Returning to the world of ancestors’: death and dying among the Acholi of Northern Uganda, 1900s–1980s
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Date
2022
Authors
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Routledge
Abstract
The encounters between Acholi and Europeans, beginning in 1904
with the settlement of the Church Missionary Society in Acholiland,
had a profound impact on the people. Scholars have long examined
the impact of these encounters on various aspects of life. But a
study of their impact on mortuary practices in the region has
largely been neglected. Recently, scholars have shined a spotlight
on death and dying as a result of the armed conflict that
engulfed Acholiland from the late 1980s. Drawing on previously
untapped primary sources, interviews, and works of Acholi
intellectuals, this article complements this new trend, by focusing
on death and mortuary practices between the 1900s and the
1980s. Specifically, it recreates these practices and demonstrates
change and continuity; and it concludes with a history of the
cemetery in Acholiland.
Description
Keywords
Acholi, death, dying, burial, inheritance, cemetery northern Uganda
Citation
: Julaina A. Obika & Patrick W. Otim (2022) ‘Returning to the world of ancestors’: death and dying among the Acholi of Northern Uganda, 1900s–1980s, Journal of Eastern African Studies, 16:3, 375-394, DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2022.216312