By Lubwa Yeremoi
Recently it was reported in the media that Gulu recorded the highest temperature ever, as high as 36C, whereas to the best of my memory the highest temperature in Gulu used to be around 30-32C!
This to me does not come as a surprise given the extent of the deforestation that has occurred in Acholiland during the last couple of decades.
I recall that sometimes early last year (2015), Acholi Times published an article under the heading “Indiscriminate Tree Cutting angers Acholi Herbalists”.
This article was soon followed by a rejoinder by an Acholi elder, Mr Vincent Oola’s. In his article, also in Acholi Times, Oola encouraged people and the powers that be in Acholi region to embark on a serious programme of reforestation in the region.
I am puzzled and disappointed that the deliberate deforestation of Acholiland is being treated as if it is the concern only to Acholi traditional herbalists.
I would have thought that this kind of politically motivated destruction of Acholiland would be the concern of, first and foremost those who are in full time paid occupation for leading/representing Acholi people, at various levels, i.e. elected members of parliament, elected district leaders, civil society leaders and all of us Acholi people, wherever we may be, home or away.
From the article, I get the impression that it does not seem to occur to those leaders that such wanton destruction of our ecology is part of a sinister agenda to destroy Acholiland systematically and completely.
I remember that some years ago when Mabira forest was under a similar threat of being destroyed, the whole country rallied together. I remember that it was in fact one Acholi woman MP who spearheaded the numerous protest marches, which at times turned violent, for which she earned the nick name ‘Miss Mabira’.
Now that Mabira forest has been spared, look who is coming merrily to destroy our vegetation! Are they not the very same people who cried foul when Mabira forest was under a similar threat? How strange is it that we now see them merrily crossing River Karuma to do exactly what they did not want done to Mabira forest! What double standards! How long is it going to take us to understand the discriminatory nature and double standards of some Ugandans destroying this country? All those so called government agencies such as NEMA, cited by one commentator, are as good as the tribal bigots heading them.
Charity it is said, begins at home. But unfortunately it seems to me that some of our leaders are more concerned about national party politics than about the interests of Acholi region, the very platform(constituency) on which they are standing, while those big wigs of the ruling party only care about their region.
The legal entity called Uganda to them is just a vehicle of convenience which the ruling elites never place above their local and self-interests. As far as I am concerned the legal entity called Uganda died a long while ago.
Finally, to add strength to Oola’s article, let me provide hereunder a number of quotations to show the importance other people from faraway countries attach to their land. Hopefully it will be a source of inspiration and strength to us all, to defend Acholiland and her natural resources:
1- When all trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money- Cree (Native American) prophecy.
2- A frog does not drink up the entire pond in which it lives- Native American proverb.
3- Our land is more valuable than your money. It will last forever. It will not even perish by the flames of fire. As long as the sun shines and the waters flow, this land will be here to give life to men and animals- Chief Crowfoot, Siksika (circa 1825-1890), also a Native American Chief.
4- The beauty of the trees, the softness of the air, the fragrance of the grass speaks to me. The summit of the mountain, the thunder of the sky, the rhythm of the sea speaks to me. The strength of the fire, the taste of salmon, the trail of the sun, and the life that never goes away, they speak to me. And my heart soars.-Chief Dan George, Tsleil-Waututh (1899-1981), also a Native American Chief.
5- No tribe has the right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers…. Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the great sea as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children? – Chief Tecumseh, leader of the Shawnee Nation. He worked to unify different tribes against White Invaders’ settlement and urged the Natives to reject European lifestyles and concepts.
6- Yet hear me, people, we have now to deal with another race- small and feeble when our fathers first met them but now great and overbearing. Strangely enough they have a mind to till the soil and the love of possession is a disease with them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break but the poor may not. They take their tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule…….We cannot dwell side by side. Only seven years ago we made a treaty by which we were assured that the buffalo country should be left for us forever. Now they threaten to take that away from us. My brothers, shall we submit or shall we say to them, “First kill me before you take possession of my land”- Sitting Bull (1831-15th Dec.1890) aka Thathanzka Iyothake (Hoka Pisce).
