Uganda] or from far away lands.

[I should remind the reader at this stage that it might appear, later in the article, that at a number of places I have digressed quite far from the main topic. This, I have done on purpose. By the time the reader gets to the last portion of the article, the connections and reasons would have become quite apparent. I have used braces "{ }" to enclose such digressions.]

A war situation has persisted in Acoliland for more than eighteen (18) years since year 1986; and is still going on has one reads this article. The detailed explanation for this is rather complex and intricate [this being the reason for the digression - as an attempt to bring out the explanations for the war situation.]

The Acoli people [and I believe, like many other peace-loving, but oppressed, native peoples around the world doing the same] are basically fighting against neo-colonialism. They have simply put up a resistance to defend and protect their land [from occupation by foreigners and their agents,] culture, traditions, freedom and way of life. It is actually foreigners and their associates who [through their agents and stooges within Uganda] initiated the situation and have all along [and continually] financed and militarily equipped these stooges [who, headed by Kaguta Museveni, come mainly from Mbarara and Bushenyi in western part of the country and some isolated areas in the south-western part] with "the systematic and total destruction of the Acoli people and their culture" as their objective - essentially old-fashioned enslavement of a people in their land.]

The foreigners [neo-colonialists] have also endlessly provided logistical support to these stooges for the sole purpose of oppressing and systematic destruction of the native Acoli people and then occupying their land, pillaging and looting their natural resources and wealth. In the process of doing so, Museveni and his followers [and of course their financiers] have committed mass atrocities and terrorism against the native people. At the same time they have continued to fabricate and spread all sorts of disinformation and lies [to the rest of the world through their elaborate network of mass media] to hide their crime.

{It is very important for one to keep in mind that Museveni is not a native Ugandan but an ex-Tutsi refugee from Rwanda.}

The Acoli people simply shall not accept that a foreigner, much less an ex-Tutsi refugee., should come [using brutal military force or by any other means] to their land and dictate matters to them. Museveni and his terror bands have herded the entire native population [but a few families] into concentration camps and denied them their basic rights and traditional ways of earning a living through working their rich and fertile land... This has done one very crucial thing for Museveni - rendered unavailable the otherwise automatic food supply [from the would-be fields] for the natives [in the bush] fighting his men.

The end result [for the natives] on the other hand, has been gross disasters: famine and mass starvation, diseases, very high death rates in the camps; and total destruction of family fabrics as well as social and traditional ways of life... Similarly, the native peoples neighbours to the Acoli [the Langi, the Madi, the Karamojong; as well as the Iteso in the eastern part of the country] have suffered enormously too.

Whatever Museveni and his foreign financiers might try to do to appease the Acoli people, it is important for them [Museveni and associates] to keep firmly in their mind that the Acoli people have NEVER before [in any way imaginable] wanted, DO NOT now and SHALL NEVER for ever want anything to do with him [Museveni.]

{A comparable situation continues to occur in the eastern part of Congo Kinshasa [Zaire] as a result of some more evil deeds by the same people. To those who know a bit of what went on for decades during colonisation of the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, it is quite clear that the current situation in Acoliland is very similar to what the native peoples [who are no more] of these lands went through when the colonialists set about exterminating them.}

The foreigners, together with their agents [with Museveni as their leader in Uganda] have been [mostly covertly] heavily engaged in [and of late have very noticeably intensified] the mind game of brainwashing, coercion and indoctrination [through radio, television, newspapers and other means.] At the same time they have stepped up the use of direct cash incentive bribery [essentially using the wealth and other material valuables they [evil people] robbed and looted from the Acoli people in the 1980s to bribe them [the Acoli;] the bribery broadened it to touch the ordinary, less educated Acoli people.] Such material things range from houses and/or flats, through used trucks, vans, cars, domestic appliances. to the petty like wrist watches, personal stereos, mobile phones, etc., etc.

This is being applied to every adult Acoli individual [both in the homeland and anywhere else in the world] they [the evil people] can manipulate their way into talking to privately. They want to corrupt and manipulate [quickly] as many of the Acoli people as possible [hoping that with the effects of over eighteen years of extreme hardship, suffering and misery weighing so heavily on them [the Acoli people] physically and psychologically they [Museveni and his associates] will get many "converts" at a fast rate] into "accepting" and "embracing" "Museveni's rule" together with the so-called "western ways" of thinking and life style.

It should be quite clear to the observant person that these evil people are essentially using human suffering [cynically engineered and made to flourish by them] as a weapon and tool of blackmail, elaborate manipulation and brainwashing against the Acoli people.

