A Project Partner's Reflection
Juliet Adoch, a CSiW project partner, has authored a reflection on facilitating community dialogues in Uganda.
“Ododo Wa” is a unique exhibition that tells the stories of two women, Evelyn Amony and Grace Acan. Amony and Acan are former abductees of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda. The narratives around the LRA conflict have been confined to northern Uganda and civil society platforms. Having the exhibition at the Uganda National Museum, the only national museum that the country has, provided the space of recognition for not only Amony and Acan, but the many victims of the LRA conflict whose voices were being represented by Acan and Amony sharing their stories. These two brave women’s stories relate to the plight of many formerly abducted women. Their stories speak to the lives that they live now but also their experiences of captivity.
Victims in northern Uganda have always needed spaces to share their narratives, to connect, and to be heard. While some may not feel comfortable and confident to share their stories, the inspiration and empathy from hearing Acan and Amony resonates with many. The exhibition in Uganda develops a national space to acknowledge survivors' experiences in a wider community beyond their region. There is need to bring the narratives of conflict to many parts of the nation and the exhibition plays an important role in this. Exploring the exhibition with Amony and Acan at the Uganda National Museum and later at the National Memory and Peace Documentation Centre (NMPDC) in Kitgum, was an important experience. They told stories of pain, lost opportunities, memory, hope, support, endurance, connection, and above all bravery.
The exhibition draws on items that tell Acan's and Amony's stories. The grinding stone is a symbol of labour that combines experiences while in captivity and back at home. As Grace Acan explained at the Museum, the grinding stone is what they used in captivity to make the millet and maize flour for their meals. While its food may symbolise survival, the grinding stone speaks more to the pain of surviving as an abductee, forced wife, and mother while in captivity, as well as their continued labour when they return from captivity with children born in war. The grinding stone stands in place for a lot of experiences that often go unmentioned.
Traditionally in northern Uganda, women and girls wear skirts and dresses. That is why it was so powerful when Evelyn Amony spoke to the green skirt which she wore in captivity. At the Museum, Amony used the skirt to speak to her experiences of pain, lost opportunity, early motherhood, and protection for her children. The bullet holes in her skirt demonstrate her resilience while in captivity and during skirmishes with the Uganda People’s Defence Force. The skirt speaks to the challenges of formerly abducted women and girls when they return to life after many years of captivity. They have to adjust to life back home and face shame due to the stigma of not being the same as other girls and women who didn’t face abduction. They missed out on opportunities such as education, decent marriages, employment, and when they return they have to deal with a lack of acceptance from their families and communities.
The audience at the exhibit launch raised questions about the pain Acan and Amony experience from telling their stories. Naturally, difficult emotions came up for Amony and Acan as they spoke about their experiences. At times, they broke down. But they picked themselves up again, talking of a future filled with hope and better promises for the lives of their children. While facilitating this process, it is important to provide space for survivors to gather themselves without rushing them to the next discussion. I stood next to Acan and Amony and made sure they had time to show their emotions and process them because it helps support them to carry on. It is also crucial not to interrupt their moment of emotion by rending immediate psycho-social support. They can decide if they need psycho-social support in that moment or later. Grace Acan shared that telling her story repeatedly, including writing her book, has provided healing. And, as Evelyn Amony said, her story voices a neglected experience like that of many other victims of the conflict who are not able to tell their stories due to fear or because they died during the conflict. Acan's and Amony's stories reflect their endurance and their ability to overcome shame and stigma by appreciating their strength to survive. As Amony pointed out, she believes that what happened to her happened for a reason. One wonders how someone can find so much hope from an experience of pain, but Amony has rebuilt her life and the lives of those around her by sharing her story of survival.
During the discussion, Amony and Acan both pointed to family support that gave them hope to start over again. They also pointed out that not all former abductees have the same support. This also relates to the challenges around parenting children born in war. When they return from captivity, mothers and children born in war deal with rejection from their families. Boys want to know their paternity and telling the truth surrounding their identity can cause a lot of conflict. In the context of northern Uganda, the issues of knowing one’s paternal relations remains a big challenge given that a child belongs to their paternal relations culturally. One’s paternity comes with one being able to identify with a clan, family, as well as inheritance in terms of land, which is the main source of livelihood. When one doesn’t know their paternal identity, they struggle with belonging. That is why strong relationships between mothers and children, such as when mothers accept their children and love them regardless of the circumstances surrounding their birth, is so important. Acan and Amony both reflected on their experiences when they returned as they overcame challenges to secure a future for their children, which included going back to school.
When Grace Acan went back to school, she had to face her fears of male students and even made friends with them. They became a support for her in learning difficult subjects such as mathematics. She went on to university and got a degree. Evelyn returned to school in a bid to secure a future for her children but later had to drop out when her mother died because she had no one to look after her children while she was in school. Acan and Amony recognise that not all the women who have similar experiences have had the same opportunities they have had since their return. Regardless of the differences in opportunities when former abductees return, Acan and Amony say the women they work with advocate for securing the future of their children. They consider education as the key to their children’s future, breaking the cycle of shame, and becoming someone in the future.
The audience also posed questions about justice and healing for victims. They were aware of the trauma that victims go through and wanted to talk about the day-to-day challenges that the formerly abducted experience. In response, Acan and Amony spoke to the economic challenges and trauma that formerly abducted women go through. They pointed to the issue of marriage and the ways culture is attached to marriage, which brings recognition and respect in the community, but creates problems for returnees. For most formerly abducted persons, marriage and acceptance is a huge challenge that they face daily. This includes having to deal with the unequal treatment of their children born in marriage following their return and the children born in war that they returned with. Children notice preferential treatment and it impacts how they view themselves. The exhibition created a space for a dialogue beyond the visual that was on display, beyond the grinding stone, skirt and drawings of the huts. It also brought recognition to issues beyond the exhibit, like parenting children born in war.
As questions around the future of the exhibition arose, as well as similar exhibitions that tell narratives of this painful past, the Museum director, Nelson Abiti, pointed to Ododo Wa as a ladder to other projects the Museum has taken on like documenting some of the conflict narratives. Providing the space for the exhibition and discussion shows recognition of memory and experiences of the LRA conflict and the importance of keeping the memory alive. The NMPDC provided a different space compared to the Museum. At the NMPDC, Amony and Acan shared with the local community who had similar experiences and therefore could relate to their stories. They were applauded for their courage to share their experiences and their willingness to acknowledge the challenges of returnees. The exhibition spoke volumes to these neglected experiences even though only a little of it could be conveyed, felt, and heard in the room and through discussions. The event pointed to the importance of memorializing voices of victims of war.