Humanities and the Arts

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Learning, Philosophy, and African Citizenship
(Springer Nature, 2022) Holma, Katariina; Kontinen, Tiina
The book addresses the compelling questions concerning the ideals of African citizenship, the processes of learning to fulfill these ideals, and possibilities of education in fostering citizenship. Rather than advocating for one particular framework, the authors demonstrate the continuously contested nature of the concept of citizenship as both theoretically discussed by philosophers and practically experienced in daily lives. The monograph combines, in an unconventional way, selected philosophical accounts and everyday experiences from certain locations in Tanzania and Uganda. It provides contributions from philosophical ideas drawing on scholars such as Chantal Mouffe, Rosi Braidotti, Theodor Adorno and Étienne Balibar on one hand, and the conceptions articulated by groups of inhabitants of rural and urban settings in Africa, on the other hand. Therefore, the book offers fresh readings under the lenses of citizenship and learning. This is an open access book.
Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict
(Bloomsbury Academic, 2023) Schomerus, Mareike
Violent conflict and its aftermath are pressing problems, particularly for international development initiatives. However, the results of development in conflict contexts have generally been disappointing and their preventative potential thus questionable. Available Open Access, Lives Amid Violence argues that this is because practitioners adhere to a mental model that emphasises linearity, certainty, and causality, assuming that violence is best addressed through work plans that deliver state-building, stabilisation and services. Based on ten years of multi-method research from, in, and on conflict-affected countries, this book challenges this approach. Drawing on a significant collaborative body of scholarship, this work puts forward original and generalizable conclusions about how lives amid violence persist, offering an invitation to abandon restricting mental models and to embrace creative ways of thinking and working. These include paying attention to the long-term effects of conflict on individual behaviour and decision-making, the social realities of economic life, the role service delivery plays in negotiations between citizens and states, and to creating meaningful relationships. Transformation also requires reflection and therefore the book concludes with constructive suggestions on how to practice these insights to better support those whose lives are shaped by violence. More details are available at www.transformingdevelopment.org The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.
Democracy and the Discourse on Relevance Within the Academic Profession at Makerere University
(African Minds, 2013) Felde, Andrea; Halvorsen, Tor; Myrtveit, Anja; Øygard, Reidar
Democracy and the Discourse of Relevance is set against the backdrop of the spread of neoliberal ideas and reforms since the 1980s, accepting also that these ideas are rooted in a longer history. It focuses on how neoliberalism has worked to transform the university sector and the academic profession. In particular, it examines how understandings of, and control over, what constitutes relevant knowledge have changed. Taken as a whole, these changes have sought to reorient universities and academics towards economic development in various ways. This includes the installation of strategies for how institutions and academics achieve recognition and status within the academy, the privatisation of educational services and the downgrading of the value of public higher education, as well as a steady shift away from the public funding for universities. Research universities are increasingly adopting a user- and market-oriented model, with an emphasis on meeting corporate demands, the privileging of short-term research, and a strong tendency to view utility, and the potential to sell intellectual property for profit, as primary criteria for determining the relevance of academic knowledge. The privatisation of education services and the reorienting of universities towards the needs of the ‘knowledge economy’ have largely succeeded in transforming the discourse around the role of the academic profession in society, including in many African countries. Makerere University in Uganda has often been lauded as an example of successful transformation along neoliberal lines. However, our research into the working lives of academics at Makerere revealed a very different picture. Far from epitomising the allegedly positive outcomes of neoliberal reform, academics and postgraduate students interviewed at Makerere provide worrying insights into the undermining of a vibrant and independent academic culture. The stories of the ordinary academics on the ground, the empirical focus of the book, are in contrast to the claimed successes of the university; and the official stories of the university leadership and administration paint a picture of an academic profession in crisis. With diminishing influence on deciding what is relevant knowledge and thus on processes of democratization of their own institution and society, academic freedom is also losing its value. This perspective from the ground-level exposes the many problems that neoliberal reforms have created for academics at Makerere, leaving them feeling disempowered, often reducing them to the status of consultants. We also show how a range of local initiatives are steadily increasing resistance to the neoliberal model. We consider how academics and others can further mobilise to regain control over what knowledge is considered relevant, and thereby deepen democracy. In so doing, we aim to highlight some responses and actions that have proven effective so far. Democracy and the Discourse of Relevance will hopefully help to change the systems that value knowledge in ways that are driving research institutions towards competitive and market-like behaviour. We also aim to contribute to contemporary debates about what knowledge is relevant.
