Nucleated Villages A Strategy For Rural Development In Northern Uganda: Lessons Learned From The Northern Uganda Conflict 1st Edition - Softcover

Ocitti, Silver Jubilee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1463409818 ISBN 13: 9781463409814

Publisher: AuthorHouse Publishing, 2011

Synopsis

Detailed exploration of the this methodology and potential for rural development from its ashes after protracted military conflict into a model agricultural economy is the mandate of this book. Drawing from examples from developed economies as well as the immerging and developing regions, this compelling and comprehensive essay on the reorganization of Uganda sets out to demonstrate the importance of nucleation of large agrarian communities as a means of achieving sustainable rural development in present day Africa. The practical ideas presented by the author makes this book an important read for all those committed to rural African development. Working with local government structures, Ocitti plans what will no doubt become the backbone of the much needed Northern Uganda and indeed Uganda and African's agricultural, economical, social and cultural reform.

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Nucleated Villages A Strategy for rural development in Northern Uganda

Lessons learned from the Northern Uganda conflictBy SILVER JUBILEE OCITTI

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Silver Jubilee Ocitti
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4634-0981-4

Contents

the concept of nucleated settlements ? 1................................................13comparison with other proposals for rural development ? 2...............................19criteria for the provision of rural houses ? 3..........................................33The relative ease of providing social services ? 4......................................47The relative ease of providing infrastructure ? 5.......................................59Land ownership and access ? 6...........................................................75Agricultural production and marketing ? 7...............................................91The agricultural microfinancing component ? 8...........................................95sociocultural framework & the provision of psychosocial service ? 9.....................101acceptability of the nucleated settlement scheme ? 10...................................115The coordination & management component ? 11............................................123design of a n.s. in a district or sub-region ? 12.......................................145financial analysis of a pilot village ? 13..............................................171feasibility of the pilot project ? 14...................................................183

Chapter One

the concept of Nucleated Settlements

A nucleated settlement is one in which the previously dispersed rural population is brought together in planned or spontaneously created of appropriate size and sociocultural design for the efficient delivery of services and the efficient production of food. The shorter Oxford English dictionary definition of nucleated is buildings in a village: clustered together. of Nucleated Settlements

Origins

This concept, whether within the urban metropolis, townships, or rural areas is not new. In fact, all the ancient civilizations were birthed and nurtured when people, for various reasons, congregated within specific locations. Advancements in literally all areas of life began to take place within such nucleated rural settlements or urban conglomerates. For example, the history of the Mesopotamian Basin, the Nile Delta, and the Greek Acropolis attest to this fact. Archaeological studies of the history of Britain reveal similar findings. Recent excavations of medieval rural settlements in Southeast Wales reveal good survival of sites in nucleated (as well as dispersed) landscapes. (University of Wales, 2003)

This pattern applies equally to Uganda, even though it has a short history as a nation. The coming of foreigners, Arabs and Europeans, during the late 19th century began to draw people into settlements, many of which now form the modern cities and townships in Uganda. Before this period, however, some of the tribes did live within nucleated settlements. This congregating was mainly for defense due to the many inter clan and inter tribal wars at that time. The rest lived as scattered agriculturalists, nomads or gatherers of wild food.

Historically, a good example of different settlement patterns is represented by the various tribes of Northern Uganda. The Langi were scattered nomadic people. The Acholi, on the other hand, lived in nucleated villages or homesteads call "dog gang". The Langi cynically refer to the Acholi to this day as "Lugang" or "those who live together in close communities i.e. "nucleated homesteads". Another tribe, the Karamojong, lived in nucleated homesteads called "manyattas". Between the 14th and 16th centuries, Niolotic heders, or the Luos migrating south from Sudan and beyond, came across the Baganda, who were also living in nucleated villages; one main site was in Singo County of Buganda. The Acholi were surprised that these settlements were even bigger than the typical Acholi dog gang. The story goes that the Acholi called the place "kabake" meaning "the place where people gather in large numbers". The king of that settlement was called Kabaka. Many tribes of the Southern Sudan for example the Lutuku, the Toposa of Esatern Equatoria State live in nucleated villages.

It is clear, therefore, that the concept of nucleated settlements was not unusual historically in many parts of Uganda and is not at all unusual in many parts of the world. The question, however, is why the entire present Ugandan rural landscape (apart from the modern cities and towns and some areas of the Karamoja region) is characterized by scattered homesteads. In fact, there are many people currently in Uganda who don't know the real meaning of the word village nor have they seen a truly nucleated village as is common in many parts of the world. Whenever urban dwellers say they are going up country to the village, they mean or refer to isolated family homestead. The so-called cities and towns themselves typically still have rural, scattered and unplanned patterns. They do not have the definite town edges so clearly seen in the developed countries of Europe and North America and even in the developing countries of Asia.

