Tall Grass: Stories of Suffering and Peace in Northern Uganda is a
personal story of a Spanish priest who was working in northern Uganda
when a bizarre group that called itself The Lord's Resistance Army
declared war on the government. Within a few years, the conflict had
brought large scale suffering and misery to the region. Father Carlos
was so pained by the situation that he decided to embark on a quest to
find a solution to the problem. But first he had to undertake a tacit
and cautious inquiry into the nature and causes of the misunderstanding
between the two sides to the conflict. Next he had to find allies to
work with in the search for a solution. Father Carlos worked with Acholi
Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative and the Justice and Peace Commission
of Gulu Archdiocese. He was part of the efforts of northern Uganda's
civil society, a peace movement that included traditional leaders, local
politicians, religious leaders, media personalities as well as foreign
diplomats, all of who could have some influence on the course of event.
However, there were occasions in which the priest found himself in
conflict with some of them, for different reasons. But Father Carlos
would not listen to any of this because he was living in a theatre of
horror in which he watched young children being abducted and being
forced to join the rebels and young girls being forced to become rebels'
concubines. So tormented was he by the magnitude of the human suffering
he saw around him that he experienced psychological traumas that
affected him deeply and required professional help. This book is Carlos'
single minded determination to mobilise assistance for the abducted
children and their families as well as for the hundreds of peasants who
were driven into displaced people's camps by the war.
