Uganda’s Development: The underlying issues

On the surface, talking with Ugandans, seeing how far the north has come since the years of the insurgency (less than 5 years ago), watching modern buildings being built, attending a contemporary truth-based church worship service…you see a developing nation moving forward. There’s hope, some behavior change, and maybe even a plan! But you go a little deeper and you see the limiting factors. Traditional beliefs, customs…CULTURE! Pick up any copy of the New Vision or Monitor (Ugandan newspapers) and start reading. (This is only a sample, I don’t attempt to give a full report nor do I intend to conquer how deep the cultural traditions lie.)

A Goat Keeps Away Ancestral Spirits
In Koro, a sub-county south of Gulu town, many people have family members buried on what is now someone else’s land. They died while living in the Koro IDP camp during the height of the war and were buried. With the movement to move out of the IDP camps and return to their land, most people want to take their dead family members. Tradition is that they are buried in their ancestral homeland. Many people have exhumed the bodies and taken them home. However, many have not. Not because they do not want to, but because they can’t afford to buy a goat. Yes, a goat! A goat must be sacrificed for every dead body that is exhumed and reburied. It’s necessary for proper cleansing; to ensure the dead person’s spirits don’t return to haunt the land or family. So the dead bodies stay buried. The people who are now living on that land want to cultivate. The local government tells the farmers: it’s okay, their farming equipment doesn’t dig deep enough to dig into the graves of the dead people.

This is Your Co-Wife
A man brought home a younger girl (in her 20’s) to live at his home as a second wife. He brought her to the house and said to his 1st wife “This is your co-wife”. The new woman ended up fleeing saying she had not been told about the first wife. The man said he was entitled to as many wives as he wanted because the house was his.

Government Changes School Closure Date with 2-weeks Notice
The Ministry of Education, in late July, announced that secondary schools must end Term 2 one week earlier than planned, and students report back for Term 3, 2 weeks earlier than planned. Zero advance notice was given to any teachers or schools. The announcements came over the radio and newspaper on Monday, July 26th. Term 2 was scheduled to end on Aug 13th; but was now mandated to end on Aug 6th. With only two weeks advance notice, schools and teachers were expected to modify their teaching and exam schedules with losing an entire week! Students were forced to take exams with only 2 days notice. They even took exams on Saturday, only having a break from exams on Sunday. The complications extend beyond students being forced to take exams with little notice. For Term 3, students are to report to school 2 weeks earlier than planned, which means that families have 2-less weeks to gather school fees for their children to return to school on time! Additionally, students now only have a 2 week break between the two terms. The early school closure also complicated a number of programs, including our Scripture Union Camp which always starts on the last day of the Term. Camp which was scheduled to start on Aug 13th but had to be changed to Aug 6th!
The government’s reasoning for the date change is somewhat legitimate; to allow more teaching time during Term 3 since students start year-end exam in Oct-Nov. BUT the timing was not at all appropriate and caused much frustration, disorganization and even anger towards the Ministry of Education. This is only the beginning of school date changes. It’s highly expected that for 2011 Term 1, students will not be reporting to school until after the Presidential elections are complete so that students who are registered to vote are able to do so in their home towns (often not the same location as their school). Term 1 normally commences around Feb 1st; however, it is likely students may not return to school until late February or even early March!

76,000 former IDPs Stranded in Camps
Most of the 1.8 million former Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have returned to their respective villages. In a number of districts, many are still “stranded” in the IDP Camps. They want to return home have not been able to for a variety of reasons:
- Widows, single mothers and orphans are denied access to their land (because women can’t own land)
- Land disputes with southern Sudan which is claiming to own parts of far northern Uganda land.
- Land disputes between clans/families. (In the past, land titles were not a part of the land ownership system. Everyone lived on their ancestral land, so everyone knew whose was whose. But with people being way from their land for so many years, going back to over-grown fields, land disputes are a big issue.)
- In Kitgum, which boarders Karimojong land, people fear cattle thieves. (The Karimojong are known to be an unlawful tribe and cattle thieves, to the present day.)

Circumcision
Circumcision is not a common practice at birth in Uganda. There was a report of a woman leaving her boyfriend because he (in his 20’s) saw no reason to “shed blood because he was perfectly healthy.”
Some tribes [in Uganda] require that anyone who dies having never been circumcised, the body must be circumcised before burial. Whoever does the circumcision on the dead guy, will then NOT be permitted to do any future circumcisions on “live” men for fear that the dead persons evil spirits might be passed on!