1,721,262 research outputs found
Embodied legacies of rebellion : (body) memory, self-conception and political participation among ex-combatants in Burundi
No full textAbstract: Across space and time, the return of combatants after war has been fraught with challenges, carrying profound implications for both individuals and societies. This thesis engages with this universally relevant topic by examining the lived, embodied experiences of Burundian ex-combatants from an underexplored long-term perspective. It examines the ways in which their past participation in war continues to shape their lives and political engagement. Employing an innovative analytical framework of embodiment, the thesis pays particular attention to the role of the body in these processes \u2013 previously overlooked in research on the topic. The thesis draws on qualitative life history interviews \u2013 conducted during six months of fieldwork \u2013 with ex-combatants from the CNDD-FDD and the PALIPEHUTU-FNL, the two major armed groups that fought Burundi\u2019s national army during the civil war, which ravaged the country from 1993 until the early 2000s. After over a decade of fighting, the CNDD-FDD and PALIPEHUTU-FNL laid down their arms in 2004 and 2009, respectively. At the institutional level, both groups transformed into political parties and became the key players in the country\u2019s political landscape. At the individual level, part of the groups\u2019 combatants were integrated into the new national security forces, while part were demobilised and reintegrated into civilian society. It is this latter group of ex-combatants that is the focus of this research. Four empirical chapters lie at the heart of this thesis. The first chapter sets the scene by focusing on the wartime experiences, examining the various ways in which they shaped combatants. Loosely building on this foundation, the subsequent chapters explore the complex legacies of these wartime experiences from various angles. They examine the internal, embodied continuities of the past in the form of (body) memories; the contradictory social forces that complicate ex-combatants\u2019 understanding of themselves and their place in society; and the impetus and forms of ongoing political engagement. The contributions of this thesis are both empirical and theoretical. Empirically, it provides nuanced insights into the long-term legacies of war, relevant in Burundi and beyond. Theoretically, it introduces a novel embodiment perspective to the scholarship on ex-combatants, opening up new avenues for research. Implicitly, it also carries practical implications by pointing to the potential of the body as ground for policy interventions
Conservation law enforcement from the colonial past to the present : examining actors, partnerships and contestations in Uganda\u2019s Murchison Falls National Park
No full textAbstract: To militarise or not to militarise wildlife conservation has become a hot subject in recent years. On the one hand, there are scholars who demonstrate the need to question the militarisation of conservation. But, on the other hand, there are supportive and ambivalent voices in the green militarisation debate. Militarising wildlife conservation means the extension of logics, actors and partnerships traditionally used in the military world and now increasingly popularised in wildlife conservation. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and archival data, this study looks at how these developments transform the conservation law enforcement landscape not only for local communities living around conservation spaces, but also for park guards who are the implementers of militarised and coercive enforcement strategies. I argue that different events have merged, in varying degrees, in the evolution of Murchison Falls National Park to infuse it with a distinct political life, culminating in the current version of the park with a highly militarized and tech-heavy conservation lens uncannily mirroring the worldview of the regime in Kampala. I apply a longue dur\ue9e lens that traces militarised conservation in British colonial Uganda, and present the view of conservation as opportunistic as well as an extension of authoritarian-militaristic logics to all spheres of Ugandan society including conservation. The establishment of the park emerged from a sleeping sickness epidemic and the mass evacuations of people who left behind large expanses of land. It is on this land, or Sleeping Sickness Restricted Area, that the park was later established. I observe the militarised nature of officers tasked with running Uganda\u2019s Game Department at its inception and the militarised anti-poaching methods they adopted in a typical fortress model of conservation. I look at events after independence, the 2002 presidential directive that invited the military into conservation and operationalised in 2005. I combine the way the park was established, the security situation that warranted military deployment and the present management of the park to further augment the view of conservation as opportunistic. In advancing my argument, I make several contributions to green militarisation debates
Politicization, professionalization, and personalisation of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces : the military and the pursuit of stability in an ageing post-revolutionary regime
No full textContinuity and connectedness : everyday experiences of South Sudanese refugees in Northern Uganda
No full textAbstract: On the 9th of July 2011, South Sudan became the world\u2019s youngest nation. Thousands of South Sudanese celebrated on the streets of the capital Juba and elsewhere, filled with hope that the birth of their independent nation would mark the end of a long period of instability and war. At the end of 2013, however, just two years after South Sudan\u2019s independence, the country was again drawn into civil war, causing the displacement of more than four million of its citizens. This thesis focuses on a subsection of these displaced people, namely those who found refuge in northern Uganda. Studies about forced displacement and refugees, are often framed in terms of their exceptionality and focus on the disruption of life in exile more generally. Without downplaying the exceptionalities and rupture associated with displacement in any sense, this thesis studies different aspects of the everyday life of South Sudanese refugees and in doing so, focuses on elements of continuity and connectedness instead. The findings are based on approximately six months of qualitative research in the Adjumani district of northern Uganda, including semi-structured interviews, life stories, informal discussions and observations in and around the selected Adjumani settlements. Before the results are presented, the study is first situated