CHAPTER SEVEN

Throughout the the periods of Akumu's life in Ladigo village, she freely exercised her talent as a natural dancer of the cultural songs, something that made her famous in all parts of Ladigo and Aleda. Traditional dance formed the basis of the village norm upon which both girls' and boys' behaviors were directed. Such a practice gathered both youths and elders and friendship was created amidst interpersonal interactions. Series of gatherings would be made with different purposes and performed according to the society's doctrinal specifications. During such ocassion, men were often reminded to show polite and kind manners accorded with a sense of honor for women. Both participants and non participants were encouraged to dress descently especially women to avoid the occurrence of unpredictable sight temptation during the course of an intensified ceremonial performance. Once violation of this norm was subjected to a severe punishment, similar to one whose behavior was an evasion of his responsibility as an elder. Regardless of how far she was, from her father, she still respected him and listened to his voice which was always conveyed through her father's friends.

Akumu and Kolumi could be lucky enough to have been born in such a period where nothing was at ease in all the civil societies. After getting settled in his own house, Kolumi began participating in most of the village activities, both for self and general benefits of the Aleda people. He refused to hear his father's advice and would sometimes agree with his Okuti, but when he wasn't got in a good mood, he couldn't give him an opened ear. Since his return from Ladigo after the death of his mother, he refused to eat food from his father's kitchen and his means of survival was primarily through borrowing from neighbors. When it came to most outdoor activities like wrestling and other youths programs, Kolumi always acted as a super role model.

"Cleanse your face with hot water, one would think that you are just from the bed," said Okuti. He meant Kolumi who had led the youths from his young age till then that he still continued to face the intense sufferings and unexpressed worries of life. He didn't speak with an ailing feeling towards Kolumi, but it was his due respect for his brother's creativity and success. That was during the convocation that consisted of all youths, elders and young children of the two different villages of Aleda and Ladigo. The meeting was chaired by Owele who had just been chosen as the village chief of Aleda. He had been showing good morals and characters full of intergrity when his wife left and within the ten years that he had been staying alone as a bachelor, his experiences and love for developing his area gradually manifested and there was no means to make it effective other than him to be part of the leadership structure of his village. Two years had passed when he had been receiving cases of moral decay and disunity amongst both youths and elders. There occured no good relationship for each other, and land wrangle still remained the daily rhythm in different village corners with dismay spreading from one family to another. Owele got frightened and he couldn't silence himself from these evils that had invaded the hearts of his people. Other invited chiefs from the village outskirts of Aleda and Ladigo had all come and they curiously waited for what Owele had for them. He always won people's favor with his benign approaches and impartial opinions.

" It's as if we have with the oaths of our community. Subjects should be the ones whose understanding and virtue can be equally confided, and whose opinion can be valued at once for its justness and sincerity. We need to derive purging imaginations to live in our community with peace and unity after being divided by the civil wars for many years, where we have been surviving through the cascading tears of life in different resettlement camps and care centers for orphans. We must desist from throwing stigmatic illusion against our neighbors and to always live a life of patience and moderation regardless of of the insults of neighbors. Now that our rivals have threatened to attack us, what shall we do?" Owele submitted.

The main aim of the meeting was to see how the life of women and the children would be secured amidst the rampant insecurity in the society and to devise new methods of redistributing the land to different households.

Everybody yelled in happiness at the end of Owele's speech. "Anybody who remembers Owele's grim struggle against insecurity and iniquity of the ruling government will never bend down his head in silence. He tirelessly fought to protect us from the hands of the voracious men whose aim was to displace us from our own land and turn us into slaveries in their own land. It's therefore noteworthy to appreciate his struggles and emulate his bravery so that we may be able to protect our families against unknown future distractions. Soon we shall join our brothers in the bush and our women and young children will remain alone, and if we don't find a way of sheltering them in a place where security prevails, then we shall come back and find only bones and skulls," Owele added.

