The Okeng Community - Still Up Country

Post by Josh

Today we set out with more sodas and biscuits in tow to the Okeng community, which is about a 90 minute drive from Lira, a small town with many bicycles where the hotel is.  We turned off the main road and the road became muddy, bumpy, and swampy: it was more a path than a road.  We bumped over standing water, in which we spotted some tortoises.  Then another turn and the road got narrow, tall lush brush scraping against both sides of the van.  Finally we reached the Okeng community.  A rural village consisting of about 70 mud huts, and few brick ones.

This hut was the best kept hut I’ve seen yet.  It is owned by a young male, not yet married.  Apparently, after marriage these little things of looking good in the neighborhood fall to the wayside as other responsibilities take over.

We parked by the giant mango tree which is the community meeting place.  The Okeng community, unlike the visit to the clan on Tuesday, consists of a few different clans, striving to live in harmony together.  When we arrived word was sent around that we were going to hold a meeting.  Apparently the initial invite went just to the clan leaders, some individuals were sent around on bikes to rally the rest of the villagers.  In the meanwhile we toured the gardens, crops, and new community grazing site, with boundary markers sparked by the work of my NGO.

The community was greatly appreciative of the aid from my org.  They now have demarcated public grazing space and residents’ farming areas, or garden, are marked and mapped.  A surveyor has been out to the site and today we presented the community with a deed plan from the surveyor.  This is a huge step for any community such as this one.  Few have been able to make it this far, mostly because of disputes arising from challenges related to coming to agreements with each other during the process.  Okeng village has also written a charter regarding the rules of the grazing area.  Land disputes in this community have decreased, people are more familiar with their rights, and they have tools such as maps and boundary markers to protect themselves from encroachers and land-grabbers and prove exactly the location and size of their land.  Hurray for advocacy and the aid of NGOs!  In addition, women now have a much larger presence at meetings and speak during them because people in the organization spoke to them about their role in the community.  In sum, people are happier. 

But this is just one community, there are many more hidden out there amidst the roads that aren’t really roads in Northern Uganda.  The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony displaced many people in a 20 year period ending in 2006.  The issues displaced people that returned to their land face are plenty.  Land is just about all people have.  They pay no bills, rent, or anything of the sort.  They really do live on less than a dollar a day, but they don’t need money on a day to day basis as most of their food comes from their land or through barter.  However, despite this fact, money is important, and some families value it more than others.  I saw a few families that have chosen to have a crop that yields more money, such as small red hot chili peppers, which allows them to have brick and mortar home as opposed to the standard mud hut.  On the flip side, “excess income” can be spent by the man head of household on drinking, which is obviously not the best use of rare funds.  Necessary changes to the community like surveyors, boundary markers, and deeds cost money among other one-off items like bicycles and dowry. It’s not just the future of land rights in this part of Uganda that needs coaching, organizations preach women’s rights and other issues in this country as well.  Some of those organizations were touring these communities with us and are figuring out how they can work with us to best solve these problems. 

The Okeng community took two years to get to where they are today.  Other communities do not see the importance of title or survey, or there is too much disagreement within them to arrive at the stage I witnessed in Okeng.   Communities will continue to face land rights issues until they start to understand the importance of equipping themselves with the proper tools for protection and start working together.  The onus is very much on them.

Such stories like the Okeng community are remarkable to witness firsthand.  The people are incredibly grateful, especially when we return to their community, for any reason.  When they are happy, they work together well.  I also learned the importance of having enough soda and biscuits for everyone.

The mid-meeting break consists of Fanta, Coke and biscuits for everyone.

"Up Country"

Post by Josh

I keep hearing about traveling “up country.”  It’s where the work of my organization is done, they have two field offices “up country.”  Land rights became a bigger issue after the turmoil that occurred “up country” back in 1996-2006 and we are trying to create peace, harmony, and justice there.  I’ve also heard that it is just gorgeous there, where?….”up country.”

