Inter-generational gatherings and storytelling at the fireplace, known as “wang oo”, have been the school of the Acholi people for centuries. A rich repertoire of characters and stories (“ododo”) has served to uphold and carry forward Acholi culture, history, and values like ber bedo, an Acholi concept referring broadly to well-being and a good life. A 20-year war between rebel groups, including the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and Uganda’s government forces in Acholi sub-region exposed children to abduction, displacement and violence and denied them opportunities to gather at the fireplace. Ber bedo, largely unachievable during the war, has remained elusive for young people faced with loss of identity and belonging and high rates of poverty and incidences of violence to date.
Since the war ended, development agencies have repurposed wang oo for awareness campaigns and behaviour change communication to meet short-term project and donor goals, limiting the role of Acholi communities in determining the purpose and process of wang oo. Similarly, ber bedo has served mainly as a translation for foreign well-being concepts that guided recovery and repair work to focus basic needs of Acholi people [1]. Based on discipline, research considered selected aspects of ber bedo such as social harmony guiding customary land ownership, justice systems, and governance [2-4]; shared strategies ensuring everyone can meet basic needs [5]; or collective responsibility organising community social work [6].
In this post-conflict context, the Lok Ber Bedo study set out to understand how storytelling amongst young people on their own account can provide an opportunity for them to renegotiate a process for seeking ber bedo. Kitgum district as an under-researched and under- resourced area in relation to conflict in northern Uganda was purposively