Other men looked shocked by Owele's words while others began developing an urge of retrieving themselves from going to the bush in order to remain with their women and family members.

Immediately after Owele had ended his submission, Doki, a resident of Ladigo begged to have a suggestion and said, "It's safer not to risk and involve ourselves in the battle of bloodshed. I was there when Kony joined the bush war and saw with my naked eyes how men and women suffered with their children. If we keep quiet in our respective homes and societies, we shall not be disturbed, but when we continue hooting like damaged tractors, then we shall pay the price of what we do not know."

"Aaah! you are a coward," Kolumi interrupted.

"As youths, we shall not give up because the future belongs to us and we must invest in it, especially in the post conflict period. I boldly assure you that we shall do everything possible to protect our innocent children and women. The best we can do now is to relocate our family members to the resettlement camps before we leave for the bush war. When that time comes, our hearts shall be filled with anquish and tears streaming out of our eyes, we shall lose some of our relatives in the battle field but we should remain strong at all times as devoted men whose future hopes of our residents rest upon. It's not the first war that we shall be fighting in the history of our community, our elders fought series of wars ranging from clan wars, inter-village wars and largely inter-tribal wars. Even at their old ages, they still fought against their enemies and grabbed back their land. I do not have any fear in the forthcoming conflict because the experiences of our elders have always left us motivated and energized."

Kolumi always penegyrized his fellow youths at all times of difficulties, and people never doubted his opinions. His motive had always been to achieve what was in the best interest of his people and he couldn't let go of what he could do with by himself or by the indulgence of others. He always encouraged his fellow young men to respond to the circumstance as it appeared and never to invoke their rivals into a fight unless their anger had been inflamed by the insults of their neighbors.

From his submission, he gained strong support and appreciation from both elders and youths for his virtuousness and enthusiasm.

"We are not scared by any attack and we hope to reign over them. We are moved by Kolumi's speech and if we all follow his courageous path, we shall certainly protect our land from being taken by our rivals. As elders, we shall keep praying and doing everything according to the ways of the land as our gods desire. Follow Kolumi's voice and his appeals, listen to his commands, obey his rules and act as one family children: through this, you will emerge victorious in the battlefield and our gods shall never abandon you. During our reign, we were united and never allowed any evil spirit of selfishness to separate us. Our wives, children and grandchildren kept mourning throughout our days in the battlefield, but their tears turned out to become our blessings. In the same way, we shall mourn, weep and long to see you back home alive, but through our agonized moments, you will succeed from wherever you will be. Keep watched and go in peace," Ogwang's uncle submitted.

The two villages of Ladigo and Aleda had set a common goal of unity which was practically exercised at the time when they had experienced a serious attack from their enemies whose intention was to oust them from their land. Since then, they swore to share their problems and challenges and to always intervene whenever one suspected any cause of alarm within their neighborhood.

At that time, Aleda was known for producing beautiful as handsome young girls and boys and that became their pride that made their fame and dignity rose and spread to all the neighboring villages. Ladigo on the other hand was well known for their richness in cattle, goats and sheep, a kind of wealth that was lacking in most areas.

Now the hours had turned into minutes, weeks into days and months into weeks; where men from both villages had to collectively join hands and shift their children, wives and animals to the nearby base camps. Husbands restlessly worked days and nights to ensure that their families secure a place in the camp before their departure to the battlefield. Countless herds of cattle had their ways to different camps of Barlonyo in lango province and Acwa camp in Acholi province. Men carried heavy items like beds, water pots, while women carried young children on their backs and as well, lifted lightly weighing items like empty jerricans. They marched in two different groups like the two football teams curving in the pitch for a match briefing. Women and young children fronted the journey while men followed them from behind. For defensive mechanism, some few energitic men were selected and given Spears, bows and arrows.

