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Research paper
“Maybe we should take the legal ways”: Citizen engagement with lower state courts in post-war northern Uganda
Lower state courts are the focus of both international and national access to justice policies and programs but remain understudied in Uganda. Drawing on 3 years of ethnographically informed research on citizen engagement with a busy magistrates’ court in post-war northern…
Research paper
‘Somehow This Whole Process Became so Artificial’: Exploring the Transitional Justice Implementation Gap in Uganda
This article explores a key challenge in contemporary international efforts to promote transitional justice (TJ) in nontransitioning, conflict-affected states: the ‘implementation gap,’ in which policies are designed and funded but neither enacted nor implemented. Findings based on long-term qualitative fieldwork…
Research paper
The Trial of Thomas Kwoyelo: Opportunity or Spectre? Reflections from the Ground on the First LRA Prosecution
The article considers the trial of Thomas Kwoyelo: the first war crimes prosecution of a former LRA fighter, and only domestic war crimes prosecution in Uganda at time of writing. It considers what Kwoyelo’s trial meant for those most affected…
Research paper
COVID-19 information dissemination in Uganda: Perspectives from sub-national health workers
In this study, an electronic survey was implemented to provide insights about the dissemination and utilisation of information and evidence related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by health workers engaged at sub-national levels of the Ugandan health system. The use…
Research paper
Covid-19 Riskscapes: Viral Risk Perceptions in the African Great Lakes
In this article we explore Covid-19 riskscapes across the African Great Lakes region. Drawing on fieldwork across Uganda and Malawi, our analysis centers around how two mobile, trans-border figures – truck drivers and migrant traders – came to be understood…
Briefing
The view from Gulu on Uganda’s food distribution and corona-politics
When presidential, parliamentary and local elections were slated for early 2021, the politicisation of COVID-19 food distribution was being widely discussed. In Gulu, the effects of the pandemic were felt sharply amongst those reliant on food relief. The central government’s…
Briefing
Food distribution and corona-politics in Uganda: the view from Kampala
Ahead of presidential, parliamentary and local elections planned for 2021, urban food relief distribution in Uganda became politicised as people struggled under COVID-19 lockdown measures. As narratives of ‘liberation’ resurfaced amid the government’s health response, the securitisation of corona-politics further…
Research paper
Policing men: militarised masculinity, youth livelihoods, and security in conflict-affected northern Uganda
Relations between militaries and masculinities—and hegemonic masculinity and the state—are well-established in the literature on gender and development. However, there is less research on how militarised masculinities relate to state governance strategies. This paper, based on qualitative research conducted in…
Research paper
Struggling over land in post-conflict Uganda
Land dispossession and conflicts over land compound resettlement efforts in post-conflict contexts. This is particularly true in rural sub-Saharan African countries, where the vast majority of livelihoods depend on maintaining access and rights to cultivable land. This article engages in…
Research paper
The role of social networks in savings groups: insights from village savings and loan associations in Luwero, Uganda
Studies of village savings and loan association (VSLAs) programmes in several African countries portray these initiatives as spaces that increase financial access for the poor, improve livelihoods, and provide members with social capital. Little is known, however, about their impact…
Research paper
Re-conceptualizing sustainable urban sanitation in Uganda: why the roots of ‘Slumification’ must be dealt with
Country-wide urbanization in Uganda has continued amidst institutional challenges. Previous water and sanitation interventions have not addressed underlying issues of poorly managed urbanization, which is linked to low productivity, urban poverty, unemployment, limited capacity to plan and offer basic services.…
Research paper
Friendship, kinship and social risk management strategies among pastoralists in Karamoja, Uganda
This paper describes risk-pooling friendships and other social networks among pastoralists in Karamoja, Uganda. Social networks are of critical importance for risk management in an environment marked by volatility and uncertainty. Risk management or risk pooling mainly takes the form of…
Research paper
“There are many fevers”: Communities’ perception and management of Febrile illness and its relationship with human animal interactions in South-Western Uganda
Diagnosing the causative agent of febrile illness in resource-limited countries is a challenge in part due to lack of adequate diagnostic infrastructure to confirm cause of infection. Most febrile illnesses (>60%) are non-malarial, with a significant proportion being zoonotic and…
Research paper
“There are many fevers”: Communities’ perception and management of Febrile illness and its relationship with human animal interactions in South-Western Uganda
We conducted a focused ethnographic study in Western Uganda among communities with high human livestock interaction to describe communities’ behaviors, exposures, and attitudes toward fever. Perceptions of illness and associated risk factors were heavily influenced by predominant livelihood activities. As…
Research paper
Negotiating Intersecting Precarities: COVID-19, Pandemic Preparedness and Response in Africa
This article shares findings on COVID-19 in Africa across 2020 to examine concepts and practices of epidemic preparedness and response. Amidst uncertainties about the trajectory of COVID-19, the stages of emergency response emerge in practice as interconnected. We illustrate how…
Research paper
Epidemics and the Military: Responding to COVID-19 in Uganda
The UN Security Council’s response to Ebola in 2014 legitimised militarised responses. It also influenced responses to COVID-19 in some African countries. Yet, little is known about the day-to-day impacts for ordinary citizens of mobilising armies for epidemic control. Drawing…
Research paper
Crisis responses, opportunity, and public authority during Covid-19’s first wave in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan
Discussions on African responses to Covid-19 have focused on the state and its international backers. Far less is known about a wider range of public authorities, including chiefs, humanitarians, criminal gangs, and armed groups. This paper investigates how the pandemic…
Research paper
Interethnic Relations in Exile: The Politics of Ethnicity among Sudanese Refugees in Uganda and Egypt
Refugees are diverse and often politically active. The case of Sudanese refugees forced into exile by civil conflict illustrates these characteristics. Sudanese belong to various ethnic groups that became highly politicized by conflict. Sudanese identities are also politicized in exile…
Research paper
The International Criminal Court and the Invention of Traditional Justice in Northern Uganda
This discusses different forms of justice, as the campaign for regionally and specific traditional justice has done nothing to promote national integration. The commitment of those who assiduously promote it for selfless reasons is worthy of a better cause.
