乐播传媒

About

About
I am an associate professor of history at 乐播传媒 College and a faculty member in the Africana Program. Previously, I was a Mellon Diversity and Faculty Renewal Postdoctoral Fellow.

Education
A.B., Makerere University
PGDip in Conflict and Peace Studies, Gulu University
PGDip in Education, Gulu University
M.A., University of Notre Dame
M.A., University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison

Recent Awards
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2024鈥�2025
Philips Fellowship, 乐播传媒 College, 2024鈥�2025
Mellon Diversity Faculty Renewal Postdoctoral Fellowship, 乐播传媒 College, 2016鈥�2017

Research
My research and teaching interests include African intellectual history, Christianity and Islam,
race and ethnicity, health and healing, and transitional justice.

My first book, Acholi Intellectuals: Knowledge, Power, and the Making of Colonial
Northern Uganda, 1850鈥�1960 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2024), is an intellectual history of
the Acholi people in northern Uganda. It examines the roles of Acholi leaders鈥攚hom I call
Acholi intellectuals or, in certain contexts, precolonial or transitional intellectuals鈥攊n the spread
of Christianity and colonial rule in northern Uganda. They included oteka (war leaders), lu or Pa
rwodi (royal messengers), ajwakaker (royal healers), lutumpiny (priests), and lugo-nanga (poet-
musicians).

This book鈥檚 fundamental contention is that the first group of Acholi who became mission
and colonial employees were not ordinary or marginalized young men, as Europeans had
portrayed them. Rather, they were much more sophisticated. In fact, their lives contrasted
sharply with Europeans鈥� depictions. They joined Europeans from positions of power and brought
with them significant knowledge, skills, and experiences, coupled with sociopolitical status and
legitimacy. These attributes, I argue, gave the Acholi intellectuals considerable leverage,
allowing them to play a pivotal yet overlooked role in the transition to, and spread of,
Christianity and colonial rule. They contributed significantly to the success of European projects
but in ways many Europeans did not fully understand at the time because they were ignorant of
their Acholi employees鈥� backgrounds, especially the kind of power and authority they wielded.

My second book project, supported by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a听Philips Fellowship, is tentatively titled Caught in between the Warring Parties: A History of听Terror and Survival in Northern Uganda, 1950鈥�2008. This project aims to offer a fresh look at听the war between the Lord鈥檚 Resistance Army (LRA) and the government of Uganda (GoU).听Specifically, it seeks to shift the focus away from the LRA, the GoU, and the different categories听of victims鈥攕uch as child soldiers, women who were abducted and forced to marry LRA听commanders and bear their children, and victims of wartime sexual crimes鈥攖o everyday,听ordinary people who experienced the war in their homes or camps.听At its core, the project asks: How did ordinary civilians manage to keep alive? I am hoping not only to uncover decisions and choices ordinary people made during wartime, but also to offer a more nuanced insight into the multiple contours of sufferings of everyday ordinary people.

Selected Publications
Book

(Athens: Ohio University Press, 2024).

Journal Articles
鈥淩euben Stephen Anywar: An Acholi Intellectual and the Production of Knowledge in Colonial Acholiland,鈥� History in Africa (2026):1-24 (co-authored with Martin D. Aliker).

鈥淭he 鈥業ron Donkey鈥�: The Social Lives of Bicycles in Northern Uganda, 1903鈥�2015,鈥� Critical African Studies 15, no.3 (2023): 374鈥�393.听

鈥淎choli Royal Messengers: Mobility in Late Precolonial and Early Colonial Northern Uganda, 1870s to 1920,鈥� Stichproben: Vienna Journal of African Studies 44, (2023): 25鈥�45.

鈥溾�楻eturning to the World of Ancestors鈥�: Death and Dying among the Acholi of Northern Uganda, 1900s鈥�1980s,鈥� Journal of East African Studies 16, no.3 (2022): 375鈥�394 (co-authored with Dr. Julaina Obika).

鈥淲eapons of Warfare? The History of Firearms among the Acholi of Northern Uganda, 1850s鈥�1920s,鈥� International Journal of African Historical Studies 55, no. 2 (2022): 231鈥�258.

鈥淭he Fate of a Transitional Chief in Colonial Acholiland: Iburaim Lutanyamoi Awich, 1850s鈥�1946,鈥� Canadian Journal of African Studies 55, no. 1 (March 2020): 57鈥�77.

鈥淟ocal Intellectuals: Lacito Okech and the Production of Knowledge in Colonial Acholiland,鈥� History in Africa 45 (June 2018): 275鈥�305.

Book Chapters

鈥溾�楽trange Men Who Call Themselves Chiefs鈥�: The Practice of Power and Authority Among the Acholi of Northern Uganda,鈥� in Textures of Power: Central Africa in the Long Twentieth Century, ed. Florence Bernault, Benoi虃t Henriet and Emery Kalema (Leuven University Press, 2025)

Book Reviews

Patrick Otim, review of听A Popular History of Idi Amin鈥檚 Uganda, by Derek R. Peterson, History: Reviews of New Books, pp.1-3

Patrick Otim, review of To Speak and Be Heard: Seeking Good Government in Uganda, ca. 1500鈥�2015, by Holly Hanson, The Journal of African History, Volume 64, Issue 3, November 2023, pp. 459-461.

Courses Taught
21s鈥擟rime and Punishment in Africa
25s鈥擣rom Archives to Studios: Producing a History Podcast
100鈥擜frican Perspectives on Justice, Human Rights, and Renewal
105鈥擲pecial Topics in African History, 1500鈥�1900
280鈥擧istory of Health and Healing in Africa
287鈥擧istory of East Africa
301F鈥擜frican Nationalism and Decolonization
301P鈥擲outh Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid
399鈥擧istorical Methods
468鈥擝eyond Nelson Mandela: Themes and Personalities in South African History