Who Will Irrefutably Complete The Work Of Writing Uganda’s History? — Part I

“The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.” ― William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

Arrow Boys Monument. Source: kapelebyong.go.ug

I asked Norman this morning how I could talk of writer’s block when I just drove at about 80 kilometres per hour on a murram road through Amuria, all before 7 am while the fiery and raging Teso sun rose from the corner of my right eye. Albeit a rhetorical question, the gentleman was gracious enough to offer a response. “Writing is about experiences and imagination,” he said. I couldn’t agree more.

Only been in Karamoja sub region for 12 hours and I already have stories that date back eons. But first, how much of the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency do you remember? Not you Gen Zs, I’m talking to the others. Nothing personal guys, the war ended (at least in Uganda) long before you could end diapers. I deviate.

It is said that the LRA attacked a small health facility in present day Kapelebyong. Out numbered and desperate, an unnamed man hid with his family and sternly refused to surrender. The structure was shelled with bullets but the gentleman was still unyielding. The commander of the attack, whom I have learnt was high up in the LRA ranks, kicked down the door only to come head on with a bullet from our hero’s rifle. On whether he made it to heaven or hell, your guess is as good as mine.

During the same period, still in Kapelebyong, formerly Amuria, formerly Katakwi, which was also formerly Soroti — do you see where I am going with this? — At the height of the LRA charge, when the rebels were causing mayhem in Teso, the leaders mobilised a counter-insurgency outfit to purge the region of the rebels. The militia, came to be known as the Arrow Boys because of their choice of weapons. Axes, pangas, bows and arrows. 42 LRA commanders are believed to have been slain by these crude weapons and about 9,000 children freed from captivity.

In retaliation, on 15th June 2003, an LRA offensive saw 365 Arrow Boys massacred in cold blood and up to 100,000 people displaced into camps. In 2018, a monument was mounted in Obalanga, in their honour. To this day, leaders in Teso hold annual memorial prayers on June 15th in remembrance of the fallen men. Not all the good is interred with the bones of the dead after all.

My narrator holds the theory that the LRA rebels ending up in Teso while avoiding the Karamoja sub region was no accident. Hoping to ride on the hostility of the Karamojongs, Kony instead learnt, rather the hard way, that these were a people so set in their cattle keeping way of life and not so keen on taking part in a popular insurrection. — Their own earlier cattle raids in Teso notwithstanding.

This position gains more credence from a quote, "We shall not wait for Karamoja to develop,” which is attributed to former President Apollo Milton Obote by the Uganda Argus, 1963. Sixty years later, Karamoja still remains one of the the least understood and least developed parts of this country. Not even the influence of colonialism could change this. For a very long time, the sub region was under military rule.

Karamoja feels to me like what the white man felt when looking into Africa from the outside and quickly labelling it a dark continent. Not even the first lady could smooth out affairs with these warriors during her tenure as the top most political appointee in the area. It is said in jest that she built for them houses but becuase they are so set in their ways, they abandoned the houses and returned to their makeshift structures.

The road to kaabong is riddled with crosses at spots where priests and nuns were murdered…

…to be continued

ThE LAst TeSO cHieF

Reference:

[embed]The Arrow Boys Monument - Wikipedia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Arrow Boys Monument is also known as the Obalanga Massacre Memorial and the…en.wikipedia.org