Citizenship, Resistance and Animals: Karamoja Region Pastoralists' Resilience against State Violence in Uganda

Abstract

Abstract Universal equality is achieved through citizenship. Despite this normative definition, the reality of citizenship differs across space and time. Against the backdrop of the decentring of state power in the wake of globalisation, when Western scrutiny focused on the peripheries of Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan, and when integrated disarmament and sedentarisation policies were promoted, pastoralists in the Karamoja region of Uganda, rather than appealing to normative notions of citizenship, initiated their own practice of citizenship in resistance to and articulation with the state order. Aware that direct confrontation with power immobilises a one-sided violence perpetration/victimisation relationship, pastoralists developed a repertoire of citizenship-related practices, including animals as co-citizens, to obtain recognition for continued nomadic pastoralism.