Arbitrary States :Social Control and Modern Authoritarianism in Museveni's Uganda
(Oxford University Press, 2021)
In recent years, scholars of authoritarianism have noted a trend in which institutions designed to check arbitrary power have been hollowed out to facilitate its exercise. As they grapple with how to understand the disjunct between state institutions and enforcement power, scholars of sub-Saharan African states have been doing so for decades. Based on in-depth field research on local security in Museveni’s Uganda, Tapscott offers an innovative and provocative contribution to studies of authoritarianism and state consolidation: rulers maintain control by creating unpredictability in the everyday lives of local authorities and ordinary citizens. In this type of modern authoritarian regime, rulers institutionalize arbitrariness to limit the space for political action, while they keep citizens marginally engaged in the democratic process. By showing not just that unpredictability matters for governance, but also how it is manufactured and sustained, this book challenges and extends cutting-edge scholarship on authoritarianism, the state, and governance.
In Search of the State? Neoliberalism and the labour question for pan-African feminism
(Feminist Africa, 2015) Ossome, Lyn
Since the 1970s, informal work has expanded and appeared in new guises in the context of globalisation, neo-liberalism and migration, all of which are highly gendered processes (Chen et al. 2004; ILO 2002b, 2007a). An as yet unsettled question posed within feminist debates is whether women’s increased participation in informal economic activity contributes to their empowerment or their impoverishment (Meagher 2010). While economists have tended to see the informal economy as a source of economic opportunity for women in a sphere free of the gender-biased regulations of the formal economy (USAID 2005), more critical feminist and political-economy analyses have argued that the informal economy represents a poverty trap for women, concentrating them in low-skill, low-income activities with little prospect of advancement (Chant and Pedwell 2008; Chen et al 2006; Sassen 2002). Recent ILO research on gender and informal economies, and gender studies of global value chains offer gender analyses of wider global economic change processes, paying attention to informal labour markets, global commodity chains and transnational livelihood networks (Barrientos et al. 2003; Sassen 2002). These studies show that global and national economic changes have not limited women’s entry into labour markets, but rather incorporate them on unfavorable terms. Women are pushed into temporary and vulnerable employment within the informal economy, and excluded from more lucrative opportunities opened up by globalisation and liberalisation (Meagher 2010).
Environmental Governance and Climate Change in Africa Legal Perspectives
(Institute for Security Studies Monographs, 2009) Mwebaza, Rose; Kotzé, Louis J.
Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change and climate variability, a situation aggravated by the interaction of 'multiple stresses', occurring at various levels, and low adaptive capacity ... Africa's major economic sectors are vulnerable to current climate sensitivity, with huge economic impacts, and this vulnerability is exacerbated by existing developmental challenges such as endemic poverty, complex governance and institutional dimensions; limited access to capital, including markets, infrastructure and technology; ecosystem degradation; and complex disasters and conflicts. These in turn have contributed to Africa's weak adaptive capacity, increasing the continent's vulnerability to projected climate change.
Enforcement of Environmental Crime Laws. A framework training manual for law enforcement agencies
(The Institute for Security Studies with funding provided by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2010) Akech, Migai; Mwebaza, Rose
This manual is intended for national trainers on environmental crime in Eastern and Southern Africa. It seeks to enable such trainers to equip police offi cers and other actors involved in fighting environmental crimes with knowledge and understanding of the nature of environmental crimes, environmental inspection and investigation, and prosecution of environmental crimes. Its methods are based specifi cally on a participant-centred learning approach to facilitate optimum participation of learners.
