Alyssa Schiefer is the Center for Global Justice post-graduate Fellow. She is currently serving in Mukono, Uganda with Kyampisi Childcare Ministries to combat child sacrifice and living on campus at Uganda Christian University supporting their clinical programs. Read below to hear what she’s been up to!
Kopango? In Lango, this translates to “How are you?” In response, “Kope” translates to “I have nothing to say, I am fine!”
Lango is the language spoken in the Apac district of Northern Uganda and the above phrase is the traditional way of greeting in Apac! I learned this phrase and many others during my week in Apac with Uganda Christian University (UCU) from October 3rd-11th. I traveled with Associate Dean Mirriam and 14 amazing Ugandan law students with the purpose to highlight the importance of mediation in the rural villages. UCU partnered with Land Equity Movement in Uganda (LEMU) in its current “Keep Your Land, Keep Your Seed” campaign, which aims to revive Uganda’s culture and community land rights.
LEMU is focused on encouraging the community to protect the most important part of their culture – the land. Because of this focus, LEMU and UCU came together for one week to offer a mediation clinic specifically for land disputes between villagers. The clinic started by teaching clan leaders about their duty to oversee disputes, about customary land law in Apac, and how to guide future mediations. Most importantly, LEMU emphasized the importance of mediation, since the legal system in Uganda is extremely expensive and can take many years for a case to even be heard. For example, if a villager needs to go to court for a land dispute, they would likely have to sell their land or a piece of it to afford a lawyer and pay court expenses. Even then, their case may sit for decades until it is decided by a judge.
After emphasizing the importance of mediation, LEMU and the UCU team started case intakes on Saturday. The students and I gathered information from twelve complainants. Sunday and Monday consisted of calling complainants, respondents, and clan leaders to schedule the mediations. From Tuesday to Friday, we successfully scheduled seven cases. The other five cases either involved a legal issue that could not be solved by mediation or the respondents refused to appear. If the case failed because of an unwillingly respondent, then LEMU and the clan leaders try to follow up and encourage mediation in the future.
From Tuesday to Friday, the mediation clinic would travel anywhere from thirty minutes to a couple hours each day to remote villages. Upon arriving, we gathered what chairs were available, placed them in a circle in the middle of a field or under a shady tree, and held the mediations. The reasons for the disputes varied but contained complaints like: destruction and trespassing of land, withholding a person’s right to use the land for growing food, and land boundary disputes. Each case had different issues, but our legal team thoroughly reviewed each case and the respective law. In addition to knowing the law, we made sure to focus on the key concepts of what forms a successful mediation – voluntariness, reconciliation, neutrality, and identification of underlying issues.
We praise God that six out of seven cases were successful, and all ended amicably with the hope of continuing reconciliation! I lost track of how many times the villagers thanked us for our help – stating that we had saved their clans/neighbors (whom they consider family) from further discord, repaired relationships in homes, and helped them keep their land. We even saw the salvation of one lady after the mediation, and we had the opportunity to pray with her and encourage her in the Lord!
Overall, this experience opened my eyes to how rural Uganda can be and how important the law and the aspect of mediation is to a landowner whose life and culture comes from the land and the food they grow. The land is passed from generation to generation and is their source of food and income – it is essential to their way of life and a diminishing part of their culture. I am so blessed to have been a part of this experience and am so thankful for Regent, UCU, and LEMU for the opportunity. If you are interested, you can read a similar update from a Ugandan News source located here: News Report on LEMU and UCU Law.