The whole plan and objective of these foreigners is very long-term. They want to create and nurture [indeed have already created and are nurturing] some kind of "very rich upper class" groups of persons and their children together with close relatives [to become the "unshakeable super rich" of the future as is the case in the United States of America and here in England.] These should then become the sole future controllers of everything [politics and economy] in Acoliland. and Uganda as a whole.

{In the Uganda of Museveni's era [for the last more than eighteen years] it is exactly that that Museveni and his gangs [under very close supervision of their financiers] have been attempting to achieve. Right now there are the "super rich" of Mbarara, Rwakitura, Ishaka, Bushenyi and other pockets [in isolated areas of the south-west, parts of Buganda, Busoga, Teso and Tororo area] where some of Museveni's associates originated from. For the last more than eighteen years they have had a strangle grip on the politics and economic control of Uganda. Their sole goal is try anything [example: fights to remove presidential term limits] that will put and keep them entrenched in a position from where they will manipulate everything at will, thereby guaranteeing them the perpetuation of their rule.}

Like the English people [and any other native peoples of other lands around the world] the Acoli people have their culture, traditions, laws, rules and ways of life and thinking. However, due to lack of the necessary technologies and machines, these still remain largely unwritten and/or undocumented, and are kept alive and passed on to the younger generations mainly through informal and traditional education. They will with time acquire the needed technologies and machines to do the documentation and free themselves from tedious and/or difficult [and sometimes dangerous] back-breaking manual labour.

The Acoli people are uncompromising when it comes to the defense and protection of their land, culture and way of life, together with the other values mentioned above. They love themselves, their land, their freedom [in their land,] culture, traditions and way if life, and are prepared to rise at any time to any challenges that threaten these values. I do not need to say again that they will fight for unlimited periods of time to defend and protect their cherished values and wealth [land and all its natural resources.]

{As a point of information to the hostile foreigners together with their agents and stooges, let this be said. Any changes to or modification of any of the traditional Acoli values are the responsibility of the Acoli people and them alone. The Acoli people are fully aware of the numerous machines and domestic appliances that have been invented and developed around the world. These machines will irreversibly change the way duties are performed in the home and chores handled in the house and/or kitchen by husband and wife or the children [boys or girls.] Neo-colonialists and their agents think [unfortunately for them] that it is their job to poke their noses in the affairs of native peoples [who have always lived happily in their lands] and undermine, corrupt, distort and eventually completely destroy their traditional ways of life.}

Another very important fact about the Acoli people is that they have not got that obscene greed and want [for man-made material wealth] one witnesses in some of the so-called "western societies" - where human value has been completely trodden under foot and all but forgotten. To them [the Acoli people] their people and land come first.

In the entire history of their existence, the Acoli people have never a single time invaded any of their neighbour's land with the evil intention of pillaging and looting wealth [the way Museveni and his bands of killers have been doing in Acoliland for the last more than eighteen years.]

The Acoli, however, once provoked, can become quite unforgiving. They will not sit back and/or lie down and say nothing once some hostile deeds have been directed at them - more so when they are in their land. They are no cowards and are never friendly to any person they know is an enemy. These characteristics are intrinsic to them.

{I have lived in England for the last thirteen years. During that time, [and I would do the same anywhere else in the world,] I have always respected and avoided [in all conceivable ways] breaking the laws, and rules of the English people. I would never want [left alone] to interfere with their ways life and thinking, traditions and culture. But, having said this, I would vehemently object to and reject [and if need be resent] any attempt [in whatever form or manner] by anyone to impose on or coerce me to accept [and for that matter, other native peoples when and where they do not agree with] such ways.

I feel that it is important for the English people [and all those non-English who hide behind them] to recognize and avoid interfering in cultures and ways of life foreign to them. This way, they would enjoy total friendship with peoples of other lands and be in peace with them.

Numberless times [during that time] I have met individuals [men and women] who have repeatedly attempted to brainwash and indoctrinate me [some have been doing so ever since I arrived in the country thirteen years ago] to copy and follow their way of thinking and life style. The majority of these individuals have been women. Funny enough, though, I have come to discover that a very large proportion of them are not even English themselves.

These are people who, through the centuries have roamed and wandered from place to place all over Europe. For varying periods they lived and multiplied at will in the lands of other true European native peoples. But [for very good reasons that will become clear in the paragraph after next] they [these rather mysterious people] were either physically forced and/or driven out of those lands by the natives; or life was made unbearable to them and had no choice but to move on.

