It was the Catholic Church that administered the Christianisation of the Acholi during the early 20th century after the Comboni missionaries reached the region coming from the north. As a result, the Catholic Church still had a strong presence in the community. Part of the parish were several churches, schools and medical facilities. Gulu is also the centre of the Archdiocese Gulu, covering large sections of northern Uganda. Archbishop John Baptiste Odama was seated here in the St. Josephs cathedral near Lacor Hospital, a bit outside of the town centre along Arua Road. The parish priest of the Holy Rosary parish right in the centre of Gulu was Father Justin Eric Uma. His church had over the previous years significantly expanded its capacity, as two side naves were added to the building to fit the local demand. Holy Rosary was located right next to the new main market and the premises included Holy Rosary Primary School, a book store and a radio station, Radio Maria, that broadcasted to the whole district.
98 Going to Sunday mass
On Sundays, Holy Rosary offered services at four different times, each lasting between 90 and 120 minutes and all usually held by the parish priest. I attended the Sunday services together with friend of mine. This friend always attended the service held in English and so I joined him for the first time on Palm Sunday 2015. As is probably the case in many towns in Uganda, the experience of going to church on Sundays begins way ahead of reaching the actual location. In Uganda, weekends denoted less of a break in the week than in many other places, as only a small part of the population was working in an office job that allowed for having the weekend off. For those working in farming, small businesses or the service industry, a daily routine on Sunday was not that different from any other day in the week. However, the Sundays stood out in relation to religious activities, as attending church for many preceded all other activities.
Image 6. St. Josephs Cathedral before the extension (by Nicolay Nikdel, 2013)
The speciality of the occasion began for me with dressing up. I wore a dress shirt, dress pants and dress shoes; an outfit that was not appropriate for my explorations of markets, small businesses or the local music scene. As I walked towards the church it became obvious that my choice in clothing had been correct, as wearing the Sundays best was the proper way of dressing for everyone attending the service. This could mean wearing an attire like I had chosen, or a more traditional form of clothing. Especially among the women attending the service, wearing a traditionally cut dress made from kitenge fabric was a popular choice. The streets were jammed with people going towards Holy Rosary, coming by foot, motorcycle or car, while many
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businesses along the road had remained closed. At the entrance of the church some people stood chatting, while others rushed inside to get a good seat. The service was very well attended, so that some late comers were forced to stand between the rows or in the back. The central front section of the church was reserved for the choir, consisting of twenty to thirty men and women. According to parish priest Father Eric, the basic principle of language choice for the masses and services was to accommodate the needs and demands of the community. In practice, the parish used Acholi and English for the masses, while local prayers would occasionally also be done using Kiswahili. The only area where Kiswahili was common was in prison. Many of the inmates of Gulu prison came from other regions of Uganda, as the countries correctional system tended to avoid the imprisonment of people in their home area. With many of the prisoners being from the central, western or eastern parts of the country and often lacking advanced formal education and English language skills, Kiswahili was the most accommodating language choice in this context. However, for services it was not used, as none of the priests had the required proficiency to perform the more complex tasks of a Sunday service appropriately. For some members of the community this meant that they could not attend a Sunday mass they understood, creating a problem for the community and the Church alike. To deal with this issue Father Erik had planned to learn Kiswahili himself, so he could potentially offer this service in the future. To further accommodate the needs of the community, the Catholic parish would also, if possible, have someone translate the mass into sign language. Overall, the parish tried to use all language skills at its disposal to reach out to its members. The most important language however remained Acholi, as it was the first language for most members of the community. On Sundays, three masses were held in Acholi and a fourth one in English. Other churches that were part of the parish also tried to use the language that accommodated the respective communities the best. For more rural churches this was in general Acholi, while the church at the university campus held its Sunday mass in English.
