Rebel Lives by ACC Art Books

Author

Contributors (in alphabetical order)

Kristof Titeca is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Development Policy, University of Antwerp. His work focuses on governance and conflict in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo and has been published widely in academic journals. He has conducted field research on the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda since 2004 and obtained his PhD in Political Sciences in 2007 from the Conflict Research Group, Ghent University. He was a visiting scholar at Makerere University (Uganda, 2011-2012) and the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (2014). He has led collaborations with the Catholic University of Congo in Kinshasa (2008-2013) and with Gulu University (Uganda, 2012-2018). He studied photography at the LUCA School of Arts (Ghent, Belgium). He has also acted as an expert witness at the International Criminal Court at the trial of former LRA commander Dominic Ongwen.

Harriet Anena is a writer from Gulu, in northern Uganda. She is the joint winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, 2018, for her poetry collection, A Nation in Labour. Anena’s short stories have been nominated for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (2018), the Short Story Day Africa (2017, 2018), and the Ghana Poetry Prize (2013). Her poems are featured in New Daughters of Africa, an anthology of writing by women of African descent (2019), the Caine Prize Anthology, Femrite anthologies, Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation anthologies, and Sooo Many Stories, among others. Rein Deslé is curator and editor at FOMU (Museum of Photo graphy, Antwerp, Belgium). She has curated several group exhibitions including Claude Samuel Zanele, Show Us the Money, and Shooting Range, as well as solo shows for Mathieu Asselin, Camille Picquot, Harry Gruyaert, Sébastien Reuzé, Charles Freger, Jan Rosseel, and Jan Hoek. She is editor of FOMU magazines EXTRA and .tiff. She is currently focusing her activities on supporting young Belgian photographic talent and investigating how the medium can generate an impact on society. Jonathan Littell is a French-American writer, journalist, and filmmaker, currently living in Barcelona. His novel The Kindly Ones, written in French like most of his work, was first published in 2006. He has since published several other books, including non-fiction accounts of post-war Chechnya and the early days of the Syrian civil war, and numerous magazine feature pieces, including two about the LRA in Le Monde Magazine in 2010 and 2011. In 2016, his first feature documentary film, Wrong Elements, an exploration of the memory of former LRA child soldiers, was presented out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Christine Oryema Lalobo (nee Lubwa) comes from Gulu, in northern Uganda. She has worked all over Africa, as well as in Europe and the US. She is the author of No Hearts at Home (published by Femrite), which describes the impact of two decades armed conflict in northern Uganda on the community and cultural norms within society. Georges Senga is a photographer from Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. He is part of the artistic dynamic of the city of Lubumbashi at the PICHA art centre and the Marketphoto workshop and Phototools of Johannesburg, South Africa. His series Kadogos (2016) dealt with the tensions between real child soldiers and how soldiering is used as a game by children in DR Congo. He was in residence at the Solitude Academy in Stuttgart (Germany) from September 2015 to February 2017 and at the Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht (Holland) in 2018 and 2019. In 2009, he won the special prize for the second edition of the Africa Photo Contest of Tarifa (Spain), and in 2015, he won the Leon African Award at the Biennale of Bamako. His work has been presented in a wide range of locations: in Lubumbashi, Tarifa, Nairobi, and Bamako (his series Imprints), and at the Contemporary Art Gallery Dialogues of the National Museum of Lubumbashi, the Kampala Biennale, at Addisphotofest, the Brass Cultural Centre in Brussels, and at the Bienniale of Bamako (his series A Life after Death on Patrice Lumumba).

Contents

Section I

The Context of the Photos

Foreword

Preface (by Jonathan Littell) Lives within Coercive Circumstances: Understanding the LRA’s Pictures Finding, Selecting and Publishing the Photographs The (Doomed) Journey behind the Pictures The Commanders in the Photographs

57 65

Section II

Inside the LRA and its Photos

103 119 131

157

197

212

Section III

Outside of the LRA, and Being Stuck?

