Joshua FM, the Voice of Life and Peace, was founded in 2007 soon after three of the most violent decades in Teso’s history. This part of north-eastern Uganda had barely settled into a modicum of peace and security following the 1986 to 1995 violent armed cattle-rustling perpetrated against the region by Karamojong when this was almostimmediately followed by the Uganda People’s Army (UPA) uprising againstGovernment, partly in protest against the cattle-rustling. The cattle-rustling andsubsequent State-UPA conflict, was accompanied by looting, rape, internal displacement of the entire population of Teso and by thousands of deaths. It devastated the region. Homes, villages and whole parishes were emptied of their populations, driven away by cattle raiding and rebel activities or by conflict between the UPA and State fighters. Fear and death stalked the countryside as peace was driven out of Teso. The confinement of the population in camps behind cordons of security became the new normal for Iteso people, who had previously always led a life of farming and cattle-keeping in the wide expanses of the geographical region which was their cultural home. This violence and cattle rustling was the first phase in the impoverishment of Teso which then witnessed the loot of herds of cattle, goats and sheep, beginning with the General Tito Okello Lutwa regime in 1985. For observers at the time, it seemed as if some State officials were themselves active participants in the looting.

The collapse of the short-lived Okello regime ushered in a state of disorder in which the Karamojong, long used to sneaking to Teso for cows, gained courage and guns and boldly set out on large scale raids of their southern neighbours’ cattle. By the time the new regime of the National Resistance Movement came into power, cattle raids into Teso by armed Karamojong had become the norm. When Iteso men and boys rose up with guns to fight this devastating theft, they found themselves in conflict with the new government which they accused of being slothful in addressing this Karamoja cattle-theft menace. The violence of the UPA-State conflict was the second phase in the impoverishment of Teso. It drove the population away from homes, villages and productive parishes into confined encampments, ostensibly for their own security. This virtual captivity of the population resulted into the erosion and destruction of the local economy: land was left to lie uncultivated, oxen to cultivate the land were looted, food production fell to nothing; and the once proud food basket of Uganda faced the mortification of being fed on food handouts from government and other well-wishers. This was the state of affairs from 1986 to 2000.

Then the violence of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was ferried from Acoli to Teso from 2003. This was after barely two years of the region regaining elements of peace and security, following peace efforts by Government through the Presidential Commission for Teso and other agents. Joseph Kony’s LRA drove Teso people back to life in Internal Displacement Camps thus setting off the third phase of the impoverishment of the region. Waves of LRA brigands advanced into Teso from Kapelebyong and Orungo looting, raping and shooting and hacking people to death. Populations fled to where security forces were stationed producing IDP camps overnight; while others fled across the region and beyond. Well-cultivated fields heavy with the promise of bounteous harvest were left to LRA bandits, who made good use of the food to replenish themselves and pursue their victims. They drove off some cows, goats and sheep and butchered others for their nightly feasts. Though Government and Iteso men and boys (Arrow Boys) fought them off, the nascent Teso economy once again collapsed; leaving weak and vulnerable communities of people all over Teso, but especially in the north-western parts of the region.

For a radio station located in this part of Uganda, it is easy to understand why Joshua FM, founded in 2007, was christened the Voice of Life and Peace.