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Research paper
Moving Toward ‘Home’: Love and Relationships through War and Displacement
This article calls for greater attention to spatial considerations and proposes the concept of movement as an integral dimension of understanding affinal relationships. This observation is derived from reflections on how the experiences of displacement and return in northern Uganda…
Research paper
Courses au pouvoir: the struggle over customary capital in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
This article analyses the production and reproduction of traditional chieftaincy in war-torn eastern DRC through the case of a succession dispute in Kalima (South Kivu). Kalima has seen two decades of political instability and violent conflict involving numerous local, national…
Research paper
Home Is Where the Heart Is: Identity, Return and the Toleka Bicycle Taxi Union in Congo’s Equateur
While many ex-combatants in the DRC continue to be re-recruited into militia groups, one group that has reintegrated successfully is the Toleka—a several-thousand-strong group of ex-combatants who returned (or remained) in the provincial capital of Mbandaka (Equateur province). The Toleka…
Background report
Guidance for Applied Cross-National Research in Under-Resourced Countries: Lessons from a Gender-Based Violence Intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Via a personal account of our experiences in conducting a study on a gender-based violence intervention in Congo, we share our lessons and offer recommendations (e.g., using multiple methodologies) for conducting applied cross-national research. We hope that as a result…
Research paper
What Happened to Children Who Returned from the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda?
This article draws on research carried out in 2004–06 and from 2012 to 2018, and compares findings with other publications on reintegration in the region. It argues that implementing best-practice guidelines for relocating displaced children with their immediate relatives had…
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
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.
A summons to the magistrates’ courts in South Africa and Uganda
The expansive literature on law and justice across Africa emphasizes why people do not use lower state courts. Consequently, a striking lack of attention is paid to how and why people do engage with lower state courts. Drawing on a…
Field notes
The Bukavu Series: Toward a Decolonisation of Research
This is a collection of blog posts produced by 30 researchers based in eastern Congo and Europe, where writers critically reflect on the research they’ve done and explore ethical dilemmas when conducting research in conflict-affected areas.
Background report
Do Local Agreements Forge Peace? The Case of Eastern DRC
The end of the 1998-2003 Congolese war was symbolised by the signing of the ‘All-Inclusive Agreement’ in December 2002. However, due to the continued proliferation of national and foreign armed groups and unaddressed community grievances, this agreement did not bring…
Book chapter
Legacies of Violence: The Communicability of Spirits and Trauma in Northern Uganda
How may the spread of the biomedical concept ‘trauma’ as well as cen spirits in Northern Uganda be understood as part of syndemic processes of situated concerned responses to violence? In this chapter, we examine legacies of mass violence for…
Background report
‘Drought as War’ in Northern Uganda: Exploring the Complex Relationship Between Climate Change, Scarcity, and Conflict
That climate change will increase the incidence of violent conflict is a common claim made by both policymakers and climate change activists. I aim to question and critique the simplistic assertion that climate change will cause increased violent conflict, showing…