217

241 257 267

269 277

Annex

279

Coercion, Control, and Violence in the Lord’s Resistance Army Drawings by Former Abductees, and their Experiences of Violence Photos to Create Fear and Project Power The LRA as a “Normal” Family? The Place of a Woman in the LRA Insurgency (by Harriet Anena) Learning to Fight and Look Tough Tensions of Ordinary Life in the LRA

Peace Demonstrations: The Population Stuck in the Middle Coming Home Clash (by Christine Oryema Lalobo) The Photographs and their Agents. Why You Should Care before You Share (by Rein Deslé) Notes Bibliography

The Lord’s Resistance Army Conflict: a Brief History

Foreword

Rosemary was abducted by the LRA when she was about 12 years old and remained with the LRA for about 10 years. She would talk about the unspeakable atrocities she had witnessed and experienced. Such stories about the LRA’s brutal violence as have been shared widely. She would talk about the hunger and injuries she went through, the long distances she had to walk, and the dangers she had to endure. She would talk at length about how those who tried to escape were punished severely, even killed. But that was not all. She spoke with warmth about her friends and family in the LRA, abductees who were in the same situation as her. She would also narrate stories about supernatural things she had seen within the LRA: the special powers of Joseph Kony, and how these powers would protect Rosemary and her friends on the battlefield. I have been working with former LRA rebels such as Rosemary since my fieldwork began in the mid-2000s. I have always been struck by the ambiguity of how they spoke about the LRA. This ambiguity was further deepened after seeing photos taken by LRA commanders, which are presented in this book. The photographs, dating from 1993 to 2003, document daily life in the LRA, and how the combatants wish to represent themselves. The images were shown to Rosemary and other former rebels and discussed at length. The horrors, violence, and brutality they experienced featured prominently in these talks, but many discussions went beyond this. What emerged in many of our long conversations were vivid memories of friends made, fashionable clothes worn, or dreams fulfilled or lost, and of miracles witnessed. This book is about this profound ambiguity: about how people try to survive and express themselves within extremely violent and coercive circumstances, or “bad surroundings” as Finnstrom1 called them. The photos specifically engage with this ambiguity and are a testimony to this struggle. On the one hand, they portray a force showing off its military power, which it used to commit unspeakable atrocities and inflict terror upon the wider population. On the other hand, they show scenes which – at first sight – are strikingly familiar. They are no different from “normal” family photos: parents with their children, wives and husbands, women in their nicest clothes, or portraits of teenage boys trying to look tough. This is a visual story which is not only about the Lord’s Resistance Army. It is a story about a conflict where the limits of victim and perpetrator have become blurred, where people struggle to survive and find their place, and where children in particular bear the brunt of this tension. My deepest gratitude goes to the many women and men who I have been able to meet and talk with over the years, and who trusted me with their stories. I feel honoured, and grateful. Apwoyo Matek. I have been very fortunate to have had incredible support, people who helped me navigate the different steps of this often difficult process. Without them, this book

would not have existed. Rein Deslé has been a major source of support and an important soundboard throughout the development of this project. I am particularly grateful for the opportunity to exhibit this work at the Photomuseum of Antwerp. Holly Porter, Sam Dubal, and Sarah Watkins all generously commented on earlier versions of texts. The tireless support, aid and critique of Ewa Majczak and Matthew Sebastian was inestimable in shaping the book in its current form. Victor Olaya and Innocent Aloyo were central in navigating the various steps in Uganda. Patrick Edmond has been a tremendous help throughout this project: without his expertise and continuous flow of feedback, this book would not exist. I am grateful for the contributions of Jonathan Littell, Harriet Anena, and Christine Oryema Lalobo Lubwa; it was a pleasure working with Georges Senga, whose photographs are essential to this book. I would also like to thank the following people: my parents, Karlien and Simon, Karen Buscher, Gillian Mathys, Laurent Standaert, Joachim Naudts, Ingrid Leonard, Anna Reuss, the people at the IOB (in particular An Vermeesch, Vicky Verlinden, Tom De Herdt, and Tobias Gandrup), Filip De Boeck, Ann Cassiman, Amanda Padoan, Ron Atkinson, Julian Hopwood, Ledio Cakaj, Ryan O’Byrne, Sverker Finnstrom, the people at the Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies at Gulu University, Francis Lokwiya, Billie O’Kadameri, Rwot Oywak, Paul Rubangakene, Adam Branch, Anna Reuss, Michele Sibilone, Andrea Stultiens, Philipp Schulz, Herman Diels, Julius Omony, Kara Blackmore, Danny Hoffman, Carlos Rodriguez Soto, Geert Cockx, Evie Ruymbeke, Tim Allen, Paul Ronan, Katrien Pype, Bjorn Maes, Katrien Vanderschoot, Elviera Velghe, An Hofman, Gunther De Wit, Gautier Platteau, Lieven Van Speybroeck, and Boris Van den Eynden. I am grateful for the financial support of VLIR-UOS (in particular the TEAM project ‘Governance and Post-conflict reconstruction in northern Uganda’), Africalia, the University of Antwerp, FOMU, and the Belgian Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. On a personal note, this book would not have been possible without Lienke, my partner in life and love. Our son Anton was born during the course of this project. They constitute the biggest happiness I can ever imagine.