In the service I attended that day, the priest still used Acholi on some occasions, for instance when talking to the altar boys, but these instances remained exceptions. The only occasion that I witnessed to be managed differently was on Easter Sunday. This occasion was additionally made special by being held by the Archbishop Odama instead of the parish priest. On that day, the English mass was the only service the Archbishop held at Holy Rosary, making it an important service for all members of this community. Thus, it was also attended by members who otherwise attended one of the services held in Acholi. To accommodate for this audience, the service used a mix of Acholi and English, with the archbishop himself translating passages spoken in English into Acholi and vice versa.
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Notably, the English language service was not only attended by those who were not able speak Acholi but by many who were ethnic Acholi themselves, like the friend I had accompanied. His choice of this mass was very deliberate. He personally preferred English over Acholi in all areas of everyday life, including the contexts of religious practice. Apart from him, there were several others who I met over the course of my research that were ethnic Acholi yet preferred to attend the service held in English. This included many people who had received higher degrees of formal education or worked in occupancies where English played an important role. They also brought their children along, as some considered this an opportunity for them to experience this language from a young age on. That said, it would be premature to deduct from this observation that attending the English mass equalled having higher formal education or that attending the Acholi language mass meant the opposite. Over the course of my visits to the Catholic services I also attended several masses held in Acholi and equally met people of whom I knew they had a background of high formal education.
The choir of St. Peter
One thing that all masses had in common regardless of the used language were the notably multilingual songs sung by the choirs. I had already noticed their linguistic diversity during my first visit to the Catholic service and this impression was confirmed over the course of my entire research. The songs sung by the choirs within a single service would not only employ the languages most likely to be understood with Acholi or English, but also songs in Kiswahili, Luganda or Atesot. Following the mass on Easter Sunday, which I had described above, the community had organised a showcase of all choirs in the parish to perform in front of the Archbishop and other guests and visitors. During these performances, the linguistic diversity was on full display and made me interested in exploring this phenomenon further. Following the performances, I approached members of one of the choirs and was granted the permission to visit their practice sessions.
The choir belonged to the St. Peters church next to Gulu University and was therefore entirely comprised of students. They met right next to St. Peters on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the evening to practice the songs for the next service. The members of this choir had highly diverse ethnic backgrounds, coming from various parts of the country to study at Gulu University. For instance, the first person to arrive after myself came from Tororo and was of Itesot ethnicity. The group nonetheless included several people identifying as ethnic Acholi. The practice session was set up just outside the church, with chairs arranged in a manner that separated the sopranos,
101 tenors and basses. I myself joined the bass section.
The choir worked with an extensive song book each member had access to on their notebooks (see Appendix I.). Overall, it contained eighty-three songs. Even though most were in Acholi and English, it included songs in a great variety of language. For instance, in Kiswahili there was “Mshukuruni”, in English meaning ‘give thanks’, from Luganda “Ha Ha Mukama”, translating to ‘oh Lord’, or from Atesot “Onaceka”, meaning ‘brother’. The choir had the policy of giving every member the opportunity to introduce new songs to the songbook, provided they could teach them to the other members. On the day of my visit, a choir member who identified himself as an ethnic Itesot and was a student at Gulu University had taken the chance to introduce a song to the group. Coming from the eastern region of the country, he was used to having Kiswahili as a central part of his religious practices and considered “Mshukuruni” to be his favourite song in this context. Because many of the other members could not speak Kiswahili themselves, he taught them the song line by line, so they could nonetheless perform the song together in the next service. This policy extended to all members of the choir.
Much like the general attitude towards language in the Catholic parish, linguistic diversity was welcomed by this community. Including the various languages that the members felt emotionally and spiritually connected to was understood as a key to the expression of their faith. All members agreed to partake in these efforts to accommodate their wishes. Fully understanding the lyrics of the songs was considered less important than the community effort to bring joy to a few or even just one of their members. Nonetheless, the choir had a common language they used during their practices and to teach these various songs; English. Due to their highly diverse backgrounds and their common high level of formal education as students at Gulu University, they considered this the most appropriate language. Such a level of ethnic and linguistic diversity was certainly not very common among the many different choirs within the parish. Performing in multiple languages was nonetheless a common occurrence and underlined the ideas of inclusion and diversity that were presented by the parish priest.