Causes of Nucleation versus Dispersion

What then caused the transition in Uganda from the historical picture of many nucleated rural settlements to the current situation of isolated homesteads? Reasons include a diminished need for defense in inter clan/inter tribal wars or people looking for new economic and social opportunities outside their villages.

An example of the influence of economics is illustrated by the current rural settlement pattern in parts of England. In Upper Teasdale, farms are isolated because the farmers keep sheep on relatively poor land in a region that suffers a harsh climate. Each farm, therefore, requires a large amount of land in order to function economically. In South Dorset, by contrast, farms are clustered together in a nucleated settlement pattern near wet points for economic efficiency. (IGCSE Geography, 2004)

Other reasons that cause either nucleation or dispersion, especially in the United Kingdom, include: (IGCSE Geography, 2004)

? Land quality: In highland England, a cold, damp climate and poor soil means that each farmer needs a large area to produce enough food. This gives a dispersed land structure.

? Social traditions: A long tradition of individual land ownership, as in Cambria, leads to a dispersed pattern. Communal land ownership in lowland England in the Middle Ages produced nucleated village settlement patterns. In the eighteenth century, enclosure of medieval open fields in lowland England led to the dispersal of farms from villages into surrounding fields.

? Localized resources: Small 'islands' of dry land in marshy area such as the fens of Somerset led to the clustering of farms. Springs and wells in chalk areas, where there are few surface streams, also caused nucleation.

In other parts of the world, causes of settlement patterns are both geographic and historical in nature. These include the following:

? Defense: The need for defense has always caused nucleation. This is true even in areas of marginal agricultural potential which typically should have called for dispersion. There is a good example in Karamoja, a semi-arid region, but because of the constant cattle raids and inter clan wars, the people live in nucleated villages called manyattas.

? Crossroads: The confluence of roads or waterways automatically causes a nucleation at that crossing of human traffic.

? The availability of social and infrastructure services: Educational, health and commercial services all attract more population. These services, however, may be developed in their own right or added to an earlier cause such as a cross road or wet point.

? Areas of unique environmental and scenic attraction: People gravitate to mountains, rivers, lakes, etc. And the resulting population increase causes the development of villages and towns.

? Deliverate planning: Realizing the numerous advantages of nucleated settlements, planners deliberately develop new settlements or expand existing settlements.

? Forced nucleation: This is normally a political move. Numerous examples can be given here. The colonizing and apartheid white South Africans forced the black natives into unproductive settlements such as Transkei or Lesotho. In Zimbabwe and Kenya the colonial white farmers forced the Africans into small reserves. In Australia native aborigines and in North America the native Red Indians were forced equally into narrow and unproductive reserves. The patiko clan of the Acholi tribe in Northern Uganda used to live in nucleated settlements called Ogali near the Nile river basin. However due to alleged outbreak of sleeping sickness the colonial British government forcibly moved the clan and settled them in a small area called Mican and Bar-Dege on the outskirts of the present Gulu Town. The population of the patiko clan swelled in those nucleated settlement, without adequate farm land. An elder by the name of Eliya Gaji was imprisoned by the British colonial government for breaking away from the forced settlement. Immediately after independence however the patiko clan rushed to nd their new found freedom in the vast grassland of the present day Bungatira. The interesting observation is that they no longer went to nucleated settlements as their former Ogali but to scattered homestead presumably in reaction to the forced nucleation in Mican and Bar-Dege. Such nucleating factors as the need for security were no longer critical after independence. Reaction to forced nucleation is probably one of the reasons for the present day scattered settlements in Kenya, a phenomenon which as we will see later, Kenya has now to pay dearly for her failure in the provision of rural infrastructure.

In many economies and societies, the concept of nucleated settlements within the urban or rural agricultural areas is simply taken as the norm by economic and physical planners. Most of those planners do not know another system to use as a baseline planning framework. Rural planners and economists in Uganda give the impression that they are unfamiliar with this basic concept or they don't consider it as a vital first model. They may even believe the current scattered landscape in Uganda has developed beyond change. We will see later, however, developing countries which have made breakthroughs in their rural developments and, together with other principles, have modeled their rural planning around the concept of nucleation.

Planners from countries in which nucleated rural settlements exist who come to Uganda as planning expatiates must initially be at a loss at the Ugandan haphazard and scattered rural settlement landscape. To demonstrate how perturbing it must be to rural planners coming from outside Uganda, consider the task of planning for the provision of electrification or water distribution in the rural areas. It is almost impossible to achieve any meaningful ways of providing these services to the rural areas given the current settlement patterns.

I strongly believe that the concept of nucleated settlement is one of the key tools to bring increased and sustained development in the rural areas. Most of the planning components of rural development can be viewed through this framework. As will be presented in detail, all the pillars of Uganda's 1997 Poverty Eradication Action Plan call for this basic physical planning foundation: economic management, production enhancement, entrepreneurship, income generation, security, con ict resolution, disaster management, governance and human development. Similarly, the Millennium Development Goals agreed upon internationally at the Millennium Summit in 2000 outline development goals which are more readily achieved within a background of nucleated settlements.