Photographs of the LRA have been used in a similar vein, as mere illustrations to these reports.3 In other words, they are used to prove pre-existing narratives, rather than taken as providing their own accounts. Concretely, as representations around the LRA almost unequivocally show either pure victimhood or pure perpetrator, so do the most commonly seen images. Two widely-circulated pictures from 1994 exemplify this, illustrating the “wild” and profoundly exotic group. In one, Kony with breaded hair with beads, wears a “Born to be Wild” T-shirtà 1; the other shows Kony raising his arms to form a cross, the consummate self-proclaimed Messiah, surrounded by abducted childrenà 2. Images of pure victimhood, such as photos of the mutilated victims of LRA attacks, have been seen worldwide. These depictions mean there are few images that allow for a more complex understanding of the rebel group. This has both a practical and substantive reason. First, this is not only a question of representation and framing: there simply have been few photos of the LRA available, and no archives to tap into. The images described above originated from two single visits by journalists to the LRA during peace talks in 1994 and 2006. Second, and more substantively, reporting and analyses of the group have mainly focused on the most striking themes: abduction, abuse, military control, forced marriage, and escape. And indeed, the brutalities of the LRA made it difficult to look beyond these key moments, which have been described in much (and often harrowing) detail.4 As a result, photographs of the LRA have mainly mirrored predetermined outside narratives, focusing on the spectacular and gruesome. Much less is known about the “ordinary”: what did everyday life look like within the rebel movement? Specifically and importantly, the photographs in this volume offer insights into everyday life in extremely coercive circumstances: how are individual combatants – mostly abductees – able to express themselves in a violent and oppressive organisation like the LRA? Do the photographs offer glimpses of agency by the combatants, or are they an instrument of power used by the rebel group? This book offers some answers to these questions through a large selection of photoàgraphs which were taken by the LRA commanders themselves and collected over a number of years. I have been interviewing former combatants in northern Uganda for the last 15 years. Most of the photos in this book were taken between 2002 and 2003, as the LRA commanders were making their way to eastern Uganda, the context for which is discussed in a later essay. The pictures show the LRA looking at themselves and showing themselves to others as they wished to be seen. These elements are not only understood through the images; they also need the voices of the persons in the photographs. Over the last few years, I worked with a local

Acholi research team to identify and trace the people in the photos, in order to make sure we were allowed to use the images and to understand the circumstances in which the photos were taken. This process was testimony in itself to the violence of the LRA: many of the persons portrayed in the photos had died during their time in the rebel group.5 The ones who were still alive were able to begin to explain their experiences within the LRA. Many of these transcripts are directly included in the book. Moreover, photographer Georges Senga has taken images of them as they are now, on average around 17 years after their photos were taken in the LRA. By no means does this book aim to deemphasise the nature of the LRA’s activities and violence or argue that “the violence wasn’t so bad”. As the pictures and stories show, the LRA committed and suffered the worst of horrors. But the pictures show more than this: they centre the experiences of the rebels and give insight into how rebels experienced and imagined their time within the LRA. In doing so, they allow us to understand nuances and complexities which are otherwise not accessible.6 They draw us into “acts of eyewitnessing” of things which have remained long hidden.7 Key in these pictures, and the discussions they generate, is the profound ambiguity of the experience within the LRA and how it manifests itself through the photographs in this book. A variety of meanings can be given to the photographs, and hence to life in the LRA. The LRA themselves communicated a series of ambiguous messages through these photographs: “normality” and “abnormality”, “victim” and “perpetrator”, terror and control, family life and joy, and so on. The photographs are only one part of showing this: they must be understood in combination with the essays and the interviews with ex-combatants8 included in this book. Together, they help us to understand the various uses and meanings of the photographs, the individuality and control within the LRA, and the overall ambiguity of the LRA experience.

