ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how oral performers translate memories of war in northern Uganda vis-a-vis what other post-war actors memorize from public memorials. By performing tales of war as social commentaries that may or may not be directly related to war, oral poets translate multidimensional experiences of mass violence. As conceptualized by Robert Fellepa, images such as Alici, Betty, home guard, mamba, mama ingia, and IDPCs exhibit "symbolic behaviors" that represent different modes of translating and representing mass violence. Using Veena Das's principle of sameness and difference that characterizes tensions surrounding political violence, it is possible to see one's experience of violence as another person's gain. It is also possible to see wit in survivability in what would ordinarily pass for immorality and pervasiveness. The chapter describes the two songs "English Record" and "Mamba" may illustrate this perspective.