Building a Great Future: The Legacy of Bishop Tucker Theological College
(Uganda Christian University Publications, 2013) Byaruhanga, Christopher; Nassaka Banja, Olivia
As Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology/Uganda Christian University celebrate her centenary, we look back and thank God who in his Grace began a church leaders’ school on Namirembe hill in 1903 that later moved to Mukono hill in 1913. The vision of Bishop Alfred Robert Tucker to equip native leadership of the church is the blessing of God which we continue to celebrate to this date. This vision was further facilitated by the generosity of Buganda kingdom leaders such Ham Mukasa who gave land to the college which is a valuable resource and sign of God’s providence that we continue to celebrate. Bishop Tucker Theological College’s (BTTC) motto was ‘called to serve and with that motto the college gave birth to Uganda Christian University in 1997. The theological school in this university is now called Bishop Tucker School of Divinity And Theology. The school continues to grow and the legacy of BTTC still lives on. God is doing great things through the school with mission to train men and women for biblically grounded pastoral and academic ministry, train them in godly living, equip them to preach, evangelize teach, care for, and pastor God ‘s people in knowledge and love of God throughout the world. The vision at the heart of the school is to prepare faithful leaders who are called to serve God in both church ministry and public life. With this mission and vision the school continues to Influence all the university faculties with foundations of faith and ethics rooted in the bible. By serving in other faculties in the university we see leadership in all spheres of life being touched and influenced by God to serve faithfully with the understanding that he is the Alpha and Omega. Thus building leadership that is rooted in the knowledge of Jesus Christ with the awareness that it is God who called them to serve, faithfully in the church and society. In this way the legacy of BTTC still continues
Exorcising the Inexorcible Buganda Ghost:
(Jescho Publishing House, 2022) Lubogo, Isaac Christopher
Exorcising the inexorcible Buganda ghost: Hoodwinked, Dumped, Used and re-dumped; A quest for Buganda's cause for Buganda's independence. Buganda in response to their proposals, were invariably faced either cynical deception. What went wrong? Where did this insolent manner of talking down from the height of their exceptionalism, infallibility and all-permissiveness come from? What is the explanation for this contemptuous and disdainful attitude to Buganda interests and absolutely legitimate demands? Buganda has grown weaker and subsequently broken apart. That experience should serve as a good lesson for Buganda because it has shown us that the paralysis of power and will is the first step towards complete degradation and oblivion. Buganda lost confidence for only one moment, but it was enough to disrupt the balance of forces in the Uganda. As a result, this book will argue that the old treaties and agreements are no longer effective. Entreaties and requests do not help. Anything that does not suit the dominant state, the powers that be, is denounced as archaic, obsolete and useless. This redivision of the world, and the norms of international law that developed by that time and the most important of them, the fundamental norms that were adopted following WWII and largely formalised its outcome came in the way of those who declared themselves the "bread servers" under the scramble and partition of Africa.
Law of Witchcraft in Uganda
(Suigeneris Publishers, 2022) Lubogo, Isaac Christopher
Use of supernatural or magical powers is a prominent phenomenon since antiquity till date. In our latter days, successful businessmen have been accused of amassing illicit wealth through the practice of witchcraft and magic, notions of blood money. Imagine such scene of a woman sitting on broom, holding it at its long handle and perhaps naked, freely floating in space with ease like directed balloon. One wonders about any possibility of mysterious healing. Like who does that or can do that? Pursuing a course in witchcraft and magic at one of the best universities on the face of the earth, another thought coming handy. Yet furthermore, discovering a world super power like America with legislation on sorcery is too much to imagine. Headlines on the media about cadavers being exhumed for body parts, human sacrifices, albinos and twins mostly being the major victims and or people being banished from their homes for witchcraft. To commit oneself whether wholly or partially in a trade where the bravest fear and courageous menfolk and womenfolk shun off is precisely a mindboggling manifestation of human uniqueness.
Wartime children's suffering and quests for therapy in northern Uganda
(Netherlands Organisation, 2009) Akello-Ayebare, Grace
This ethnographic study set out to examine children’s suffering and quests for therapy in the context of an ongoing civil war in northern Uganda, with an aim of generating recommendations so that their ‘right to health’ can be met. Suffering was defined as experiencing illnesses, whether due to infectious diseases or emotional distress, and quests for therapy as activities children implemented to restore normality. In effect, I investigated what wartime children identified as common illnesses which affected them and how they restored normality, whether through the use of medicines or through other coping strategies. The research findings were aimed at providing baseline information for policies and healthcare interventions consistent with children’s own needs and priorities. Central to this study was the idea that existing discourses about the healthcare needs of children of primary school age had too narrow a focus. During fieldwork I asked children what illnesses had affected them in the recent past (for example within a one month recall), how children knew they were ill, what medicines they used for their illnesses, and if illnesses were persistent what other coping mechanisms they engaged in. This study examined both boys’ and girls’ illness narratives in an attempt to generate gender dis aggregated data. Data was collected over a one year period in 2004-2005 and through regular visits to Gulu in 2006 and 2007. A survey was conducted with 165 children (N=165) aged nine to sixteen years, of whom eighty-eight (n=88) were boys and seventy-seven (n=77) were girls in addition to an extensive ethnographic follow-up of 24 children.