On Tuesday, I left for the greener parts of Uganda (yeah, yeah “up country”), with two staff members from my NGO and representatives from nine other NGOs.  This is supposed to be a learning trip for other organizations whose mission overlaps with ours in the realms of land rights and/or women’s issues.  The idea is that the other participants learn what my org is doing and more about the laws governing land rights.  Because the customary laws—rules within the clans—and the new Land Act have had little time to coexist, the real governing authority is not clear.  As these organizations are well familiar with, people start to act on their volition and take whatever they feel they can have.  Victims do not know where to turn to and the organizations deployed to help may also be jaded by all the wrong ideas that are consistently followed.  Hopefully they will learn something from my organization which is on the leading edge of land rights knowledge in the country.  The second fold of the trip involves one of our donor organizations.  They also donate to the other organizations represented and this is an opportunity for them to see the work we are performing in the field and also speak with some of their other grant recipients.

The trip up was smooth, which is a big deal in Uganda.  In Uganda, people either say the roads are very bad or the roads are very good, fortunately, this road was the latter.  It even had lines, yellow ones and white ones, but still one way in each direction.  The road took us over a pretty fast moving part of the River Nile and then past some baboons hangin’ on the roadside.  There were also many people hangin’ on the roadside.  Just one of those moments I realized that we are not so far off from our monkey friends.  Just six years ago, the only way to travel in these parts was with a convoy of about a 100 cars and army vehicles situated in the front, midddle, and back.  Cars would wait by the Nile crossing until enough amassed and then make the trip, fast, and without stopping.

Tuesday’s main attraction was a visit to a property belonging to the Mwa Otira Tok clan.  This is a clan that is over 900,000 strong, at least that was the reported number of registered voters in their last election, a fact I learned while sitting next to the elected Chief on our way back—that’s right, I sat next to a Clan Chief!  The 70 or so at this meeting were just a tiny sample of the population.  We caravanned into their property in two white vans, a pickup truck, and a Land Rover.  Our reception was load, and proud.  I experienced, for the first time, African women singing (for lack of a better word) in a high pitched way: lalalalalalalala.  One woman came up to shake our hands while kneeling before each one of us.  Obviously, this organization has done something good here.

Hail to the Clan Chief

While we were sitting in a small patch of property beneath a thick old tree whose branches fingered out and above us to add much needed shade from the hot Up Country sun, I observed the skin of the clan people.  It was rough and beaten: much different than my own and that of the other NGO workers in attendance.  The people here don’t work in the city.  Instead they spend their whole life working the fields and outdoors, under the sun.  Many were barefoot and their feet had a whole layer of collouse that my delicate feet do not obtain.  The women all bend at the hip and waist, and fold over like a jackknife.  The grandma seated next to me would get up by first standing, then her hands leave the ground once her legs are straight, then unfolding to an upright position, 

NGO workers mix with the Mwa Otira Tok clan 

My organization has helped this clan in two ways: education through teaching the laws and rules around land rights, and boundary trees.  Boundary trees are a certain type of cheap, easily acquired tree that can be rooted in the ground.  When planted close together like in the picture below it is hard to remove and clearly demarcates the land boarder.  

Boundary trees keep a kid goat from grazing on the neighbor's land

We brought treats of biscuits and soda for those in attendance.  At first I didn’t feel good about giving these treats out, it almost seemed like bribery and a poor use of donor funds, but people flocked to get their “reward” for meeting with us.  The clan chiefs asked us if we had extra notebooks (cost: less than 50 cents).  We did and they were very grateful.  Some things just don’t make sense, I understand that income for clan members is low and a soda seems like a great treat, but when the better-dressed clan chief asks if he could have a 50 cent notebook, I am perplexed. 

As things wrapped up and people were mingling, one of the grandmas got my attention and asked me if there was any more soda.  She asked in her native tongue and after much back-and-forth and some help by one of the younger men I understood that she didn’t get a soda.  I ran back to the cars but the truck with the sodas had left to pick up more program participants.  I went into our van and grabbed a juicebox, you remember, the kind that used to get packed with school lunch every day.  Apple black current.  I brought it to her and, figuring the wrapper and straw might present a problem, opened it for her.  The site of grandma sipping out of a juicebox made others around laugh and made her very, very happy.

Day 2 Up Country

Today was a grueling day of presentations by all the other NGO representatives.  Some were better than others.  There was quite a bit of overlap in the work they all do.  This was mainly an informative session, and not a sharing of ideas on how to benefit from each other’s advances in the field.

Tomorrow it’s back in the field as we visit more people that we have helped in the past. 

To date, the coolest cane I've seen.