Hey, Uganda! I've been there. It's a nice country, easy to travel in. Nice nature. People speak English. Good infrastructure, feels pretty safe. Can recommend.
I decided to write up a little effortpost to describe the Ugandan road to... 2012, I guess. It also sheds a little light on this entire Joseph Kony thing.
Meet Milton Obote, a nice guy. In 1950s he becomes involved with the Bugandan independence movement that later escalates into Ugandan independence movement (Buganda: the southern and southwestern Uganda). In early 1960s he meets an endearing young man named Idi Amin. Obote becomes the first ruler of now-independent Uganda: a nation torn by ethnic and religious conflict. In 1966 Obote's forces perform a coup, overthrow the figurehead king Kabaka Mutesa II, kill a couple of thousand of their political opponents and suspend the constitution. Obote becomes the military dictator and declares himself president for life.
In 1971 a promising young officer, Idi Amin, overthrows Obote, gets Obote supporters killed in scores and starts a new reign. However, he does not kill Obote (who was out of the country at the time), so Obote and his lackeys start plotting against Idi Amin. They get their chance when powertripping Amin decides to attack EVERYTHING around him. Ugandan troops are finally defeated by Tanzanians, who now support an Obote-led competiting faction (UNLF). UNLF was a loose alliance controlled by Obote and one Yoweri Museveni. Uganda's Amin regime is crushed. UNLF is kinda victorious.
Amin was overthrown and fled to exile. Yay, I guess? Ugandan hopes were crushed, however, when the Amin regime was replaced by fractured, bitterly infighting and unstable leaders (three of them, actually). After a bunch of failures, Obote decides no longer to bother with lackeys and runs for president. In fraudulent elections, Obote becomes president and bitter Museveni decides to take his toys, flees to the jungle and gathers a fine collection of child soldiers, war orphans and other choice material. He then begins an armed revolt against his former ally, Obote. Obote and his military right hand, an acholi called Tito Okello, decide to answer in kind and his troops slaughter thousands of people all around the place. In 1985 Okello overthrows Obote. (I have skipped some people, such as Yusuf Lule, for the sake of clarity). Okello, unsurprisingly, becomes associated with the Acholi people in northernmost Uganda - an area and people neglected by Kampala since... I have no idea. Long time.
Museveni's army of miscreants decides now to stop their insurgency and join forces with Okello. it didn't really work, so Museveni threw a fit, continued his insurgency and after a long bush war overthrows Okello in 1986. Okello's troops scatter around northern Uganda. Phew! Seven years and seven leaders.
For Acholi people, however, the coup is not just political, but also ethnical and partially religious conflict - a former ally overthrowing a first Acholi leader since god knows when. Acholis are not happy. So they do what people did best: ARMED REVOLT!
Armed revolt didn't quite work, and finally Museveni's troops crush the Acholi rebellion (unsurprisingly, hundreds of people are killed in the aftermath). One Acholi spiritualist from this defeated army was called Joseph Kony. He fled into the bush.
While all is going to **** in Northern Uganda, Museveni shows some tact and tries to defuse the northern situation by negotiation - get the rebels and veterans to join his ranks. However, his previous adventures with Okello regime are still fresh in the memory. Many veterans are dubious of Museveni and throw their lot in with yet another splinter army, now known as LRA, Lord's Liberation Army, led by that same Joseph "Spirits are talking to me" Kony.
Kony's force started as a simple run-of-the-mill overthrow the government guerilla movement, but in 1989 they apparently changed their objective. They started to target the Acholi people - which is weird, seeing as many of them are either Acholi or Acholi sympathizers. In 1990s LRA attacked villages, Ugandan troops attacked LRA and villagers, and finally Sudan supported Kony (because Museveni had earlier supported south Sudanese separatists). In 2002 Sudan and Uganda finally got onto a negotiation table and decided to give Ugandan troops a chance to follow Kony across the border (the border issue is a common problem around the world). As a result Kony's LRA lost most of it support areas. LRA decided to move it's base of operations from Uganda to what is now known as Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2006 many LRA guerillas voluntarily left the shady group to return home... but not everyone. After a joint military operation by Uganda, DRC and Sudan the LRA fled (casually killing congolese, to no one's great surprise) to Central African Republic. LRA has not operated in Uganda since 2006.
I don't even want to start about the Congo wars. It's much longer and more confusing than this story.
Back to 1986. Since then Museveni has ruled Uganda. He is... not that bad, or at least used not to be. Under his rule people are relatively secure* and Uganda is not that poor anymore. He is also pretty liked in Central and South Uganda, and the latest election gave Museveni even more ammo (and of course crushing protests, throwing people into jail etc. etc.).
But the Acholi people? For them Museveni is a bad guy. Museveni's regime has done little to dispell this myth - the northern Uganda is not a warzone, but is badly lagging behind in economic and infrastructure, has a large number of refugees and is still at least somewhat sympathetical to insurgency against Museveni's regime.
