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Thesis
Lugbara “Religion” Revisited: A Study of Social Repair in West Nile, North-West Uganda
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…
Briefing
MONUSCO’s Mandate and the Climate Security Nexus
If we translate the debate on the climate security nexus to a more operational level, we inevitably arrive at the question of whether and to what extent the fight against climate change should be included in the mandate of current…
Research paper
Patchwork States: The Localization of State Territoriality on the South Sudan–Uganda Border, 1914–2014
This paper takes a localized conflict over a non-demarcated stretch of the Uganda–South Sudan boundary in 2014 as a starting point for examining the history of territorial state formation on either side of this border since its colonial creation in…
Research paper
‘Who Can Sing the Song of MSF?’ The Politics of ‘Proximity’ and Performing Humanitarianism in Eastern DRC
This article explores the complexities of the brokerage work conducted by Congolese MSF staff working in a ‘field’ that is not a distant, liminal space, but their country (and region) of origin. They have complicated and heterogeneous political and social…
Blog
Lord’s Resistance Army hierarchies survive in peace time
Recent research suggests that the lives of women who have returned from extended periods with the Lord’s Resistance Army greatly vary. This blog post describes how these differences often depend on what kind of authority they commanded with the LRA…
Blog
Returning from the LRA: obedience, stoicism and silence
Research with Ugandan women and their children, fourteen years after their return from life with the Lord’s Resistance Army, highlights the inter-generational dimensions of war and conflict. Obedience, stoicism and silence enabled their survival, and now shapes their day-to-day lives.…
Research paper
Moral Spaces and Sexual Transgression: Understanding Rape in War and Post Conflict
Evocative language describing rape as a ‘weapon of war’ has become commonplace. Although politically important, overemphasis on strategic aspects of wartime sexual violence can be misleading. Alternative explanations tend to understand rape either as exceptional — a departure from ‘normal’…
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…
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,…
Working paper
Civil Wars and State Formation: Violence and the Politics of Legitimacy in Angola, Côte d’Ivoire and South Sudan
Civil wars destroy existing political orders, shape new ones, and play crucial roles in the dynamics of state formation. This working paper is based on a 2-year research project reflecting on the social construction of order and legitimacy during and…
Briefing
Rebels and the City: Urban dimensions of armed mobilization in the eastern Congo
Despite focusing the bulk of their operations on rural areas, armed groups in the eastern Congo have long-standing connections with urban centres. Technological progress, such as mobile communication, and enhanced movement, especially through motorcycle taxis, have intensified these connections. These…
Report
Insecurity In Goma: Experiences, Actors and Responses
Since the start of 2019, a series of murders, violent robberies and kidnappings have taken place in peripheral neighbourhoods of Goma. The rapid rise in violent crime has alarmed city residents and led to calls for the local government and…
Report
A System of Insecurity: Understanding Urban Violence and Crime in Bukavu
A System of Insecurity: Understanding Urban Violence and Crime in Bukavu examines the role of state and non-state actors in the provision of security, and citizens’ perceptions of, experiences with and responses to insecurity in Bukavu, the capital of South…
Briefing
Youth Groups and Urban Policing in the Eastern Congo
Across cities in eastern Congo, youth groups are involved in urban policing, operating between state and non-state actors and formal and informal governance. While some are responsible for improving security in their neighbourhoods, others contribute to its deterioration. This briefing…
Thesis
Finding peace amongst restless and unatoned bones: a dialogue on Bumúntú from the Democratic Republic of Congo
This thesis invites the reader on a journey to Kamina, the capital of the Haut-Lomami province, DRC, to engage in a dialogue on humanness, violence and peace from another angle. Using the concept of Búmùntù (authentic Personhood) from the Luba…
Briefing
Constructed Anarchy: Governance, Conflict, and Precarious Property Rights in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Land issues are at the heart of the Congolese conflicts. Land issues have mainly been analyzed as a rural phenomenon. More recently, however, scholars have shown that land issues are crucially important in urban areas as well. In this Congo…
Book chapter
Comparing peace processes: Sudan
This chapter examines how contests over military control were played out during peace negotiations and in the implementation of agreements in Sudan between 2002 and 2011.
Research paper
The effects of conflict and displacement on violence against adolescent girls in South Sudan: the case of adolescent girls in the Protection of Civilian sites in Juba
There is a paucity of data on violence against women and girls (VAWG) during conflict in general and even less specifically on violence against adolescent girls. Based on secondary analysis of a larger study in South Sudan, this article highlights…
Blog
The Sudan uprising and its possibilities: Regional revolution, generational revolution, and an end to Islamist politics?
Willow Berridge discusses parallels between the popular uprising in 2019 and Sudan’s two previous popular uprisings, the October Revolution of 1964 and the April Intifada of 1985.