Many found sanctuary, settled and have lived in England for many decades ever since. But millions more are scattered all over the world; being particularly abundant in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In East Africa some have formed very unpleasant blots on the Kenyan landscape [meanwhile tens of thousands of true native Kenyans have nowhere to put their feet on the soil of their native land.] Something must be done about it!

They are people who always try to hide their true identity; preferring to describe themselves simply as "white Europeans." They [except for a very minute minority] are utterly evil and infinitely malicious. Sly., Dishonest., Deceitful., Pretentious., Manipulative. and Grossly Bent... They are always talking ill of someone [not one of their own] the moment the person turns his/her back. Evil, fraud and theft is in their blood [i.e. in them these phenomena are hereditary.] From childhood, and for the rest of their life, these evil beings will always want to commit any of these at the slightest opportunity that comes their way. Not infrequently one hears them muttering... "This is the real world... some have some don't..."

It must be logical for one to believe that [going on non-stop round the clock daily, for as long as they live] in the minds of these beings, and synchronised with the pulsation inside their chests, is some kind of "Corrupt-Brainwash-Manipulate-Defraud [C-B-M-D... C-B-M-D...]" rhythm. No matter what they are involved in or where they are this kind of mentality seems to pop up in them spontaneously. At a whim, they will want to turn anyone [not one of their own] into some kind of a "circus" or "caged" animal for them to exploit at will. Should one reject their advances for the purpose given above, they will not hesitate to label such a person as "lacking communication competence;" and even then the individual will not be left alone. That person will be endlessly harassed in all kinds of ways whenever the opportunity is there for them.

Here in England these evil beings have done just that to and throughout practically every ethnic minority community... with devastating consequences for such communities. They have gone for [and largely destroyed] the traditional, intra-family and community bonds and cohesion that always keep/had kept these communities close-knit. They corrupt, brainwash and manipulate individual unsuspecting family/community members... turning them against one another [children against parents, siblings against each other, etc.] The overall outcome is gross mistrust and disunity among family and/or community members; hence fragmented [and totally "controlled"] families and communities without any SIGNIFICANT COLLECTIVE STRENGTH.
Thereafter, the individual victims are completely vulnerable to all kinds of further and unlimited manipulation and inhuman exploitation. For every ethnic minority person traditional, intra-family and community bonds and cohesion are the sources of sense of belonging, inner strength, security, stability and direction.

Once settled somewhere, they will [if not decisively checked by the natives] want [and endlessly work - mainly covertly] to bring down anyone they think or suspect is not on their side. They will want to displace and/or block you the native people [or any persons they consider to be an opposition to them] from positions of control and power, employment [or the opportunities] and other sources of income [including land] and so on.They will slowly, but meticulously, line up only themselves in such positions.

They will go on doing this until [time permitting] the native people have been reduced to depending almost solely on them [the foreigners.] They like to give the impression [wherever they may be] that they are very friendly and always there to help - which is totally untrue of course. They will want to undermine, distort [in a most systemic and meticulous manner] and eventually destroy the traditional ways of life of the natives; and will replace it by systems, structures and laws [whose design and creation have been very heavily influenced by their manipulative ways.] This will mean total protection for them from the system in place.}

One extremely evil thing that these people are now bent on doing [and have been doing for a very long time past through their agents and stooges the world over] is to engineer, organise and finance large scale [i.e. mass] terrorism against vulnerable, peaceful native peoples in developing lands throughout the world. [One typical example is their use of Museveni and his bands of killers, to wreak terror on the Acoli people - who otherwise had always lived happily in their land and in total peace with their neighbours.] These people have assumed the role of [and indeed become] evil neo-colonialists [themselves.]

Once the affected native people start to fight back to defend their land and way of life, these cynics will turn round and deliberately and endlessly [through the mass media they own and control] spread disinformation and lies about the native people - calling them all sorts of derogatory names: rebels, killers, terrorists, and so forth. They have always called any leader who is a true nationalist [standing up for their people, land, natural wealth and way of life] an autocrat or a dictator. or even accused him/her of supporting and financing international terrorism.
[See next paragraph for definition and examples of terrorism and disinformation.]


{Some examples of disinformation:
Recently a female BBC correspondent compiled some materials in Gulu [in Acoliland] for the "From our own Correspondent" programme. The woman said such things as

". the local radio presenter is a wiry man who has total lack of respect for superiors."
[One wonders what superiors she was referring to.]

". the dingy, filthy studio with live electric wires trailing dangerously on the floor. and the single dull bulb dangling from the ceiling merely flickering."

". the standard of hygiene is such that you wonder whether you should try the food at all."

". the hotels have no clean bed-linen."

