AY Honors/African Lore/Answer Key

2005-10-31T15:25:29Z

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[[Image:Acholiland,_Uganda.png|thumb|right|250px|Acholiland, Uganda]]
'''Acholi''' (also Acoli) are the people of the districts of [[Gulu]], [[Kitgum]] and [[Pader]], a region known as [[Acholiland]] in nothern [[Uganda]] and in Magwe County in southern [[Sudan]] numbering about thirty to fifty thousand people.

==Language==
{{main|Acholi language}}

The [[Acholi language]] is a [[Western Nilotic languages|Western Nilotic]] language, classified as [[Luo languages|Luo]], and is mutually intelligible with [[Lango]] and other Luo languages.

The ''Song of Lawino'', one of the most successful African literary works, was written by [[Okot p'Bitek]] in Acholi, and later translated to [[English language|English]].

==History==
{{main|Luo history}}

The Acholi are a Luo people, who are said to have come to northern Uganda from the area now known as [[Bahr el Ghazal]] in southern [[Sudan]]. Starting in the late [[seventeenth century]], a new sociopolitical order developed among the Luo of northern Uganda, mainly characterized by the formation of chiefdoms headed by ''Rwodi'' (sg. Rwot, 'ruler'). By the mid-[[nineteenth century]], about 60 small chiefdoms existed in eastern Acholiland{{ref|webster}}. During the second half of the nineteenth century [[Arabic language|Arabic]]-speaking traders from the north started to call them ''Shooli'', a term which transformed into 'Acholi'{{ref|shooli}}.

Their traditional dwelling-places are circular huts with a high peak, furnished with a mud sleeping-platform, jars of grain and a sunk fireplace. Interior walls are daubed with mud and decorated with geometrical or conventional designs in red, white or grey. The Acholi are skilled traditional hunters, using nets and spears, and keep [[goats]], [[sheep]] and [[cattle]]. In war they used spears and long, narrow shields of giraffe or ox hide.

During Uganda's [[History of Uganda|colonial period]], the [[United Kingdom|British]] encouraged political and economic development in the south of the country, in particular among the [[Baganda]]. In contrast, the Acholi and other northern ethnic groups supplied much of the national manual labor and came to comprise a majority of the military, creating what some have called a "military ethnocracy." This reached its height with the [[coup d'état]] of Acholi General [[Tito Okello]], and came to a crashing end with the defeat of Okello and the Acholi-dominated army by the [[National Resistance Army]] led by now-President [[Yoweri Museveni]].

==Religion==

Most Acholi are [[Protestant]], [[Catholicism|Catholic]] and, in lesser numbers, [[Muslim]]. Nevertheless, the traditional belief in guardian and ancestor spirits remains strong, though it is now often described in [[Christian]] or [[Islam]]ic terms.

[[Image:Kids3.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Children in an [[internally displaced person|IDP]] camp in [[Kitgum]]]]

==Lord's Resistance Army==

The Acholi are known to the outside world mainly because of the insurgency of the [[Lord's Resistance Army]] (LRA) led by [[Joseph Kony]], an Acholi from Gulu. The LRA's activities have been concentrated within [[Acholiland]] and many hundreds of thousands of Acholi remain [[internally displaced person]]s.

==Notes and references==
===Notes===
# {{note|webster}} Webster 1970.
# {{note|shooli}} According to Atkinson (1994).
===References===
* Atkinson, Ronald Raymond (1994) ''The roots of ethnicity: the origins of the Acholi of Uganda before 1800''. Kampala: Fountain Publishers. ISBN 9970-02156-7.
* Dwyer, John Orr (1972) 'The Acholi of Uganda: adjustment to imperialism'. (unpublished thesis) Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International .
* Girling, F.K. (1960) ''The Acholi of Uganda'' (Colonial Office / Colonial research studies vol. 30). London: Her majesty's stationery office.
* Webster, J. (1970) 'State formation and fragmentation in Agago, Eastern Acholi', ''Provisional council for the social sciences in East Africa; 1st annual conference'', vol 3., p. 168-197.

==External links==
*[http://www.etop.co.ug Etop - Online news in Acholi and Lango (Luo)]
*[http://www.language-museum.com/a/acholi.php Acholi Sample at Language Museum]

[[Category:Ethnic groups of Uganda]]

[[de:Acholi (Volk)]]
[[es:Acholi]]

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AY Honors/African Lore/Answer Key