Aware of the challenges that the war affected communities face in the post conflict arena and of the ongoing national debates on transitional justice, the Justice and Reconciliation Project is currently embarking on a brain teaser quiz competition for secondary schools in Acholi sub-region under the theme: “Everybody counts, voices of the youth in Transitional Justice.”
As a Video Communications Intern, I travelled with the Community Mobilization team that organized this competition to film series of exciting events which took place in Pader, Kitgum, Nwoya, Amuru and Gulu districts respectively where four schools from each district battled it out in a bid to win the district competition and qualify for the grand finale in Gulu town at Hotel Free zone. Two teams faced each other in the first rounds before the winners with the highest scores would go in for the play-offs and consequently determine the district winner.
It was very entertaining seeing young people scratch their heads and struggle to answer ten questions within sixty seconds in the lightening round as they would later produce amazing facts on Reparations, Juba Peace agreement, Gender Justice, Criminal prosecution, Traditional justice and media knowledge. They surely did enjoy the spirit of team work as they would supplement each other.
The audience too matched the task of the contestants as they were later fired questions and some experts asked to elaborate on traditional ceremonies such as the ‘Mato Oput’, ‘Gomo tong’, ‘Moyo piny’ and ‘Moyo kum’.
It was a rare form of competition that the contestants confessed it was their first time to participate in such a competition. One of the guests admitted the fact that he used to watch such kind of contests only on televisions and never thought it would come to Acholi that easy. The audiences and the contestants were all pleased with JRP for this initiative.
Judges Dixon, Rosalva and Victoria were kept busy throughout the district competition and I bet they shall be up for the same come 20th September, 2012 at Sir Samuel Baker School, so why don’t you join us and be part of it on this day. Don’t miss out because it is fun, entertaining and educating. Your voice definitely counts.
Read more about the TJ Quiz here.