Such people with no respect for the local people should be made aware [in no uncertain terms] that they are neither needed nor wanted in the place.

What is "terrorism" or a "terrorist?"

It must be said that terrorism is of two main forms: "military" and "economic."
Terrorists occupy other peoples' lands by use of brutal military force [military terrorism], kill the native people at will [i.e. with impunity] and go and keep on fabricating all kinds of lies in an attempt to justify and/or cover their crime, and subject those alive to horrifying inhumane treatment and suffering.

On the other hand, in [economic terrorism] the terrorists apply an elaborate system and network of international sabotage to wreck the economies of weak [mainly developing] nations. This leaves the affected peoples with no choice but to live life of extreme poverty - leading to famine, starvation, diseases and high rates of death.

At times the terrorists combine both methods of terror for the most effect on the native peoples. [and essentially Museveni and his lot have done exactly this to the Acoli people.]

Some examples of terrorism [and YES! crime against humanity.] - present and past:

1. the on-going terrorism [by Museveni and his financiers] against the Acoli people.
2. the occupation of Palestine and the oppression of the people...
3. the mistreatment and slaughter of the Kikuyu and other native peoples of Kenya during the Mau Mau struggle for independence.
4. slavery against native Africans.
5. extermination of the native peoples of the Americas, Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand.

[One wonders, thinking now about these or looking back at those horrifying evil deeds against native peoples [wherever they are/were] and if there is such a "being" or "thing" as God, where He [She/It] is/was and what He [She/It] is/was thinking about such atrocities and terrorism. Some of the atrocities and terrorism has gone [or did go] on for so long. [at least for 200 years in the case of slavery against native Africans.] I would like to ask this question: Does God really exist?}

Getting to this point the reader might have lost the continuity of the topic. The discussion had got to the point where the evil people engineer, organize and finance large scale terrorism around the world. later calling the natives fighting back rebels, terrorists. nationalist leaders dictators.

The sole goal of these people is to gain access to and stay in both the highest and local organs of administration and political control, by ensuring that [where possible] only their agents and stooges occupy seats and offices in such bodies. No matter where the land is on the surface of this earth, as long as they consider it to be of strategic importance to them, they will work out a way of getting their foot hold there.

Once their agents and stooges are within the organs for making policies and laws, they will indirectly [through these agents and stooges whom they can blackmail and manipulate at will] apply political leverage [and sometimes outright blackmail.] This way they will be able to corrupt and/or manipulate, and hence have control over, all vital and strategic economic and foreign as well as other internal policy-making processes and creation of laws. This will mean that policies adopted [such as so-called "free market economy"] and laws enacted will completely protect them [neo-colonialists] at later dates when they move in to exploit the native people [under the guise of creating jobs] and loot their natural resources and wealth.

They will themselves, as best they can, keep at a distance far away in their lands - only pumping out [through their mass media] disinformation and/or lies about all political processes going on in such places [which could be at some spot on the other side the earth from them] and pretending that they have nothing to do with whatever is going on there.

The manner in which these evil people use the word "democracy" is simply obnoxious, nauseating and outright outlandish... [A friend of mine called it perverted democracy.] To them no political processes anywhere in this world is democratic unless they have had their evil hands in them to manipulate matters.

These evil people and their followers in Uganda [headed by stooge Kaguta Museveni] have labelled the Acoli people "poor" and have endlessly called them "killers." The Acoli people are NOT and have never been killers in their history. The true killers and terrorists are Museveni and his lot, and indirectly, their financiers and suppliers. Museveni and his lot started their banditry, terrorism and mass killing in 1980 - 81 [by blowing up buses packed with women with children and ordinary innocent civilians; attacking trains, hospitals, schools, police stations, setting bombs at petrol stations; and so on, and so forth.]

They invaded Acoliland in 1986 and have occupied it ever since. There [in the first few weeks and months of the occupation] they concentrated on mass slaughter of the native population - they shot literally any Acoli [man, woman, child. healthy or not] they came across. and committed countless rapes. They herded families into thatched huts and set them [huts] alight to burn the people alive; those who survived did so by fleeing [before these killers arrived] to and hiding in the bushes. Museveni's men and women shot any dog or cat that crossed their path; other meat-providing livestock were either slaughtered and consumed or taken away [to be transported later to their home regions.] They cut down mango, orange, banana and any edible fruit-providing trees they had time for. They later thoroughly looted every single one of the remaining livestock [cows, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks. etc.] they could find, and systematically destroyed [by burning] any agricultural produce and items of value - some irreplaceable - such as family belongings and documents [certificates, letters, photographs, etc., etc.] that they could not take with them. This was an attempt to obliterate the national identity and historical records of the Acoli people. Such gross and heinous crime...!!