7- Nearer to our country, let me quote Johnston Kamau/Kamau wa Ngegi better known as Jomo Kenyatta (1891-1978), the late President of Kenya (1963-1978): “When missionaries arrived, the African had the land and the missionaries had the bible. They taught us to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible”. It took Kenyans the Mau-Mau war (1952-1960), which claimed an estimated 12,000 to 20,000 African lives to get back their land from the invaders. In Zimbabwe the estimated costs was over 10,000 African lives to retake their land seized by White invaders during the 1890s, by Cecil Rhodes & Co. So unless you have a superior army to that of the land robbers masquerading as buyers, do not ‘sell’ or give away Acholiland to strangers.
8- My final quote is from a home grown hero; from our own Rwot Ibrahim Awich Aboki Lutanymoi (1860?- 1946), Rwot of Payira clan, then a sovereign entity just like any other clan state in Acholiland was, before ill-conceived Uganda came into being. Legend has it that when approached by a Whiteman, who after narrating to him (Rwot Awich) how great and marvelous their country was and how powerful their Monarch was, ended by asking the Chief to open up his country and sign off their land in return for the protection from their Monarch. The great Rwot is reported to have told the Mzungu, “Here Chiefs do not own land; the people collectively own the land”.
He then quickly went on, innocently perhaps, to ask the Mzungu “By the way where you come from is there no land?”
You can be sure that the Colonialist minded Mzungu trickster must have felt outwitted by an African Chief they love to think of as illiterate, brainless savages. How I only wish our Chiefs/Leaders and land dealers could read this and borrow a leaf from the above courageous and patriotic words of past Native American Chiefs/Leaders, Jomo Kenyatta and our own hero Chief Awich, and not sign away Acholiland, our birth right so naively.
As for the sale of land in Atiak to a Somali business woman for the production of sugarcane – a hot and current topic of debate – as I do not have all the contract details at hand I can only comment as follows: That first and foremost, have our fortunes miscarried so much that we have to be rescued by “unknown” business entity’s whose interests have not been properly explained to local people and the region? Do we not know the connection between some of Uganda’s dubious investors and those in high places in Uganda? Are we sure that sugar cane growing is the best for that land, better than rice growing, which had already been a proven success? Are we sure that the land will not be so degraded so much that when sugar cane growing is ended the land will be so unproductive? Has the ownership of the land been sold to the buyer in perpetuity (freehold) or was it a leasehold agreement and if so for how long? Has the land been mortgaged as a collateral so that incase of default the bank can take possession and sell it to the highest bidder? How can we be sure that this Somali business entity is not fronting someone in high office in Uganda, who will be the beneficiary as soon as the land is repossessed? How can the people of Atiak stop the next owner from changing use of the land, i.e. if they decide to resettle their people on to the land? Just asking!
What stops Acholi from organising themselves by setting up a business fund to which they contribute and purchase machinery to set up factories themselves. Why do we always have to chant and dance to outside interests without fully understanding their motives and objectives? Again just asking.
Finally let me end by saying that so much has already been said about this subject of land in Acholi region that one needs not say more, except to say “a word to the wise is enough”; “A fool and his money are soon parted”.
Mr Yeremoi is a retired Acholi elder resident in Australia
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Ladit Yeremoi, I may add how with great sadness and bitterness when I drove to Gulu at night last month with family friends, to see trucks after trucks laden with charcoal proceeding to Kampala, in fact like moro. Then I hear Acholi leaders are not doing anything “because people involved in the trade are voters”. Then you hear in the south that, “Acholi’s have been boasting with their land so we are going to teach them a lesson”. I was even in a place called Labworomo, another beautiful olace of Acholi amongst all for a funeral, and behold, you just see land bare, all the the result of tree destruction. And nobody seems to do something about this tragedy befalling the beloved Acholi’s and Acholi land