Geographies of Unease: Witchcraft, Mobility and Insecurity in an African Borderland

This thesis explores processes of transitional justice as post-war social repair. It interrogates the multifarious quests through which Lugbara people of north-west Uganda seek to rebuild their intimate relationships and social lives, with recourse to explanations and therapies for suffering and misfortune. Scholars have recently found in such socio-cultural processes, potential resources that could restore communal relations and assist post-war recovery. This thesis critically appraises this contention. Whilst scholars are invested in abstracting metaphysical meaning to map causal relationships, Lugbara people are simply seeking answers to misfortunes which continue to befall them as individuals, families, and collectives: enquiring about what issues are following them, and how addressing wrong acts may heal bodily suffering and social wounds. Through multi-sited ethnography, this enquiry explores how quests to “follow” suffering are structured amid unfolding post-war projects to revive and resist notions of Lugbara personhood and sociality premised on patriarchy and seniority.