Viewing the photos in context: complexity, contradiction and self-determination

In a widely shared letter, Eve Tuck warns against what she calls “damage-centred” research, which focuses on “people’s pain and brokenness”.9 While she considers the intentions of such research noble – helping to hold those in power to account – its ultimate effects are less so, as it reduces the subjects of such research to one-dimensional figures defined by a particular act of suffering. Tuck suggests that the researcher should “depathologize” these communities, and look toward “understanding complexity, contradiction and the self-determination of lived lives”10; or, as she calls it, moving away from “damage-centred” towards “desire-centred” research. Tuck illustrates this difference through an example which is particularly relevant for this book: a photo exhibition entitled “Stereotypes vs Humantypes: Images of Blacks in the 19th and 20th Centuries”. As the title suggests, a first part of this exhibit documents the way in which stereotypes of Black Americans were presented in mainstream press and society. On the other hand, the “humantype” side of the exhibition shows images taken by Black Americans themselves - a section which features “compelling, dimensional, nuanced images of African American people”11. In doing so, these “desire-centred” images show a vision of the subjects as they chose to portray themselves, imbuing them with complexity and agency denied by the “stereotype” features. This book has similar ambitions: it presents photographs taken by the combatants themselves, through which the complexity and contradictions of their lives in the rebel movement, and of living in extremely coercive circumstances, are explored. The photographs in this book engage with this ambiguity, because of which there is no singular explanation for these pictures or what they represent. Indeed, there is no uniform explanation for the LRA at all, but multiple ones: as I’ve written elsewhere, there is an “LRA for everyone”12. There was also no uniform experience of being a rebel, with different life trajectories unfolding. The multiple realities of these pictures are presented through a number of brief essays. Each of these essays deals with a particular element

Spreadsheet used in the field research process to identify and trace the photographic subjects

Interlocutor 1

Interlocutor 2

Interlocutor 3

Interlocutor 4

Interlocutor 5

Interlocutor 6

Interlocutor 7

L Shaba, Oromo

Left is Shaba, 2nd, right was operating 12, right was the one operating HPG9. The other one I do not know, but they are all the people of support.

Left is Shaba, next to him I forgot his name and the others I do not know but the photo was taken in either the year 2000, 2004 or 2002 when we came to Uganda.

I only know Shaba at the left, but the rest I do not know them.

Left is Shaba, next is Oromo from Paicho he is dead, 2nd right is Oyaka from Marak Yuko Area he is now in UPDF and right is Kote.

I know all of them but I do not know their names apart from Shaba at the left.

I only know Shaba at the left the rest I forgot their names.

Latangela Robert

Latangela Robert: he was an administrator of stockrey.

I know him but forgot his name, he was abducted from school.

Latangela

This guy is now back home, he was in the home of Yabara, but I do not know his name

He is the escort of Yabara but I forgot his name.

Latangela he is now in Begara.

Shaba (stick)

Upper set of the photo was taken from Gagara and at the right is Shaba but the rest I forgot their names. The downer set of photo 2nd right is Jennifer from Lalogi the rest I forgot their names.

Right with the stick is Alex but the rest I do not know.

Upper set of the photo: Right is Shaba, others I do not know and downer set of the photo: 2nd left he is from pader I forgot his name but the rest I do not know.

I know most of the but I do not know their names, but I can see Shaba right in the upper set of the photo.

Upper set of the photo I only know Shaba and those guys seems to be his escort and the downer set of the photos are Shaba’s wives: I can see Petwa, and Jennifer.

I know only Shaba who is right in the upper set of the photo.

Tabuley (topR)

Standing left is Opio from Atiak, standing right is Tabuley and squatting is Lomoro Alex, the photo was taken from Sudan on mt Imotong.

I know only Tabuley the rest I do not know them, the photo was taken either in 1998 or 1999.

I only know Tabuley at the right, the other two I do not know them.

Right is Tabuley, at the left I do not know his name and squatting is Lomoro.

These are the guys of Cinia, up right is Shaba the two I forgot their names.

Tabuley with his escort, the photo was taken from Uganda, because in the background you can see a mango tree.

Oromo is at the top, Omaka Heavy is the one pointing.

The one pointing is Omaka Heavy; standing next to him is a captain but I forgot his name, and squatting is Mdogo who is operating a HPG9.

I cannot recognize their faces, but they were from the command.

I do not know them but standing behind he looks like Odong from Omiya, I left him in the bush.

The one pointing is Paramaicho, but the two others I forgot their names.

standing behind is Ojok who is now in UPDF and the rest I forgot their names.

I only know Oromo who is standing, but the one pointing and squatting I do not know them.

Shaba and Liiwita?

Shaba and the brother of Jebele he was burned in the wild fire.

Shaba and the child I do not know.

Oryema Begwec and the boy I do not know.

Shaba and Juma

Shaba

From topL, along rows: Opri, Oromo, Omaka supply, Mark.

Seated 2nd right is mark, 3rd right is Omaka supply, standing 2nd left is Opri and the rest I forgot their names.

I am standing 2nd left, I was holding the gun of Richard and his two pistols, I do not know when and from where the photo was taken and these friends I forgot their names.

Standing right is Oman Mod Bet standing 2nd right is Oryem from Wena Loboro he is now back home here in Atiak standing 2nd left is Oyenga from Begong, seated 2nd left is Odongkene from Begele Pajimu, the rest I forgot their names.