Museveni and his bunch of extremely evil terrorists must be down, down ashamed of themselves of trying to mislead the world that they did not commit such crimes. They have ever since [with the well coordinated and qualified support of their financiers] concentrated on diverting the attention of the international communities away from these extremely evil deeds. focusing solely on blaming it on the native people [in the bush] who have been fighting them since then...

The next phase of the crime [which has gone on for years since] was the destruction of hospitals, schools, remaining homes and the general infrastructure that the native people used to rely upon.

{The true facts [about these heinous crimes Museveni and his lot have committed in Acoliland to date] are, however, well known to a lot of independent organizations [such as World Vision, Church Organisations, Amnesty International and many other Non-Governmental Organisations [NGOs] as well as individual journalists] who have been involved in Acoliland [in one way or another at different periods] since 1986. It is such organizations and/or individuals who really know clearly the reasons for the Acoli people having chosen to take up arms against the Museveni regime. And it is they [organizations and individuals] who would rightly provide the necessary catalogues of [documented] evidence against the Mueseveni regime in any [International] Court of Law if and when the need should arise.}


Before Museveni and his lot [under constant and close supervision of their financiers] terrorized their way to power in1986 there were no killings in Acoliland. The native people had never known or heard of such things as Camps for Internally Displaced People [CIDP]. They were rich, with hundreds of thousands of heads of cattle and other livestock - goats, sheep, chickens. They had never known what famine or starvation was. They always had had more agricultural produce than they needed for their own consumption. Before then, the native people had always lived very peacefully; going about their daily traditional way of life without any worry.

The Acoli people had always welcome foreigners to their land [many of whom, including Meseveni's Tutsi kinsmen - who arrived empty handed with very little covering the bags of skin their bones were in, and had nowhere else to go in the early 1960s - settled and multiplied as they so wished without any pre-conditions being imposed on them by the native people] until Museveni and his bands of killers arrived in 1986. Such foreigners had lived freely. They were given free food and places to live in on arrival by the natives... Later they were given land [for free] to till as well as jobs; and education provided for their children...

Museveni knows quite well in the centre of his mind that despite the evil [he has masterminded with the financial and logistical support of hostile foreigners from far away lands] he has perpetrated against the Acoli people, they are still a very rich people [with vast amounts of untapped wealth in the form of extensive, beautiful, fertile and resources-rich land.] The Acoli people have stood [and continue to stand] firm and remained quietly defiant.!

Your terrorism [Mr. Museveni] against the Acoli people will come to an end at some point.!

Lets this be said again:
It is completely clear to everyone that the Acoli people have NEVER before [in any conceivable way] wanted, DO NOT now and SHALL NEVER in future want you [Museveni.] In their eyes [and those of the other native peoples in the northern half and eastern part of the country] obviously, you are the leader bandit. the leader terrorist. the leader killer. the leader robber-looter-thief. the leader traitor to the natives of Africa. and the perfect stooge to your financiers [the neo-colonialists from lands far away from Uganda.]

The simple fact is that Museveni and his bands of killers have one stark choice [because they are NOT wanted in Acoliland. and northern Uganda as a whole.] - to pack their milk containers and go back to wherever it is they belong. brood over their crime [against a peaceful people in their land.] and their failure to break the people. and wait for their time.

To sum it all, let Museveni and his killers be reminded that, for lasting peace to prevail in Uganda, the country must be transformed into a Federal Republic - a demand all the other native peoples of Uganda have been voicing for very many years. The transformation is long overdue. Terrorism as you [Museveni and your associates] have perpetrated against the Acoli people will only breed more violence and suffering in future.!

As for the Acoli people, [and it must by now be all too clear to you Mr. Museveni.] they have left no trace of doubt whatsoever in anyone's mind as for their determination and resolve to govern themselves in their land... no matter which way you and your financiers may want things to go. They will of course be responsible for their security, their administration, their education system and their welfare... No foreigners [from within Uganda or from far away lands] clearly will want to waste their time trying to dictate terms to them. It is quite well known to all who are well informed that the Acoli people have more than enough of their own sons and daughters who are highly learned and skilled specialists in all areas and at all levels. as far as self governance may go.

Those who know what is what and what is not, are very well aware that you [Museveni] are the most visible example a stooge [of neo-colonialists from lands very far away from Uganda and Africa] in modern times in the Eastern and Central African regions.!

by
O. A. O. Pingom [oapingom@yahoo.co.uk [07- 08/2004]]