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Research paper
Mental health in South Sudan: a case for community-based support
Based on personal reflections of the authors who were engaged in mental health and psychosocial support programmes in South Sudan between 2013 and 2016, this article illustrates the constraints and challenges facing the sector at the time. The authors emphasise…
Research paper
Using feminist ‘reflexive practice’ to explore stress and well-being of local researchers in South Sudan
This article shares key findings and offer personal reflections on and suggestions for improving gender-based violence research using feminist methods. The authors reflect that while they themselves valued the sharing of personal reflections on emotional challenges that the research team…
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’…
Blog
The story of Kitchanga: Spatial politics of presence, refuge and return in North Kivu, Eastern DRCongo
In the Kivu provinces of the Eastern Congo, permanent semi-urban towns emerge from the protracted presence of refugees and internally displaced persons. Using the example of Kitchanga in North Kivu, Gillian Mathys and Karen Büscher (Ghent University) show the importance…
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…
Policy document
Confronting a Life-threatening Pollution: A Guide for Credible Environmental and Social Audit of Petroleum Companies’ Operations in South Sudan
This policy brief discusses how the recently proposed environmental and social audit of the petroleum companies’ operations by the Ministry of Petroleum can be conducted to generate scientific evidence that can assist in finding a permanent solution to pollution in…
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
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…
Background report
South Sudan’s Devastating Floods: Why They Happen and Why They Need a Coherent National Policy
Drawing on flood incident data and climate change evidence, this paper argues that floods should now be viewed as a perpetual threat to lives, property and infrastructure in South Sudan. The author calls for immediate efforts to adapt and mitigate…
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…
Research paper
‘A Real Woman Waits’ – Heteronormative Respectability, Neo-Liberal Betterment and Echoes of Coloniality in SGBV Programming in Eastern DR Congo
Drawing on archival and field research, this article critically examines the production and distribution of gender roles and expectations in SGBV programming, in particular in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We find the underlying currents in some of these…