Seated first left is Benji from Begong he was killed in 2000 from Sudan, seated 2nd left is Omaka, 3rd left is Roband last, the rest I forgot their names.

These are the guys of Cinia, I know them but I do not know their names.

These are the escorts of Richard standing 2nd left is Opri from Begong and standing 2nd right is Oromo from Alero.

Jona’s son: don’t know the name. The mother is called Red. The mother is dead. She was called Red because of her skin. The son was born around 2005-2006.

Looks like John of Jona.

This is the child of Commander Ramata - the step mother is Jane from Atiak. She is in Kitgum The mother is still in the bush. The child was freed with the step mother. The father was taken from Sudan.

Try Jane for answers.

Jona - child of Ajing - or Abukwiji child of Matata Olaka - both have died. Their fathers were soldiers, so they made uniforms for the children to teach them how to be like them. This material is for top commanders only. They would get the material and make uniforms for the fathers but also for the children.

Jona, son of Janet.

She said this photo looks like the follower of Alamara.

aà*

*à

The characters refer to picture used during the field research process, not to pictures in this book.

Interlocutor 8

Interlocutor 9

Interlocutor 10

Identification

Follow-up

Alive or dead?

Comments

Left is Shaba, 2nd left is Oromo, right looks like oyaka, 2nd right is Okuti.

Left is Shabat, 2nd right is Oyaka who is now in the UPDF, the rest I forgot their names.

R. Ocaya from Padibe.

L1: Shaba, L2: Oromo, R2: Oyaka from Marak Yuko Area (UPDF), R1 uncertain.

Need Oyaka permission.

Oyaka in UPDF.

Ask Andrew for contacts Oyaka.

He is called Robert.

I forgot.

Latangela Robert

Get permission with photo.

Alive

TopR: Shaba, BottomL: Petwa, BottomR: Adamak from Begara, Jennifer from Lalogi.

Contact Shaba, and find Petwa in barracks.

Alive

1: Opio from Atiak 2: Tabuley 3: Lomoro Alex

Permissions have been asked to the family.

Dead

The upper set of the photo I only know Shaba at the front right, but the rest I do not know and in the downer set are: 3rd right is Adamak from Begara she is now staying in Begara, 3rd left is Petwa she is now a nurse in Lacor hospital. I can also see Jennifer.

I can see Shaba; and I also recognise the wives at the bottom: I can see Petwa, and Jennifer.

In the middle is Opio from stockrey, there is also Tabuley.

Down is Lomoro, right looks like Tabuley and at the left I do not know him.

Pointing is a man from Anaka but forgot his name and the two I know them but I forgot their names.

Pointing looks like Omaka supply, the rest I do not know them.

Omaka Heavy pointing, Oromo behind, Squatting Mdogo.

Need permission.

Dead

Appointments with family made.

Right is Shaba and the child I do not know him.

Shaba and the child of Yabara. Mother is Marabu Penny.

Shaba and unknown boy.

Follow-up for boy needed. Permission from Shaba ok.

Dead

Check with David.

Standing 2nd right is Kibwola from Lakara, the rest I do not know their names.

Seated 2nd right is Rob, the rest I forgot their names.

Seated 2nd middle. Omaka. Next to him Benji. Standing middle Opri and Oromo.

From top L: Opri, Oromo from alero, Benji from Begong, Omaka supply, Mark.

Done, all permissions needed.

Opri alive. Others dead.

I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know him.

Likely Johnny 2nd son of Jona

Have info on character â&#x20AC;&#x201C; he is in bush with Jona.

Alive, in bush.

In this photo is Johnny the mother is Saturday Alaka who was a wife of corporal Mokaa Oporo Johnny is studying in a school in Soroti district in eastern Uganda, also his father Mokaa had gone back to school he is now in senior one in a school in Kampal and he is now about 45 years old.

L: Omoo was in Stockry.

Appointments made.

This picture is very much a priority!

The (Doomed) Journey behind the Pictures

This book is a visual testimony to everyday life in the Lord’s Resistance Army. Little is known about daily life in the rebel group, and these pictures offer a glimpse into that reality. But it is more than that: most of the pictures document a very concrete time period. More specifically, a large number of these photographs record a journey by the rebel group at a very specific moment in time. Having been chased from its camps in southern Sudan in 2002, the LRA began an unusually long trek to eastern Uganda, well beyond its usual territory. This was one of the mowst brutal years of the conflict. The LRA made a series of pitiless attacks against camps of internally displaced persons in retaliation for an offensive by the government. Renewed attempts at peace negotiations were also taking place, particularly with religious leaders. Much of these efforts – both the peace negotiations and the journey to eastern Uganda – were led by Charles Tabuley, at that point the third-in-command of the LRA. Many of the photos are taken by him and document his troops. This essay will describe this moment in time and the circumstances in which these photos were taken. For the reader who would like to know more about the broader history of the conflict beyond this specific time period, the historical annex to this bookàp279–287 provides some larger context.

