<em>Sverker Finnström. Living with Bad Surroundings: War, History, and Everyday Moments in Northern Uganda</em>. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008

Abstract

Reviewed by: Living with Bad Surroundings: War, History, and Everyday Moments in Northern Uganda Julia R. Hanebrink Sverker Finnström. Living with Bad Surroundings: War, History, and Everyday Moments in Northern Uganda. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008. xi-286 pp. Maps. Photographs. Notes. Acronyms. Figures. References. Index. $23.95 (Paper), ISBN 978-0–8223-4191-8. $84.95 (Cloth), ISBN 978-0-8223-4174-1. The Acholi people of northern Uganda have been in the throes of a prolonged civil conflict between the Ugandan government, led by Yoweri Museveni, and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) since 1986. Sverker Finnström presents an insightful, thought-provoking critical ethnography aimed at revealing the everyday experiences of those living amidst violence, and explores how people engage their local surroundings in search of balance, control, meaning, and understanding when situated within what is ultimately a global conflict. During five phases of field research between 1997 and 2006, Finnström collected stories from and observed the daily lives of Acholi informants. The spaces between active fieldwork enabled him to return to his Swedish homeland and engage in what he refers to as “participant reflection rather than participant observation” (21). While he certainly engaged in participant observation in northern Uganda, the author suggests that–aside from often being a financial necessity–phased research as a methodology enables the researcher to take a profound spatial and temporal step back in order to reflect, read, write, maintain a critical distance from the research material, receive feedback from his Ugandan interlocutors, and allow meanings to emerge. The book begins with Finnström exploring the relationship between European imperialism and racist ideology and provides an ethnographic, sociopolitical, and historical background to the current struggles facing northern Ugandans. The author challenges the colonial and postcolonial depiction of the Acholi as an inherently violent people, as well as the commonly held conclusion that the Acholi ethnic identity was purely a colonial creation. Instead, he puts forward the concept that ethnic identity is “lived, imagined and politically manipulated” (55). The reader is encouraged to pay closer attention [End Page 164] to the lived experiences of traditions and beliefs rather than focusing on the ultimate function and meaning of these phenomena. The second chapter describes the political, economic, social, cultural, and ethnic tensions associated with the postcolonial period that saw continued governmental violence and the rise of the LRA. On one end of the spectrum, the crisis in northern Uganda is frequently described by the international community as humanitarian rather than political. On the other end of the spectrum, ethnic, religious, and pseudocultural faultlines are used to exoticize or fetishize political violence. Finnström rightly criticizes such reductionist explanations of conflict for depoliticizing and ultimately masking the root causes of violence. Chapter 3 presents manifestos allegedly written by the LRA, in order to help the reader understand the political agenda of the rebel group as well as issues relevant to Acholi people. These documents are often overlooked due to the focus on the atrocities carried out by the LRA rather than the conditions, including international policies, that led up to the present conflict. Finnström reiterates his assertion that the war in northern Uganda is not an ethnic one, but continues to be framed as such in order to pique the interest of an international audience. If the focus shifted to the political dimensions of the LRA movement instead of ethnic strife or religious fanaticism, the conflict would not be as seductive to the West because “as the lived complexities thicken and ethnic stereotyping fails, the world press typically loses interest” (109). Acholi youth feel they are being denied as citizens of Uganda, largely due to forced internment coupled with neoliberal development programs that outright deny or otherwise fail to provide access to basic services like water, food, healthcare, and education. Manifestos by the LRA address these disparities and while rebels are certainly not the model for upholding human rights, many Acholi youth see the LRA forces more as freedom fighters and less as terrorists. Finnström’s discussion of these documents highlights the LRA’s political agenda and coherent critique of structural violence–issues that are often ignored or denied. The...