Acholi Royal Messengers: Mobility of Information and Goods in Northern Uganda, 1870s to 1920

Patrick W. Otim

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Title (eng)

Acholi Royal Messengers: Mobility of Information and Goods in Northern Uganda, 1870s to 1920

Author

Patrick W. Otim

Bates College, Maine, USA

Description (eng)

This article examines the position of la or Pa rwot, or what I refer to as the royal messen‐ ger, to show the complicated nature of mobility of information and goods in late precolonial and early colonial Acholiland. Using a wide range of sources, such as mission and colonial archives, local histories by both Acholi and missionaries, and the author’s doctoral field research notes, I argue that understanding this office and its holder allow us to comprehend the complex ways through which information and goods moved between subjects and leaders called rwodi (singular: rwot), and from one rwot to another. This article has dual goals: first, to examine the nature of the training of la or Pa rwot, delving into the knowledge and skills of the office holders, and second, to demonstrate the roles of la or Pa rwot in his chiefdom and the transformation of the office, beginning in the 1890s with the British conquest of Acholiland, to 1920. Overall, the article seeks to draw attention to a unique group of men who facilitated the traffic of administrative and diplomatic information and goods in Acholiland and beyond.

Keywords

AcholiNorthern UgandaAcholi Royal MessengerAcholiland

Subject (eng)

ÖFOS 2012 -- 602001 -- African studies

Type (eng)

journal article

Language

[eng]

Persistent identifier

https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:1666087

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