The first decade of Intervention: facts, figures & trends
(Intervention, 2013) Berg, Simon van den; Akello, Grace; Sonpar, Shobna
This paper aims to explore trends in developments in content and authors’ locations and perspectives in ‘Intervention, the International Journal of Mental Health, Psychosocial Work and Counselling in Areas of Armed Conflict’, from 2003 to 2012. Over this 10 year period, Intervention has published 139 peer reviewed articles, 73 ¢eld reports, 36 book reviews and 33 debate papers.The articles cover academic expertise, practical experience and debates on mental health and psychosocial interventions in the aftermath of both natural, and man made, disasters. The authors of most papers (61%) originated from developed countries, versus 28% from low and middle income countries.Thematic analysis of the content of peer reviewed articles reveals shifting consensus and emerging new debates on mental health and psychosocial interventions. In the first years of Intervention, individual therapeutic approaches were more prominent than in later years, which saw more attention given to community based approaches. Another emerging theme is the trend to involve ‘beneficiaries’ in planning and evaluation of programmes, through participatory approaches. A significant number of peer reviewed papers (28%) describe policy development issues, such as guidelines (IASC) and processes of integration of mental health into general health care systems in post conflict settings. Recommendations are that the editorial priorities for the next years should continue strategies for increasing submissions from authors originating from areas rejected by conflict, and increasing inclusion of perspectives of those who have experienced extreme events.
Reintegration of former child soldiers in northern Uganda: Coming to terms with children's agency and accountability
(Intervention, 2006) Akello, Grace; Richters, Annemiek; Reis, Ria
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 the ideas and strategies of formerly abducted child soldiers and people in their communities on how best to deal with their violent past.
Experiences of forced mothers in northern Uganda: the legacy of war
(Intervention, 2013) Akello, Grace
From 1986^2007, the Lord’s Resistance Army in£icted severe su¡ering on civilians in northern Uganda through indiscriminate killing and child abductions. While both abducted boys and girls were trained to use arms, girls were commonly distributed among commanders as forced ‘wives’. These traumatised girls and young women (both pregnant and ‘forced mothers’) were retained in rehabilitation centres longer than any other excombatants. While they may have been accorded special privileges in the centres, after reintegration, their home communities stigmatised and discriminated against both mothers and children.This paper discusses the experiences of forced mothers and their children, while at rehabilitation centres, and through the reintegration process. Additionally, it examines how communities should be stimulated to view forced mothers and their children as survivors of multiple human rights violations.
Introduction: The Cynics, Optimists and Pirates are all Making Africa Beautiful
(Development, 2012) Onyango-Obbo, Charles
There are two dominant positions about Africa today and in the near future: on the one side, a heady optimism that envisions ‘Africa Rising’, and on the other a cynicism that sees a continent still trapped in‘darkness’. In between you find the simply weary, mildly celebratory, and nearly indifferent. The majority of articles in this issue hug the vast middle; there is shy pessimism, cautious optimism, but also recognition that Africa’s development has not and probably will not be linear, and interesting possibilities could ^ ormight not ^ emerge as nationsmuddle along. And even where outcomes have been disastrous, and nations starved and people killed or oppressed, there is some acknowledgement that most of Africa’s Big Men (it has been men for the most part) set out with good intentions. Together, this search for new vantage points to evaluate the continent, the recognition that enough of ‘old Africa’still persists to justify pessimism, but also that optimism about the continent has not been snuffed out by the failures and disappointments of recent decades, is beautiful to see.This is because these various outlooks prevent a slide into the complacency and insularity that are often born of an overblown sense of achievement, or the despair that can be bred by pessimism.
The Curse of Sisyphus: Why democracy isn’t necessarily good for press freedom in Africa
(Development, 2013) Onyango-Obbo, Charles
The advent of plural politics in Africa was also accompanied by burgeoning press freedom. It was assumed that a free press would underpin the democratic gains and allow for multiple ideas to flourish. Yet the record seems to suggest that things are different. The press is increasingly under attack from governments on the one hand who seek to weaken its capacity to be an effective message bearer, and on the other, the press itself is also adapting to and effectively exploiting regional differences in order to maximize its own profits, perhaps at the expense of national unity.
Seeking Balance in a Continent Portrayed By Its Extremes
(Nieman Reports, 2004) Onyango-Obbo, Charles
This story begins in the mid-1980’s, some months after President Yoweri Museveni’s rebels swept to power in Uganda in 1986. A visitor arrived at the offices of the Weekly Topic, a newspaper in Uganda where I then worked. The receptionist sent a note in that told me the name of the guest who wanted to see me: It was Mr. Mort Rosenblum. I was barely a year out of graduate school, and Rosenblum’s “Coups and Earthquakes” had enthralled me immensely. I could hardly believe the words I was seeing. I asked the receptionist to show him in.

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