Meritocracy is as Acoli as Dek Malakwang ki Layata

From 1986 to 2005 Uganda lived under the Movement system—a no-party government that banned political parties and was meant supposedly to curb sectarian tensions. Elections were done on individual merit—meritocracy—with no party affiliations.

Among other grievances against the government it is this meritocracy that goosed many an Acoli. To them meritocracy was equivalent to selfishness which they dubbed Pira Kena—literal translation: for me only. The suggestion seemed to be that meritocracy was foreign to Acoli and was being imposed from without. But, was it?

All indications, however, seem to suggest that meritocracy is as Acoli as Dek Malakwang ki Layata—a favorite Acoli dish.

In all Acoli clans succession to clan chiefdom—Rwotship—was based mainly on talent, and not on any measure of hierarchy in the chiefs’ courts. Thus even foreign adventurers who wondered into some courts sometime became chiefs.

The British came and found an Acoli population with young men eager to prove their individual mettle in the King’s African Rifle—dubbed Keya in Acoli. These men did not disappoint the British with their discipline and allegiance to the master. And this was to prove itself again and again in successive governments after the British were long gone.

Missionary schools and the few government schools, which then became the crucible for training Acoli young men and women rather than the family and clan, emphasized the notion and recognition of individual talent. And the products that became clerks, teachers and latter-day politicians all worked for individual excellence to please their employers and their immediate family. (Family in this context may include extended family).

If anybody is impressed with Phds and other wanabe educated, Acoli has an impressive relative number—a testimony to individual talent and merit. Acoli politicians and other leaders were weaned on individual merits. Let us accept meritocracy as an Acoli fact, and may be—just may be—we can begin to learn to pool the talent resources for the greater good of Acoli.