THE GRANARY

The granary has been a very important structure in the Acholi tradition. A granary consists of a raised floor, a wall made of reeds and a thatched roof. Although a granary looks simple at first glance, some complicated skills are needed to make a strong one.

n most African societies, each family grows all the crops it needs for consumption and for sale. Each crop grown especially in the olden days had to be stored in a separate granary. A family's status was measured by the number of granaries it had. In a compound there would be granaries for : millet, sorghum, groundnuts, peas simsim and also cotton. These days rice is also stored in granaries.

The granary was given special respect. Stealing form another man's granary was a taboo and any person caught stealing from a granary or even just suspected of stealing from it was highly reprimanded and punished. Apart from paying back what he/she had stolen, the victim would have to appease the elders by offering a goat which these elders would kill and enjoy its meat.

The old-time Acholi respected women so much that a man was not to interfere or meddle in a woman's duties/ responsibilities.
For example, a man would not take any food items from his own granaries. He was also prohibited from mere opening of the granary. If a man behaved contrary, he would be treated the way a thief was treated. Although the man was responsible for the construction nd repair of his granaries, he had no authority over its content. This does not mean that a woman was free to squander the stored food in any unbecoming manner. She too would be reprimanded.

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These storesw were so important that parents wouldn't\t allow their daughters to marry in a home where there were no granaries or where there was only one or two. Parents feared such a home. They knew their daughter would starve if she went there. Young men from such families would not walk with their heads up. Other youths would compose insulting songs for such lazy bones; and at the larakaraka love dance, they would have no easy time. They were considered degenerates, not suited for any man's daughter. They would get suitors from far away lands.