Browsing by Author "OCHEN PATRICK"

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    The Unheard Narratives of Children Born in the Lord’s Resistance Army Captivity in Acholi Sub-region, Northern Uganda (1987-2025).
    (Gulu University, 2026-10-08) OCHEN PATRICK
    Abstract This study documented the unheard narratives of children born in captivity (CBIC) during the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) conflict in the Acholi sub-region of Northern Uganda, 1987–2025. The study pursued four objectives: to interrogate the experiences of CBIC; examine the integration programmes and practices affecting them; investigate the challenges encountered in integration; and assess the effects of those challenges on their lives. Guided by a qualitative constructivist approach and an exploratory historical design, the study used one-on-one interviews, focus group discussions, future-oriented participatory workshops, meetings with women’s organisations, key informant interviews, and documentary review. The primary narrative sample comprised 58 young adults born in LRA captivity, supported by 30 FGD participants and contextual accounts from 17 key informants and participants in workshops and meetings. The findings show that CBIC experienced violence, deprivation, disrupted family and cultural ties, and persistent stigma during and after the conflict. Integration was not absent altogether; rather, it was uneven and fragmented. Uganda’s transitional-justice framework provides a broad basis for social reintegration and reparations, but the policy and documentary evidence reviewed for this study did not show a consistently operationalised, dedicated support package for CBIC. At family and community levels, acceptance varied according to maternal support, clan recognition, cultural practices, education, livelihood opportunities, and individual agency. The main challenges were stigma, family and clan rejection, weak legal identity and documentation, educational and livelihood exclusion, identity disruption, and psychosocial distress. The effects were psychological, social, cultural, economic, and civic, including difficulties in belonging, access to land and services, participation in community life, and engagement with formal institutions. The study concludes that integration should be understood as a long-term process of social, cultural, economic, and civic inclusion rather than simply physical return. It recommends survivor-centred implementation of transitional-justice measures, improved birth registration and identification support, sustained psychosocial services, educational and livelihood opportunities, community and clan dialogue, and meaningful participation of CBIC in programmes and policies that affect them.