Research paper
Being Normal: Stigmatization of Lord’s Resistance Army Returnees as ‘Moral Experience’ in Post-war Northern Uganda
Focusing instead on the ‘stigmatizers’, this article theorizes stigmatization as part of the ‘moral experience’ of regulating post-war social repair.
Book chapter
Colonial Encounters in Acholiland and Oxford: The Anthropology of Frank Girling and Okot p’Bitek
The work of Frank Girling on the Acholi of Uganda and the prose works of Okot p’Bitek about Acholi customs should be recognised as seminal. Written at the time when the classic texts were being published about other Ugandan groups,…
Research paper
The Oughtness of Care: Fear, Stress, and Caregiving during the 2000–2001 Ebola Outbreak in Gulu, Uganda
In this article we introduce the term oughtness of care to show how caring for sick relatives was experienced in the context of the Ebola outbreak in Gulu, Uganda, in 2000–2001.
Research paper
Dirty Things: Spiritual Pollution and Life after the Lord’s Resistance Army
Drawing on insights gleaned from ethnographic fieldwork over the last decade, we focus here on targeted research from January to August 2014 with former LRA individuals who were part of a bigger study of clients at an ex-combatant reception centre.…
Research paper
Silencing Distressed Children in the Context of War in Northern Uganda: An Analysis of its Dynamics and its Health Consequences
Children in northern Uganda who are the focus of this article were born and raised in the context of war. The research presented here is based on a one-year ethnographic study (2004–2005) with children aged 9–16 years.
Research paper
Training Theories of Mind in Post-conflict Northern Uganda
In this article, I explore how NGOs train local Acholi counselors to work with psychiatric notions of trauma and practice counseling with local clients.
Research paper
Capitalizing Community: Waste, Wealth, and (Im)Material Labor in Kampal
Biomass briquettes have emerged as a development silver bullet, supposedly converting waste to wealth and tackling crises of unemployment, urban waste management, and rural deforestation. Briquettes have captured the imagination of international environmental NGOs operating in many African cities who…
Research paper
Urban Climate Change, Livelihood Vulnerability and Narratives of Generational Responsibility in Jinja, Uganda
There is an urgent need to understand lived experiences of climate change in African cities, where even small climate shocks can have significant implications for the livelihoods of the urban poor. This article examines narratives of climate and livelihood changes…
Research paper
The Influence of Governance Rearrangements on Flood Risk Management in Kampala, Uganda
The importance of governance rearrangements (reassignment of positions, roles, and responsibility among actors in governance processes) and their implications on flood risk management has gained currency. However, much work has concentrated on building and applying frameworks to evaluate impacts of…
Research paper
On Exposure, Vulnerability and Violence: Spatial Distribution of Risk Factors for Climate Change and Violent Conflict across Kenya and Uganda
Recent studies discuss linkages between climate change and violent conflict, especially for East Africa, and focusing on whether climate change increases risk of violent conflict. However, little is known about where a climate-conflict link is most likely to be found.…
Research paper
Vulnerability of Indigenous Health to Climate Change: A Case Study of Uganda’s Batwa Pygmies
The potential impacts of climate change on human health in sub-Saharan Africa are wide-ranging, complex, and largely adverse. The region’s Indigenous peoples are considered to be at heightened risk given their relatively poor health outcomes, marginal social status, and resource-based…
Research paper
Perceptions and Vulnerability to Climate Change among the Urban Poor in Kampala City, Uganda
Climate risks and vulnerability continue to disproportionately affect the urban poor given their constrained adaptive capacity. This paper examines the urban poor’s perceptions and vulnerability to climate change in Kampala through structured interviews and focus groups with randomly selected households…
Research paper
Maintenance Space: The Political Authority of Garbage in Kampala, Uganda
In the name of cleaning up Kampala’s political institutions and public space, the Kampala Cap ital City Authority (KCCA), was established in 2010. To legitimize its contested and explicitly antipolitical authority, it made garbage collection and beautification its top priority,…
Research paper
Is promoting war trauma such a good idea?
The introduction of trauma narratives has created a market where some are able to thrive, but many deeply troubled individuals remain invisible. The authors found no social benefits from promoting trauma, and few positive effects for individuals. Arguments for urgently…
Reintegration of former child soldiers in northern Uganda: Coming to terms with children’s agency and accountability
Reintegration processes of formerly abducted children have yielded limited success in northern Uganda. The article seeks answers to the question why reintegration processes in the area have failed. The approach of one Christian non-governmental organization towards reintegration is compared with…
Case study
A hard homecoming: lessons learned from the reception center process in northern Uganda: an independent study
This independent report has been commissioned by USAID and UNICEF to examine assumptions and evidence about the needs and experiences of children and adults who have been forced to serve under the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and have subsequently escaped,…
Research paper
Reintegration of Amnestied LRA Ex-Combatants and Survivors’ Resistance Acts in Acholiland, Northern Uganda
This article examines the social dynamics among survivors and amnestied Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) ex-combatants living together in Acholiland, asking how and if Acholi survivors have forgiven Acholi LRA returnees, forgotten past violence and moved on, as stated in northern…
