Will They go? Acholi People Hold Their Breath
By Balmoi Steven
Few hours to the dateline, and some people are holding their breath. This is what l envisage and is consistent with what l have been saying for a while now. The status quo won’t change that much. We should appreciate the difference between the traditional Balaalo (Nomads) who were chased from Masindi and other places, and the Modern Balaalo (not entirely nomads) who find themselves in Northern Uganda (Majority in Acoli)
- The Traditional Nomads
The President refers to them as ‘ill-educated’ and arrogant. They move from one place to another looking for pasture and water. This lot has since time immemorial been moving with their cattle within Uganda and beyond (Congo, Tz, Burundi, Rwanda etc) and rarely fence off their land. They have had clashes with the local communities, and it was easy to kick them off. With this eviction pressure, increase in population, and demand for land, some sold off their herds and vanished and others headed North to look for land(they are few though)
- Modern Balaalo (Ministers, MPs, and Army Generals)
These are the groups CJ Dollo recently referred to, and they are the majority group in Northern Uganda. According to the letter that Gen. Saleh wrote to his brother Gen. Museveni, he made a distinction between what the President was referring to as traditional Balaalo and these new categories of Balaalo who are mainly lodged in West Acoli, and he advised his big brother to move slowly with ‘his executive order’. These MPs, Generals, and Ministers were led to this Region by our sons and daughters, who promised them cheap land for raring and fattening cattle. They went ahead and ‘bought’ these cheap ‘unoccupied’ land and subsequently, ferried in their cattle in lorries and employed the traditional Balaalo who had become ‘cattleless.’ will the President evict his power guards? I doubt it, but Let us wait and see what tomorrow has in store.
What l can easily predict is the following:-
- The case-by-case (BCBC) group who were dispersed to different parts of Acoli yesterday will probably carry the day. The modern Balaalo(Ministers, MPs, and Army Generals) who are the majority will be sieved from the traditional Balaalo and since they have met the President’s condition of fencing off the land, no one will touch them. A few traditional arrogant Balaalo who are mainly occupying government land (Lakang and Aswa) will be evicted.
Possible missed opportunities in this struggle:
- Most of these Modern Balaalo are occupying communal land (Tim dwar, olet etc) but clan leaders have been conspicuously quiet 🤐 this would have been their time to reassert their authority and claim their rightful place.
- Our politicians shouted and rightly so, but they lacked basic information like 1)how much communal land (Tim dwar, olet etc) is being occupied by either the modern or traditional Balaalo 2) how many Balaalo are in Acoli land 3)how many ownerships are being contested by the affected clans; these have not been properly documented.
- What would have been our compromised position; should we have proposed conversion from whatever titles these Balaalo hold into 10-year renewable leases?
Tam ma oaa ki Oryang
