Beyond Idi Amin: urban militarization, Africanization and materiality in Kampalans’ experiences of expulsion

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the role that material things, such as space, buildings, and all kinds of commodities, played in how Kampalans experienced the expulsion of the Asians under Idi Amin in early 1970s and its aftermaths. It argues that the materiality of things – in everyday urban items, goods, buildings and urban spaces – was at the centre of how Kampalans experienced expulsion; with expulsion, particular items, commodities, spaces, and buildings gained new meanings, and the government as well as Kampalans transformed the prevailing notions of value attached to them. It draws on material artefacts, such as personal possessions and news clippings, and the oral histories of the men and women who lived in post-expulsion Kampala. The article shows how material goods and spaces transformed significantly and fluctuated as sources of both power and vulnerability for Kampalans during the 1970s and 1980s.