During the deep hours of the nights, women lit their paraffin lamps and placed them on top of the luggages in their heads, and some few men would carry big torches with wide aperture and remained behind so as to provide light to other group members. In case of any cause of alarm, the whole group would stop and and wait until their men of valor carried out a thorough inspection of the area, then the journey carried forward. Whoever felt sick would be lifted on the bicycles and rolled to the base camps as their relatives kept following. The chastening experience of the sages and for those who had been upheld in suspense of the unknown warfare would be silenced by the motivating songs of different traditional rhythms. Children kept grinning while the elders maintained the prolonged tunes of the cultural songs.

From village to village, and from boundary to boundary, men blew their horns to remind their fellow men in the neighboring villages to join them in the trek. Children and women tightly held their luggages as they passed through one ridge to another and in a swift movement because of the sudden attacks from their rivals. At such moments, men walked from behind while those chosen as the men of valor enclosed them from infront and the young children and women remained in the middle of the group.

It always took over two weeks to accomplish the journey to the base camps. Sometimes the foodstuffs would be wholly consumed on the way before reaching the camp. As they kept on with the journey, safe drinking water became the greatest challenge and many young children starved with thirst. Each group was led by an indiginous youth whose bounden task was to offer directives and guide the trekkers. They ensured that each group obeyed the norms of the

land, meditated their prayers to the ancestors amidst challenges like hunger and sickness.

One of the groups led by Ogwang experienced series of challenges due to disloyalty of their leader to the ways of the land. Ogwang was a common name shared by different tribes in of Acholi and Lango to depict that such a person was born during the time of instabilities. Ogwang was a born of Lango tribe, and a resident of Aleda village. He was known for his eloquent speech in various meetings. He was a great debator and would not allow himself to be swayed by the arguments of his opponents in any convocation. Many people liked him because of his braveness and upstanding traits. Through him and Kolumi, Aleda retained their land from the hands of the merciless neighbors and peace maintained because of his relationship with the chiefs of the neighboring communities. Though he had all these positive traits, he lacked the knowledge about the cultural specifications.

Ogwang fidgeted in most of the traditional practices and was perfect in none,and this was realized by only experienced elders who deeply knew the devastated norms in the essence of the effects projected to the people as a result of lack of satisfactory submission to the orders of the gods of the land. Many children in his died, pregnant women suffered from untimely birth as men's gallantry sometimes ceased.

"I can't understand what is happening. We left before other groups but now we are the last group left on the way, yet others have already arrived in the camp. Two weeks have passed, but we can't reach. The sun heats on us in the whole broad daylight and we are always swallowed in the darkness of the nights and and pressed in its misfortunes. We immensely go hungry everyday and worst of all, thirst and unknown sickness kill our children anonymously. Soon I will be blamed for all these afflictions. I know I'm not perfect in the ways of the custom and above all I don't fully belong to this tribe. Since my brother gave birth to me means raised me in this land, I have never known my father's whereabouts. All these have been kept a secret by my uncle who has been taking care of me since my childhood. Could this be for my safety? As what if I narrate this to one of the elders in this group so that they may select someone else to take over and lead the group? I'm now worried and I cannot insist and serve as a leader though people still look at me with gratitude. It's night and when the sun rises, I will meet my uncle's friend; Odinga's father and reveal my fear to him and while doing so, I must warn him to bind it across his ribs and never to reveal it to anyone, less I will be killed according to my solemn attestation to the clan," Ogwang silently interceded.

It was now time for him to release his weaknesses to the elders of Aleda so that he could be relieved from the worries of the unknown cultural practices which he once pretended to have been familiar with. He did not sleep the whole night, and only kept thinking on how he would preface this story to Odinga's father. He needed to act smart to act smart in his presentation so that he might be understood as a man whose origin was typically in the tribe of Acholi, but whose educational process made him to lose all the ways of the land and adopted the modern ways of life. What if he said his late father wasn't an Acholi, what would happen? His fluency in speaking the foreign language and his general traits distinquished him from many people. He was very sensational to development and remained opposing to some cultural practices.

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