OMUKAMA IGURU CAN BRING PEACE - A visit to Northern Uganda!

 For the last wenty years since 1986 the people of northern Uganda have had it very rough in their every day life as they have gone for all those years facing war and violence  not for a day, not for a week, of a month, or a year, but now coming to some twenty years !

But I think enough is enough: and its high time the neighbouring cultural leaders gave a helping hand to the Uganda government, to the international community and to the people of northern Uganda by mediating for an end to the war in north Uganda.

And am of the strong opinion that Bunyoro's Cultural Leader the grandson of the Northern LUO BABIITO, His Highness  the King of Bunyoro Kitara, http://www.bunyoro-kitara.com/mission.htm   OMUKAMA IGURU can me a good mediator  and help bring an end to this LRA - UPDF conflict and its untold suffering it has brought to the people of northern Uganda for all these years!

It all began some how  with the resistance  to the new NRM political leadership of the country, a leadership that came in  at the beginning of 1986 http://ugpulse.com/ugandan-community/forums/thread/1541.aspx . What followed was a war between the rebels calling themselves the Lords Resistance Army=LRA and the government troops called Uganda Peoples Defence forces=UPDF. But this war and this conflict has left many  people displaced  and forced to stay in Internally Displaced Camps=IDC for many years without going back to their homes for  lack of security. And the rebels have abducted so many kids especially school children and girls  from schools and taken them from northern Uganda and turned them into child soldiers andthe girls as wives for many years. These rebels are operating in northern Uganda and based in southern Sudan where they have also done alot of havoc there.

LET THE WORLD WAKE UP TO ASSIST NORTH UGANDA. HELP THE CHILDREN IN NORTH UGANDA WHO HAVE LOST ALMOST EVERYTHING - HUNGER AND STARVATION FACES THEM. THEY ARE HUNGRY FOR THE BASIC NEEDS OF A HUMAN BEING.WE ARE THE WORLD AND WE CAN MAKE IT BETTER, BRIGHTER FOR THE PEOPLE IN NORTHERN UGANDA

YES WE CAN  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmxT21uFRwM - Song of Hope

                         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDbY3zMLVdg    - Song of Hope    

                         http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/9/579/566612       Gulu to become a City 

There is need now to mobilise the INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY  TO TAKE COSER LOOK AT NORTHERN UGANDA, and help solve the conflict in that area.

There is need  for the current NRM government to work close hand in hand with the  religious and cultural leaders and the government leaders in northern Uganda irespective of their political or religious or cultural differences and  to work with the rebels in the current PEACE TALKS between Uganda and the LRA in Uganda for the development of Uganda especially  norther Uganda that has missed the big strides of development and economic gain that is being experienced elsewhere in the country of Uganda.

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BUNYORO-KITARA KINGDOM  www.bunyoro-kitara.com  CAN ACT AS MEDIATOR BETWEEN  JOSEPH KONY  AND UGANDA GOVERNMENT

I suggest that one of the steps that can be taken to create dialogue with KONY and his LRA is to involve CULTURAL LEADERS of two major sides: the LUO speaking tribal leaders of northern Uganda and the surrounding BANTU speaking tribal leaders to talk to Kony.

 But also Iam now thinking that another very powerful ally of the north is BUNYORO-KITARA KINGDOM www.bunyoro-kitara.com whose history and cultural friendship and leadership goes all the way back to the times of the LUO BABIITO  from Northern Uganda who  in the times of migrations moved  southwards to Bunyoro and were accepted as the new rulers there: the Luo Babiito Kings of Bunyoro as early as 1400 AD up to now 2007.

Don't forget that it is Omukama Kabaleega of Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom who put up the first ever stiff but well organized National Resistance Movement=NRM, and National Resistance Army=NRA that waged a prolonged guerilla warfare for almost twenty five years 1875-1899 with devastating impacts against the British colonial invaders of Uganda at that time. http://www.bunyoro-kitara.com/empire.htm  Yes, Omukama Kabaleega got a lot of support from the Acholi and the Langi people and chiefs. Kabaleega had a NATIONAL ARMY made up of Banyoro speaking soldiers and he also had a lot of soldiers who were non Banyoro, soldiers from Acholi, Lango and West Nile and the Nubians and Sudanic tribes from as far as KARTHOUM - commonly called KALIICUMU in Runyoro. Go to Kigumba Town, Masindi Town and Hoima Town and you will find places named after these non Banyoro Soldiers such places like KINUBI (for Nubian sodiers) in Hoima, KIRASA (Kurasa= to shoot) in Masindi. And as King Kabaleega retreated to go Lango and reorganize his NRA troops he went along with his new friend Kabaka Mwanga of Buganda to the Chief of Lango for a combined wisdom and guerillar attack against the British colonial army. Unfortunately its there that they were captured in 1899 and taken to exile. Kabalega came back from exile in 1923 but died before he reached his Palace and Kingdom and six of his many counties had been given away to the new friends of the British who helped them fight against Kabaleega and his organized army based in Bunyoro.