Increasing isolation and attacks

At the turn of the millennium, international concerns about Sudanese support to terrorism had a major impact on the LRA. It began to lose Sudanese backing, which had been provided in return for military assistance against the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), secessionist rebels from southern Sudan. Attacks by Al Qaeda on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 had led to US retaliation and major international pressure on Sudan. President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan sought to refresh relations with the international community. This included talks with Uganda, a US ally, over the LRA.3 The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the US further spurred developments, as Sudan had also long hosted Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.4 In December 2001, the LRA was added to the US State Department’s expanding Terrorist Exclusion List. Even Sudan called the LRA terrorists in 2003.5 The LRA’s use as a proxy was therefore waning. Peace negotiations were moving forward in Sudan between Bashir and the SPLA. In this context, the LRA were less useful for the Bashir regime, maybe even harmful. The LRA seemed to be about to lose its supply line from Sudan, as well as its safe havens in southern Sudan. As further consequence, Bashir gave permission in 2002 for the Ugandan army (UPDF) to enter its territory for military action against the LRA, and so began

Operation Iron Fist in March 2002. While this military campaign was supposed to capture or kill Kony and his key commanders and rescue abducted children, the outcome was disastrous. Instead of capturing or killing most of the LRA, it drove a large group back into northern Uganda, leading to one of the most brutal phases of the conflict. Kony escaped unharmed and remained in hiding in the hills in southern Sudan.6 The LRA reorganised its command structure and went on an “arms acquisition spree”.7 As can be seen from the photos, the LRA had no shortage of weapons during this period. The LRA also began widespread abductions, killings, and looting across northern and eastern Uganda, on a scale not seen in recent years. Approximately 8,400 children were abducted across Uganda between June 2002 and May 2003, the worst figure for any year of the conflict, and much higher than 2001, which saw less than 100 children abducted. The LRA burned or looted thousands of houses, shops, and storage granaries, and attacked and looted eighteen schools and five clinics. On three occasions in 2002, the LRA attacked Sudanese refugees in camps in northern Uganda. For example, on August 5, 2002, the LRA attacked the Acholi-pii refugee camp, killing over sixty people. Twenty-four thousand Sudanese refugees from the camp fled into the bush.8

Attempts at peace talks, and the exchange of photos During the same period, a flurry of attempts at peace negotiations took place. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni established a Presidential Peace Team in November 2002; a “Dialogue for Peace” initiative was established in Gulu in 2003; and there were continuous efforts by religious leaders to initiate contacts and talks with the rebels.9 Kony also declared a unilateral ceasefire in early 2003.10 Religious leaders, mainly under the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) were particularly important in facilitating these engagements. ARLPI, founded in 1998, was a consortium of Catholic, Anglican, Muslim, and other religious leaders, who advocated for a peaceful solution to the war. They were central in the passage of the Amnesty Act of 1999, and in acting as interlocutors between the warring parties,11 to “create confidence and opening avenues of negotiations”.12 Attempts at peace meant many informal contacts between the LRA and religious leaders, traditional leaders, and other civil society leaders. The religious leaders particularly held meetings with Charles Tabuley, who would be the contact person for the LRA in these talks, writing letters and broadcasting messages on the radio.13 It was a period of intense contacts and it is in this context that the photos in this book were produced: pictures started being exchanged as a trust-building measure, in which civil society actors brought film and developed it for the LRA, returning the printed results. Several copies were made of these photos, which started circulating in northern Uganda. As a civil society negotiator remembered: One of the first times I went to the bush, I took my own camera. Tabuley, Otti, and the other said, ‘No, we’re taking our own pictures!’ They would give the film to us, we would wash [develop] them, and give it back. There was this man we knew who would develop these films, very discreetly. He didn’t mind. For us developing these films for them, it was very important for building trust.14 The pictures were mostly taken by the LRA rebels themselves, but also by the peace delegates: traditional or religious leaders would take photos of LRA rebels, often posing in groups, showing off their military equipment. The exchange of photos as a trust-building measure has a longer history in Uganda. From the 1950s onwards, photography had become part of a general exchange and gift-giving culture: the exchange of photographs was commonly used to

We took this photo with Kony in 1993 or 1994 when we were in peace talks. He came and said we should take a photo together. He said he was going to raise his legs up and that I should hold it and we take our photo. He was joking!

