Mato Oput: Bitter Amnesty Brew

Posted by Sean Sinclair-Day Apr 17, 2007

The Acholi people of northern Uganda have suffered more than many can conceive. This neglected pocket of northern Uganda has experienced two decades of civil strife that has exacted an immeasurable toll on Acholis in terms of casualties, trauma and dignity, and no peace accord will ever restore their losses. As the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government attempt to negotiate a lasting truce in Juba, Sudan, 1.4 million Ugandans, mainly Acholis, remain living in the degrading limbo of squalid Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps.

Hampering the peace process are the International Criminal Court's (ICC) indictments for LRA's leaders, who refuse to leave the bush and join talks, fearing they will be arrested for war crimes and crimes against humanity. And although the LRA has abducted between 20 to 30 thousand children and committed brutal acts of murder, rape and mutilation during their insurgency, some of the Acholi have hoped to find justice through traditional local practices.

In Acholi culture, a ceremony known as mato oput is held in cases of murder. The Uganda Amnesty Act of 2000 suggests that this method of reconciliation is available for the LRA and the fellow Acholi they have terrorized, but it would appear that under international law, the ICC warrants are equally enforceable.

Mato oput

Mato oput is a daylong cleansing ceremony that is intended to restore social harmony. Perpetrators are forgiven for their wrongdoing by accepting responsibility for their transgressions, asking forgiveness and offering compensation to victims. They are also exempt from further state prosecution, essentially receiving a full amnesty.

In the most important part of the ritual, two clans bring together the perpetrator and the victim's family and the two parties share an acrid root drink concocted of a calabash. The drink symbolizes the two sides putting aside their bitterness and differences, thus explaining its literal meaning, which can be translated into "drinking the bitter root." One of the problems, however, with using mato oput for the leaders of the LRA is that they refuse to admit they have committed any crime against the Acholi. Whether or not the heads of the LRA are captured and forced to spend the remainder of their lives in a Hague facility or allowed a rare amnesty through mato oput, an end to the chapter of northern Uganda's brutal history must be written.