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Contribution short abstract

Acholi storytelling (ododo) is presented as a performative method of relational repair and future-making. Through a staged demonstration, I explore how ododo functions as social infrastructure, revealing embodied forms of justice, agency, and repair often overlooked by transitional justice.

Contribution long abstract

Following Asante's (2026) contention that indigenous performance traditions are independent systems of knowledge production, and drawing on indigenous methodological approaches that understand storytelling as a mode of knowledge generation rather than merely representation, this paper approaches Acholi ododo (storytelling) as a performative method of inquiry through which communities explore relational repair, negotiate social obligations, and imagine collective futures. Instead of offering a conventional paper, I present a staged conversational talk-story demonstration inspired by ododo. Through this embodied method, the paper examines how community-based forms of inquiry reveal understandings of repair, responsibility, and future possibility that are often overlooked when responses to violence are framed primarily through legal and institutional mechanisms.

Drawing on performance studies and African epistemologies, the session demonstrates how embodied practices may offer analytic access to relationships, responsibilities, and shared possibilities that tend to remain marginal within legal and institutional transitional justice frameworks. Through a short micro-performance and participatory exercise, I demonstrate how a conversational talk-story method, informed by ododo, functions as a live mode of social inquiry, inviting participants to reflect on the ongoing work of repair and the negotiation of more just futures.

By shifting analysis into embodied demonstration, this paper contributes to debates on decolonial futures, community-centred development, and transitional justice. It suggests that performance can function as a methodological and social infrastructure through which communities imagine, negotiate, and rehearse forms of justice and relational repair while violence and its legacies remain ongoing.