We used to not take many photos because getting cameras was also not easy. In case a camera is got, this may be during the Christmas period, when we would take some photos. Also printing them was not easy, because we first had to link up with a coordinator [a civilian collaborator] to have them printed.

Tensions of Ordinary Life in the LRA

197

The LRA brought suffering and pain to civilians in northern Uganda and beyond as it slaughtered, looted, burned, raped, and disfigured. When interviewing former fighters, I was prepared to hear such harrowing stories about life in the LRA, of abduction, disease, suffering, brutality and abuse. And indeed, these stories were told at length: many of these stories are told in this book. Yet the experience of being a rebel in the LRA, I was told, was not only of suffering and violence. To my surprise, some former rebels spoke of their time at the LRA with a certain melancholy. They would speak of friendships they nourished, spiritual miracles they witnessed, and the power they felt during their time in the LRA.2 Mostly, this was not the opening salvo, which would be memories of suffering. But after a period of discussion, talk regularly began to turn to stories which went beyond the narrative of suffering and included memories that were more pleasant. Former fighters were reticent to speak about this because it bore the risk of unsettling the image of victimhood. This image had its advantages. First, it protected former fighters against popular revenge.3 This was a real threat when former combatants lived alongside their victims. Narratives of abduction and suffering presented former fighters as victims as much as perpetrators, together with their civilian neighbours. Second, this image was important in interactions with outsiders. Many outsiders were looking to assist victims, especially formerly abducted persons, through a variety of material and non-material benefits such as scholarships, trainings, or agricultural inputs. Most returnees were in dire need of these benefits since many lacked capital, education, skills, or clan ties. White people such as myself, seeking to talk with former rebels, were often understood to be looking for victims in need of help. In northern Uganda, particularly Gulu, its biggest town, a kind of post-conflict tourism industry has mushroomed. Those seeking to experience the aftermath of the war and help war victims are many: American missionaries, European students, and journalists, all in permanent rotation. This circulation of enthusiastic outsiders has also had a profound impact on how former combatants interact with outsiders. As the horrors are plenty, and most visible, they are the primary lens through which former combatants are approached and understood. Former combatants understand this, using victimhood narratives to leverage benefits.4 As Cecilie Lanken Verma summarized, based on her long-term research in reception centres for ex-combatants in northern Uganda: ex-combatants were supposed to tell a standardized and accepted story of victimhood. This experience was waiting at the reception centre and at home, “waiting to be fulfilled, learnt, and appropriated by the homecomers”5. By only looking at them in this role, it “inadvertently concealed other roles they had played in the war”6.

Of course, for former LRA combatants this suffering was very much part of their past and current experiences. Yet, for many interviewed former combatants, their time in the LRA was complex, with multi-layered experiences beyond just suffering. The photographs in this section, and the discussions they created, help to unpack this complexity and ambiguity. They show how in the rebel movement, daily life also consisted of many mundane things which do not directly refer to experiences of violence and horror and are not very different from life outside of the rebel group. Despite the extraordinary and difficult circumstances in which they are part, they still have experiences which resemble “normal” life.

War as a social condition Much as a movie trailer may misrepresent a drama by stringing together only a feature’s most vivid moments, depictions of war that focus solely on acute violence may easily sensationalize and distort the analysis of war-time experience, misconstruing the basis of most warscape agency and behaviour.7 Lubkemann, in his work on civil war and displacement in Mozambique, argues how war should not be looked at as a one-off event, but rather as a “social condition”: similar to peacetime, it is characterised by “many complex and multidimensional social struggles and concerns, interpersonal negotiations, and culturally scripted life projects”.8 In other words, war does not stop “normal” social processes: life continues to unfold itself in various ways.9 Within the difficult, violent, and coercive limits of their existence, people in warzones are still confronted with processes which happen in everyday life: they argue, abuse each other, they love and make friends.10 Conflicts constitute a time of intense bonding between members of armed groups,11 as dangers and sorrows are shared, protection is sought, and friendships are made.12 13 Similar processes have been shown for LRA combatants: through the shared experience of violent battles and struggles for survival, bonds of solidarity were developed. In her work on former LRA wives, Erin Baines shows how in these extremely challenging and oppressive circumstances, these actors cared for each other and saved each other.14 Similarly, based on her research on ex-LRA in reception centres, Lanken Verme argues how “some of them had made incredibly intense friendships from there; some had fought for a cause they believed in; many had celebrated their victories, they had danced, cried together, and revenged their peers wholeheartedly from there. At times, there was pride in their voices, at times even a sense of nostalgia”15. As difficult as it might be to understand, combatants still have a degree of choice – a limited and constrained form of control over their situation.16 In this situation, their identity can therefore not be reduced to a singular one, such as “victim” or “perpetrator”. Other factors shaping human behaviour and identities cannot be ruled out (making combatants, for example, brothers, workers, elders, or friends),17 as their experiences continue to be multiple and multi-layered.18 Specifically for LRA combatants, Erin Baines shows the variety of ways in which women combatants are seen: within human rights discourses, they are portrayed as victims, sex slaves, survivors, forced wives, and so on. For the Ugandan state, they are seen as terrorists, rebel wives, and rebels.19 In order to counter the ways in which the combatants’ experiences are reduced to a binary distinction in which violent events are either perpetrated or endured, and fail to account for their complex lived experiences,20 Baines introduces the terms “complex perpetrator” and “complex victim”, the latter term referring to the contradictions and complexity of how victims “may become complicit in violence, and how, politically, they might seek to resist, evade and negotiate life in the face of it”.21 In short, the rebel experience is not a singular one, but multiple, complex, and ambigiuos. Within the coercive and violent limits of their existence, combatants still have a number of identities, and encounter a multitude of experiences. They are confronted

