ABSTRACT
Like conflict, reintegration does not take place in a vacuum but in an existing social and cultural framework, suggesting that it is a contextual process and experience. This chapter explores the question of going back to what and where, examining the social, cultural and spiritual order and structure of Acoli society. Particularly, it examines how gender and patriarchy ideologies place Acoli girls and women in a state of victimhood. It argues that to comprehend the reintegration of formerly abducted women, one has to place them and their experiences in the broader Acoli sociocultural framework, which constructs personhood and gender identity. While gender and patriarchal frameworks shape the reintegration of formerly abducted persons, their lives and experiences can only be adequately understood by taking into account the spirituality and social harmony in northern Ugandan communities. Upon the homecoming of the girls and women, the value placed on social harmony in the Acoli region was as much a problem as a solution. It motivated the research participants to seek inclusion and reintegration, but it became a source of ostracism by a section of the communities at the same time.
