The teacher who convinced Alice Lakwena to put down the gun

This week, I found myself going back to a book that has sat on my shelf for four years: The Life and Legacy of Lapwony Micheal Ocan as told by family and friends. First published in 2020, the book was put together by Ocan’s eldest son Jimmy Odoki Acellam with the help of co-writer Dennis D. Muhumuza.

Thumbing through the Life and Legacy, I was astonished at what a rich and diverse life Micheal Ocan had lived. An impression meeting Ocan would not immediately make because he was an exceedingly humble man. I was, in fact, shocked to learn that Ocan was the husband of Uganda’s second female Leader of Opposition leader Betty Aol Ocan. The author Odoki Acellam, personally known to this reviewer for many years, had never mentioned he hailed from such an illustrious and influential family. Humility clearly runs in the family!

I was aware, but not to the extent of how much, that Michael Ocan had played an important role in acting as a conduit for talks between the Ugandan government of President Yoweri Museveni and Alice Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement rebels. Lakwena, like many people in northern Uganda who had supported the governments of Dr. Apolo Milton Obote and Idi Amin Dada, were apprehensive at the rising to national power of President Museveni’s western and central led coalition in January 1986. Barely seven months after the National Resistance Army’s take over of Kampala, Alice Auma “Lakwena” started a rebellion that has simmered to this day.

Born January 2, 1954, Ocan was as passionate about the proud history of the Acoli people (a group from which he is born) as he was about religion and their fate in modern Uganda and the world. This convergence of sometimes clashing interests be the making of Ocan, the educationist who strove to uplift minds at St. Joseph’s College Layibi, Awere SSS, Sir Samuel Baker School, Kitgum High School all the way to the Uganda National Examinations Board , the deeply religious man who would volunteer his time and meagre resources to causes like the St. Janani Luwum Memorial advocacy before it became a national holiday. His passion for his homeland and people is what led him to give an ear and eventually tacit support to the rebellion and when the time, to realise a detente with Museveni’s government was necessary for their survival.

One day, when the story of modern northern Uganda is told, there will be astonishment that a man like Micheal Ocan walked our land, was thrown into the pits of Luzira prison for many months and emerged, not bitter, but still committed to serving the same country. The Legacy enshrines not just Ocan’s tortured journey through mid century Africa, Uganda but stands in place for the thousands more stories of our people who went to their graves with their mouths sealed.  The Life and Legacy of Lapwony Micheal Ocan as told by family and friends is an invaluable resource which will be truly appreciated then. You can get your head start now.

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