198

Colophon

This book is published on the occasion of the exhibition Rebel Lives. Photographs from inside the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), at FOMU – Fotomuseum Antwerp, Belgium.

Author Kristof Titeca

Concept and Selection Kristof Titeca Rein Deslé (FOMU)

Book Design Contributors Oliver Ibsen Harriet Anena Rein Deslé Jonathan Littell Christine Oryema Lalobo Georges Senga

Field research coordination Patrick Edmond

Luo-English Translations Innocent Aloyo Victor Olaya

Editing, Proofreading and Corrections Sarah Watkins Patrick Edmond

Printing and Photoengraving die Keure, Bruges Paper Lustro Carte Vert Sapin 335g Munken Lynx Rough 120g

Director FOMU Elviera Velghe

Picture Credits The photos in this book were taken by the following photographers: Georges Senga pp. 22-23, 24 (upper photo), 26-27, 28 (left), 30-31, 33, 34-35, 36, 38-39, 68-69, 71 (upper photo), 72-73, 76-77, 80, 134-135, 138-139, 141, 142-144, 146-147,

Binding Brepols, Turnhout

148 (lower), 174-175, 177, 178-179, 181 (left), 182-183, 184 (lower photo), 186-187, 224-225, 226, 228-229, 230 (upper photo), 232-233, 235, 236-237, 239.

GUSCO (drawings) pp. 85, 86, 90-92, 96-98, 244-249.

Billie O’Kademeiri pp. 14, 16, 70, 71 (lower photo), 102 (lower photo), 164, 170 (upper photo), 172-173, 194 (middle photo), 202 (middle photo), 207. © 2019 Kristof Titeca, FOMU and Hannibal Publishing

Rwot Oywak

Hannibal Publishing is part of Cannibal Publishing

pp. 148 (upper photo), 165 (upper photo), 166 (lower photo), 195, 196 (upper photo).

ISBN 978 94 9267 798 3 D/2019/11922/19

Paul Rubangakene

NUR 653

pp. 32, 40, 140, 145, 215 (upper and middle photo), 240-243, 250-256.

Kristof Titeca

pp. 42, 45.

For many of the photographs, the photographer could not be traced. As described in the book, they are most likely taken by the (now deceased commanders) Charles Tabuley and Vincent Otti. They are reproduced with the permission from Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI)

reproduced, stored in a database and/or made public in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author, the publisher and FOMU.

pp. 24 (lower photo), 25 (upper and lower photo, not the middle), 28 (right), 29, 37, 41, 50-56, 65-67, 75, 78, 81, 100-101, 102 (upper 2 photos),

HANNIBAL www.hannibalpublishing.com

106-118, 125-130, 136, 150, 151 (upper), 152-156, 161-163, 165 (lower), www.fotomuseum.be

166 (upper photo), 167 (upper photo), 168-169, 170 (lower photo), 171, 176, 180, 181 (right), 184 (upper), 188-193, 194 (lower photo), 197 (lower photo), 202 (upper photo and lowest photo), 203-206, 208-211, 214, 215 (lowest photo), 216, 220-223, 227, 230 (lower photo), 231, 234, 238.

In the same category, and with the permission of Yusuf Adek pp. 25 (middle photo), 151 (lower photo), 167 (lower photo).