But even up to today, in the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom and its Uganda Government established Districts of Masindi, Buliisa, Hoima and parts of Kibaale district along Lake Albert , there are many Luo speaking northerners and Lugbaras, Kakwas, Alur, Lendu and Akebo and there is a very good centuries old peaceful co-existence relationship between these groups and the Banyoro.

AND IF YOU TAKE A CLOSER LOOK YOU WILL FIND THAT MANY OF THE PEOPLE WHO RUN AWAY FROM THE WAR IN THE NORTH , THEY HAVE MOVED TO BUNYORO KITARA KINGDOM, THEY ARE STAYING  MAINLY IN MASINDI DISTRICT, KARUMA-KIGUMBA AREA  AND HAVE SETTLED THERE WAITING FOR PEACE TO RETURN IN THEIR LAND. SO THEY HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THEIR GOOD AND LONGLASTING, SEVERAL CENTURIES OLD CULTURAL NEIGHBOURS - THE BANYORO. KIGUMBA AREA AND TOWN IS THE BEST EXAMPLE OF THIS PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE BECAUSE THEY ARE 52 TRIBES STAYING IN KIGUMBA, PEOPLES OF DIFFERENT LANGUAGES AND TRIBES BUT STAYING TOGETHER AND PROUD TO BELONG TO BUNYORO AND TO BE PART OF BUNYORO KINGDOM.

Why not take advantage of this CULTURAL RICHNESS and have OMUKAMA GAFABUSA IGURU the KING OF BUNYORO  http://www.bunyoro-kitara.com/mission.htm    take a leading role in wooing KONY to end his  LRA rebel activities and return to Uganda and be given the amnesty that the NRM Uganda govrernment is now offering him. But may be Kony doesnot trust the political and military leaders in Uganda and so all the more to turn to the  wise and capable leadership of Bunyoro Kitara kingdom as a way to mediate  between LRA and Uganda government. 

 IT IS MOST LIKELY THAT KONY WOULD LISTEN TO THE VIEWS AND ADVICE OF  OMUKAMA  GAFABUSA IGURU THE KING OF BUNYORO KITARA KINGDOM , AND HEED TO THE KINGS CALL FOR JOSEPH  KONY TO LAY DOWN HIS ARMS AND JOIN THE RECONCILIATION PROCESS IN UGANDA. Then we would save alot of MONEY BEING SPENT on bullets and eventually bring an end  to the sufferings and suspicions that are going on currently.

 Remember the African Proverb = that :

 When two elephants fight (LRA and UPDF), its the grass (the ACHOLI and LANGI, the common man, the everyday person, the innocent , the voiceless) that suffers and looses all its green colour.

It is not till HEAVEN =sends rain down on earth that the rain comes and then the grass is brought back to new life. Lets give a chance to  IGURU. And remember that in Runyoro language the word IGURU means HEAVEN .

May be KING IGURU - HEAVEN can bring the RAIN of peace TO NORTHERN UGANDA IF ALLOWED TO DO THE WORK OF MEDIATOR BETWEEN  the two groups namely : Joseph Kony's LRA  and the Uganda Government and its UPDF  -- just give it a trial -- it may work - it may be the solution.

 Oh yes, Kony may eventually say :" Ahaa, well, at least the Omukama Iguru as an ELDER is speaking to me and I will listen to the King of Bunyoro-Kitara and follow his advice and heed to his call to lay down the arms, to come out of the bush, to abandon the rebel activities, to accept to be forgiven by my people, to come back home, and to have  the long awaited for peace and reconciliation that northern Uganda is badly in need of"

As Pastor Okudi's Songof Hope says -- this may be the moment for the annointing of God's people in Acholi and Langi, this  is the moment for peace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDbY3zMLVdg

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 All Ugandans should feel concerned about their brothers and sisters and not say well thats the problem of the northerners. Haaa, when the jigger itches you in the toe, then the whole of you gets the pain and you cannot sleep. We cannot say - well it the problem of the northerns! So its the problem not only of northern Uganda but of the whole of Uganda. There has been a tendency for some people in the peaceful areas of Uganda not to think of the suffering of those in North Uganda. I think this is wrong and every support should be given to ease the pain fo the people in Acholi and Lango areas of North Uganda.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrmr_BcgZ6I 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99yfE32gTw8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtNtbAajDEY

http://www.ugpulse.com/ugandan-community/forums/ShowThread.aspx?PostID=4675#4675

We must help the people of northern Uganda gain some hope that things can be better and that they will be able to know that the world out there is seeing and listening and willing to help them  live better human livesThats  the visit to northern Uganda !! Its ashame that in this 21 century we are having such a situation in our world of today and in Uganda.

CRY MY BELOVED COUNTRY UGANDA - a visit to northern Uganda makes me cry!!http://ugpulse.com/ugandan-community/forums/4860/ShowThread.aspx#4860