within the broader regional history of the South(ern) Sudan1 and northern Ugandan border region; and a detailed description is provided of Uganda as a (progressive) host for refugees. The core of the thesis consists of four empirical chapters2 that, each from a different perspective, explore how refugees in Adjumani have agency as socio-economic actors, as they participate in socio-economic interactions with the local Ugandan population, are involved in settlement governance by taking up leadership roles, act as key mediators of disputes and tensions in the settlements, and engage in everyday mobilities, to continue with aspects of \u2018normal life\u2019, such as attending funerals or celebrations, cultivating land, and visiting loved ones. As such, the Ugandan settlements have become nodes into broader networks, that span Ugandan and South Sudanese villages, towns, cities, as well as locations elsewhere. The overall contribution is to show how refugees negotiate justice, authority and mobility, and to draw attention to the role of continuity and connectedness within those negotiations
The changing cross-border trade dynamics between north-western Uganda, north-eastern Congo and southern Sudan
No full textNew field work conducted by Kristof Titeca for the CSRC in the border areas of North-Western Uganda, North-Eastern Congo and Southern Sudan yields important lessons about the development of cross-border trading patterns in this region. Informal trade between these countries pre-dates the colonial period, though major political and economic changes have occurred since the 1980's. Drawing from interviews with active traders and government officials, the author argues that internal and external political security and conflict, poor infrastructure and changing state policies are the foremost factors which have influenced the shifting and fragmenting cross- border trade relations between these countries. For many participants, informal cross-border trade (which largely operates outside the legal framework of the state), is seen as an indigenous form of development, providing a 'coping' economy for marginalised populations who are isolated or excluded from activities at the centre of the state. It has the potential to provide new opportunities and access to markets, but it is often accompanied by the development of elite business owners, gate keepers and imbalanced power relationships. The tensions that this can create can be seen in attitudes towards Ugandan traders, who currently reap the highest rewards from cross-border trade due to the relative stability and security of their country. This paper recommends that policymakers not only consider the influence of external events on regional cross-border trade, but also address the relations of power and profit which may produce unequal relationships and tensions
Making schools : primary education, governance and the state in Somaliland
No full textAbstract: This PhD thesis is the first of its kind to produce rich, ethnographic material on primary education from the Somali territories. In doing so, it contributes to and challenges existing research on public service provision in context of state fragility and weakness with a socio-political analysis of local governance and the state. Based on extensive anthropological fieldwork carried out in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland in what is officially the Northern part of Somalia, the study focusses on the political dimensions of primary education. Through four papers, the study deals with the re-emergence and development of an education sector in Somaliland after the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, and analyses contemporary practices of organising, regulating and providing primary education. Concretely, the thesis shows how primary education is dependent on ongoing negotiations between the state and a number of non-state actors, in the shape of NGOs, philanthropists, concerned parents, diaspora organisations, sheikhs and many others. Importantly, it is shown how local actors\u2019 international connections are crucial in shaping primary education. The negotiated nature of primary education results in an increasingly fragmented and heterogeneous education sector in which parallel education systems exist and in which actual practices are often far removed from official policy and protocol. The thesis argues that though actual practices on school level deviate from state ideals and practices, these gaps are not to be seen as signs of state decay, as conventional theories of public service provision in context of state fragility and weakness prescribe. Instead, the research documents that the space between ideals and practice provides flexibility, and at times even necessary room for manoeuvre for the different sets of actors in their continuous attempts at delivering, organising and regulating primary education. Moreover, the thesis shows that these gaps are not left ungoverned. Indeed, the thesis analyses the multiplicity of norms and practices emanating from different institutions and actors governing these gaps between policy, ideal and practice. Importantly, these everyday practices of organising, providing and regulating primary education in Somaliland are done with (some) reference to the state. In sum, the main argument of the thesis is that the state is produced and reproduced by state representatives in conjunction with a range of non-state actors operating, negotiating and interacting in the gap between state ideal and actual practice
Rebel Lives
No full textAbstract: The Rebel Lives project tells a visual story of a Ugandan rebel movement and the people who are part of it. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel movement led by Joseph Kony, emerged in the 1980s. It is particularly notorious for mass abductions of children. Because of the extreme violence, little is known about life in the group. The project "Rebel Lives" tells a visual story about this rebel movement and the people who are part of it. At its center are a series of recently discovered photographs taken by the generals of the LRA themselves. These were collected over several years by Kristof Titeca (BE, 1978), professor of conflict studies. He has further supplemented this material with found drawings, videos and documents that place the photographs in context. In addition, he traveled with photographer Georges Senga (1983, DRC) to Uganda to revisit the people depicted. Rebel Lives offers insight into this layered history, in which the line between perpetrators and victims becomes increasingly blurred. After FOMU, the exhibition traveled to New York, Geneva, and Kinshasa, among other cities. The exhibition is on display from the 13th of November until the 19th of December 2021
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