Philosophies of Justice in Acholi
Responsibility in Times of Collective Suffering
Book Launch with Benedetta Lanfranchi
December 10, 2025, 5 p.m. (CET)
Hildesheim University, GloPhi Center
The Center for Advanced Studies “Philosophizing in a Globalized World” invites you to a book launch and discussion with Benedetta Lanfranchi on her new monograph Philosophies of Justice in Acholi.
The book offers a profound philosophical and anthropological exploration of Acholi Traditional Mechanisms of Justice (ATJMs), which became a central framework for the peace agreements brokered in Northern Uganda between 2006 and 2008.
Lanfranchi’s study reveals how Acholi understandings of justice are rooted in a moral cosmology that binds individuals to their communities and to ancestral beings, shaping responsibilities not as isolated moral acts but as relational and collective processes. Through this lens, justice emerges as a practice of restoring both social and spiritual harmony—a process that simultaneously reclaims moral, material, and communal life after violent conflict.
While acknowledging the limits of ATJMs in addressing broader political and global responsibilities, the book argues that their underlying principles offer valuable insights for rethinking justice and responsibility in the contemporary world. It challenges universalist models of transitional justice by foregrounding an Acholi conception in which political life and moral repair are inseparable.
Benedetta Lanfranchi is Adjunct Assistant Professor at the American University of Rome (AUR) where she teaches moral and political philosophy. She is concluding her postdoctoral book project entitled “Digital Intellectuals. Fighting for Freedom in Uganda” at the University of Bayreuth under a European Research Council Consolidator Grant. She is co-editor of Critical Conversations in African Philosophy: Asixoxe—Let’s Talk.
