KONY'S MESSAGE: A NEW KOINE?THE LORD'S RESISTANCE ARMY IN NORTHERN UGANDA

The article offers a sketch of Joseph Kony's Lord's ResistanceArmy (LRA) both in historical perspective and in a wider frameworkof the world system. The authors discuss the different stagesand content of Acholi nationhood, from vague notions in pre-colonialdays, through the building of an ethno-military identity duringthe colonial period, until the Acholi heyday after Obote II.The second period can be described as Acholi-hood on the defensive.Initially, the campaign of resistance fought by the Acholi-dominatedUganda People's Democratic Army (UPDA) still fits into standardconceptions of political resistance. However, social collapseeventually gave birth to Alice Lakwena's Holy Spirit Movementand finally to the LRA. Possessed of a charisma bordering onthe prophetic, Kony has forged a new vision of Acholi-hood,based on individual salvation and purity. This ‘biblical’vision of political redemption, at first sight an inward-lookingstrategy, is making this movement extremely vulnerable to outwardmanipulation.