Background to the Situation in Northern Uganda

Since 1986, three major armed rebel groups have emerged in Norther Uganda, namely the Uganda People's Defense Army, the Holy Spirit Movement of Alice Lakwena in 1986-87, and, Since 1987, the current Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) of Joseph Kony which was in conflict with the government army, the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) for 20 years.

The LRA uprising evolved in intensity, scope and strategy due to many factors documented elsewhere and whose analysis is outside the scope of this book. What can be mentioned here, however, is that the LRA, apparently finding no support from the community for their organization, made a pact with the Sudanese government and established bases across the border. After this, they embarked on the abduction of children into the Sudan, massacres, burning of houses, looting civilian properties and several inhuman tortures. The most vulnerable groups were the children, women, and elderly, both locals and refugees.

According to UNICEF, over 14,000 children had been abducted by the LRA by the end of 1994. The Government then decided to create the Internally Displaced People's camps (IDPs) or the so-called protected villages. In the districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, hundreds of thousands of people were internally displaced for many years as a result of the Holy Spirit Movement rebel group of Alice Lakwena and subsequently by the LRA of Joseph Kony. By August 2003, increased LRA further incursions into the Teso and Lango sub regions caused massive displacements, raising The figure of displaced people to over 1,600,000. The government and its various institutions, like the army and the civil and political arms, continued to rescue the abducted children, mobilizing people to guard against the rebel atrocities by establishing protected villages and by providing relief to internally displaced people.

Throughout all this conflict, most activities in the districts were paralyzed and the lifestyle of local communities drastically altered. Those living in the northern regions, particularly in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader districts were systematically stripped of their assets – cattle, land, and labour. The loss of livestock to this traditionally mixed- agricultural society was perhaps the single most devastating economic hardship that they have had to confront. Notwithstanding the negative nutritional impact of being denied both meat and dairy products, the loss of traction power provided by cattle has often limited the utilization of available fields for ploughing.

The repeated insecurity led to wanton destruction of social infrastructures like schools, community centres, churches, markets and homes. All the major sources of income crumbled and there were abductions and fear of abductions. Many families were separated with the children living in safer areas like the towns where they receive little parental guidance and protection. Many children, especially the girls, were abused in various forms and magnitudes. The setting in the camps was not based on clans and families and, as a result, the social and cultural structure was destroyed. Some uncontrolled adolescents independently went to town and became delinquent youths. The number of orphans increased rapidly, both from parents being killed in war and from HIV/ AIDS. The extended family settings almost crumbled and the community did not have the capacity to handle the volume of orphans and were concerned for the survival of themselves and their immediate family. The situation of insecurity, poverty and food deprivation made it difficult to take care of the orphans.

Life in the camps became generally hard due to lack of the basic supplies. Though there was relief food distribution, this was not always sufficient. Water, education, and health services were equally insufficient. The land available for settlement and cultivation by the displaced people was generally inadequate. Establishment of large camps led to overcrowding and the breakdown of important cultural traditions. Young children and adolescents shared the same squalid shelters with their parents, a practice which used to be taboo. Many people with different cultures and values mixing together causes everyone serious frustration and despair.

The socioeconomic indicators show that the Northern region is the poorest in the nation, the child mortality rate is the worst, the school dropout rate is the highest, and the percentage of people having access to safe water is the lowest. Over 90% of the shelters are grass-thatched and over towns which had limited resources and support facilities to begin with.

In December 1999, the Presidents of Uganda and Sudan signed a peace pact in Nairobi. Among other requirements, the Sudanese government was supposed to facilitate the release of about 2000 Ugandan children under LRA control in the Sudan. Several peace talks and meetings were arranged by religious leaders, private humanitarian organizations and the government of Uganda. Some of these meetings were productive in bringing about the voluntary return of some rebel leaders and reducing the armed confrontation with the rebels while stepping up amnesty provisions on the side of the government. Early in 2005, the Ugandan Parliament passed the amnesty aw pardoning all the rebel groups fighting the government and instituted an Amnesty Commission to implement it.

With these developments, discussions on programmes for the decommissioning of the camps and resettlement began to take place. A critical aspect of these discussions (arising from the Gulu meetings in November 2000 was whether or not it would be best for the population in the IDP camps to return to well-planned nucleated villages rather than their formerly scattered homesteads. The social and economic advantages, including security, were well-recognized but questions concerning the land issue, the sheer volume of people involved and the financial implications were to answered. This book has been written to answer or debate such questions.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Nucleated Villages A Strategy for rural development in Northern Ugandaby SILVER JUBILEE OCITTI Copyright © 2011 by Silver Jubilee Ocitti. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: AuthorHouse Publishing
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1463409818
• ISBN 13: 9781463409814
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224