He explained the multi-purpose nature of the cow in Acholi cultural and socio-economic settings. In his view, the term, dyang (cow) was merely used in the negotiations as a generic term to refer to all categories of livestock as well as other resources people lost as a result of the war. Thus, the use of the term did not negate the existence of other types of resources that were lost in the war. Both from the literature and field data, I learned that cows had served and continued to serve multiple functions in the Acholi community. Girling (1960), Gelsdorf et al. (2012) and Gersony (1997), among others, all comment on the significance of the cow as a mark of status and wealth among the Acholi in addition to its social and cultural functions in the performance of rites and rituals.
From my field observations, the cow and livestock in general had a new function in Acholi-land as a means of promoting economic enterprise and private investment – which had expanded the scope of economic activities in the rural setting. Originally, livestock was largely kept for social and cultural functions as explained below, or as a form of banking, a store of wealth. However, the disaggregation of the economy into specialised sectors resulting from semi-urban conditions created in Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) camps during the war has seen the introduction and expansion of butcher shops in all small towns and trading centres in Acholi. Households no longer have to own livestock to enjoy meat or milk on their menu on regular basis. Even if an individual or household owns some livestock, they can now purchase meat in small amounts from the nearest meat shop for consumption without having to slaughter a whole animal or go hunting wild game each time they want to enjoy meat. The political independence of South Sudan in 2011 also offered other possibilities. It had opened up new market opportunities for livestock for the people of northern Uganda, and Acholi in particular.
Other explanations lay in the cultural functions of livestock. In their study on motivations for leaving IDP camps after twenty years of the LRA insurgency, Whyte et al. (2013) found that livestock were generally at the centre of many socio-cultural activities including celebrations, fines, funerals and rituals. For example, a number of youths I interviewed in 2011, and later for my PhD study in 2016, told me they could no longer afford to marry, let alone hold wedding ceremonies because of poverty, which they blamed on the depletion of livestock consequent to the twenty-year insurrection. In an in-depth interview at about the same period, mzee Otim, one of the elders at Awach trading centre, confirmed the narrative when he disclosed that loss of cows and other forms of livestock resources during the war had made people so poor, they could no longer afford to pay bridewealth. Marriages, he said, had thus become a luxury that many young people in Acholi-land could no longer afford. Mzee Otim further said that instead of going through the traditional customs of marriage, lovers now simply moved in together and started producing children without any regard for the heavy customary fines associated with such behaviour.
I also observed that although actions such as elopement, cohabiting and having children out of wedlock have become widespread in Acholi land, traditionally they are still considered immoral and attract cultural fines. The fines including poro or luk are paid in form of livestock whose value is largely determined by the elders. When a cohabiting couple produces children before introducing themselves formally to the woman’s parents, the man has to pay luk pa latin, a fine of a goat for each of the first two children, in addition to any other fines and related cultural rites as may be determined by the elders (Porter 2016).
It should also be noted that in addition to its marriage-related significance, livestock is also required at different stages of the funeral rituals. For example, a goat must be slaughtered for people who dig the grave regardless of who is to be buried there; one cow or more has to be sacrificed at the last funeral rites, depending on the status of the deceased persons.