A1 Journal article (refereed)
The Lord’s Resistance Army and the arms that brought the Lord : amplifying polyphonic silences in northern Uganda (2019)

Alava, H. (2019). The Lord’s Resistance Army and the arms that brought the Lord : amplifying polyphonic silences in northern Uganda. Suomen Antropologi, 44(1), 9-29. https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.v44i1.75028

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Alava, Henni

Journal or series: Suomen Antropologi

ISSN: 0355-3930

eISSN: 1799-8972

Publication year: 2019

Volume: 44

Issue number: 1

Pages range: 9-29

Publisher: Suomen antropologinen seura

Publication country: Finland

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.v44i1.75028

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/65616

Abstract

This article develops the notion of polyphonic silence as a means for thinking through the ethical and political ramifications of ethnographically encountering and writing about silenced violent pasts. To do so, it analyses and contrasts the silence surrounding two periods of extreme violence in northern Uganda: 1) the northern Ugandan war (1986–2006), which is contemporarily often shrouded by silence, and 2) the early decades of colonial and missionary expansion, which the Catholic church silences in its commemoration of the death of two Acholi catechists in 1918. Employing the notion of polyphony, the article describes how neither of these silences is a mere absence of narration. Instead, polyphonic silences consist of multiple, at times discordant and contradictory sounds, and cannot be consigned to single-cause explanations such as ‘trauma’ or ‘recovery’. Reflecting on my own experience of writing about and thereby amplifying such silences, I show how writing can serve either to shield or break silence. The choice between these modes of amplification calls for reflection on the temporal distance of silence, of the relations of power amid which silence is woven, and of the researchers’ ethical commitments and normative preconceptions.

Keywords: Catholicism; missionary work; colonialism; being silent; research ethics; traumas (mental objects)

Free keywords: Acholi; Catholic mission; colonialism; silence; research ethics; trauma; Uganda

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2019

JUFO rating: 2