Research paper
Sudan: A political marketplace framework analysis
This paper provides a succinct analysis of Sudan as a political marketplace, offering a framework for analysing the Sudanese predicament so as to understand the implications of different courses of action.
Research paper
Geographical versus social displacement: the politics of return and post-war recovery in Northern Uganda
The civil war in Northern Uganda in the period 1986–2006 fundamentally altered former ways of life and created diverse and complex needs. Protracted conflict and displacement create, reveal, and enforce vulnerability, which can undermine resilience. Based on in-depth interviews with…
Background report
Indirect Rule in Armed Conflict: Theoretical Insights from Eastern DRC
Building on the analogy between armed factions in contemporary conflict settings and states in the making, this paper explores the conditions under which indirect rule emerges in contexts of armed conflict, and the consequences that this governance arrangement has on…
Research paper
Between Tags & Guns: Fragmentations of public authority around eastern Congo’s artisanal 3T mines
This essay addresses the current dynamics governing access to artisanal mineral markets in eastern Congo’s two Kivu provinces, an area caught in over two decades of protracted and multi-scalar armed conflict. It examines how public authority is fragmented and (re-)shaped…
Research paper
Competition, patronage and fragmentation : the limits of bottom-up approaches to security governance in Ituri
People are affected by different kinds of insecurity in the Ituri Province in the northeastern DRC. This article investigates donor-driven attempts to improve security governance there. More specifically, it investigates bottom-up approaches to security governance in Ituri’s capital of Bunia…
Research paper
War, Displacement and Rural–Urban Transformation: Kivu’s Boomtowns, Eastern D.R. Congo
This article addresses rural–urban transformations in the war-torn Kivu provinces. The spectacular growth and development processes of fast-expanding boomtowns in Kivu’s rural areas serve as an entry point to investigate the relationship between conflict, displacement, urbanisation and development in Eastern…
Book chapter
Urbanizing Kitchanga: Spatial Trajectories of the Politics of Refuge in North Kivu, Eastern Congo
This article presents the historical and political trajectory of Kitchanga town in North Kivu, to demonstrate how current processes of urbanization in a context of civil war in Eastern Congo are strongly intertwined with regional politics of refuge. Kitchanga, an…
Background report
Competing Networks and Political Order in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A Literature Review on the Logics of Public Authority and International Intervention
This CRP synthesis paper presents an overview of shifting dominant narratives on the Congo wars and the major findings of a systematic qualitative literature search on conflict and violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in relation to the…
Background report
The Politics of Humanitarianism: Perspectives from South Sudan
South Sudan has for decades been a crucible of experimentation in the field of humanitarianism in situations of conflict. Humanitarian operations have been critical in saving lives, providing essential medical care, documenting the plight of South Sudan’s people, and connecting…
Research paper
Relationships Matter: Persistent Armed Conflict – A Case of Negotiated Authority and Survival
Many of the armed conflicts that have taken place over the past 25 years have been explained as a means by which greedy rebels and elites profit from natural resource rents. Accordingly, much of the research conducted in the field…
Research paper
Behind the weapon of war: sexual violence in wartime as a reflection of social attitudes towards women in peacetime
This article looks at practices of sexual violence that were prevalent during the period before the conflict in 1996 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and shows how they have contributed to war-related sexual violence. The findings are based…
Research paper
What Women Want before Justice: Examining Justice Initiatives to Challenge Violence against Women in the DRC
While the realization of women’s rights has increased significantly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congolese women’s struggle is often obscured by certain international actors actively pushing for social change in the region. Those who are politically active in…
Research paper
Public Authority and Conservation in Areas of Armed Conflict: Virunga National Park as a ‘State within a State’ in Eastern Congo
Much research on nature conservation in war-torn regions focuses on the destructive impact of violent conflict on protected areas, and argues that transnational actors should step up their support for those areas to mitigate the risks that conflict poses to…
Report
Localising humanitarian aid during armed conflict Learning from the histories and creativity of South Sudanese NGOs
This report moves beyond abstract assumptions and global-level debates to understand the reality of the struggles and strategies of local and national organisations during complex emergencies. We focus on the histories, politicoeconomic dynamics and everyday realities of South Sudanese NGOs…
Research paper
How the politics of fear generated chaos in South Sudan
Soon after South Sudan achieved independence in 2011, its political landscape grew increasingly volatile. It became almost impossible for international and regional actors to address one crisis before another more serious one erupted. This article combines cultural, political, economic and…
Research paper
From disaster to devastation: drought as war in northern Uganda
This paper proposes a shift from the concept of disaster to one of devastation when dealing with the destructive consequences of climate change. It argues that today, a discourse of climate-change disaster has become dominant, in which present disasters are…
Research paper
Political economy of violence against women in Sudan
An analysis of the main socio-economic, political and cultural factors contributing to the emergence and perpetuation of violence against women, especially in conflict-prone areas.
