I am often asked for recommended reading on the war in northern Uganda. The literature is vast, but a few works on culture, politics and history stand out.

For history and analysis of the war, this ACORD volume presents the evolution of the war (and previous attempts at peace) from the perspective of numerous Ugandans. Also very good is the background material in this report by Tim Allen.

This report from the Refugee Law Project (RLP) at Makerere University provides another fine analysis of the causes of violence in Uganda. Check out the RLP website for dozens of contributions on displacement and war in Uganda. Its director, Chris Dolan, has written extensively about Uganda, but only a few of his works (like this one) seem to be online.

Some excellent books are also available. Heike Behrend’s account of Alice Lakwena, a spiritual and rebel precusor to Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army, is a must read. Sverker Finnstrom’s account of life under displacement is also excellent. The more time I spend in northern Uganda, the more insightful I find his writing.

I will save a full listing of the human rights, NGO and other gray literature for another time. But my own reports and work on Uganda (with Jeannie Annan, Dyan Mazurana, and Khristopher Carlson) are available on the Survey of War Affected Youth website.

For Acholi cosmology and traditional forms of coping and healing, five authors, including my friend and colleague Ron Atkinson, recently collaborated on an excellent short book on the subject.

Erin Baines has also been working with Acholi religious leaders on processes of community truth-telling in Acholiland as well as traditional processes of justice and reconciliation.

On less traditional forms of justice, Tim Allen has a short book on the International Criminal Court’s intervention in Uganda. He makes a convincing case for a more formal system of justice and accountability. Adam Branch also has very provocative views on the ICC in Uganda.

Intelligent political analysis of the Lord’s Resistance Army is scarce, but a few notable contributions exist (in addition to Allen’s and Finnstrom’s contributions above). For instance, some excellent papers on the logic of LRA violence and organization have been by Doom and Vlassenroot, van Acker, and Branch.

Mareike Schomerus has recently written about the LRA in Sudan. Mareike has had unprecedented access to the LRA in recent years, but unfortunately most of her work has yet to be published. Look for early warnings on this blog, as her work is bound to be interesting.

Tim Allen and Koen Vlassenroot are also editing a book on the LRA, with contributions from many of the authors mentioned above. Drafts may be available later this year. My own chapter (with my wife, Jeannie Annan) is here. We focus on the nature and logic of LRA child recruitment.

For current news and updates on the war, peace talks, and regional security, the Uganda Conflict Action Network and Resolve Uganda blogs are good sources of daily information. Both offer RSS news feeds.

Finally, one of my collaborators, Nathan Fiala, has scanned and posted resources for learning the Acholi language.

As I said, this list is only partial, and omits a number of topics and authors. If there are any special requests (e.g. gender, displacement, economic activities, etc.) please leave a comment.

The picture above, by the way, is from a book of powerful children’s drawings published by AVSI and other NGOs called Where is My Home? Unfortunately I’ve not seen a link online.