Conflict In Uganda Research Articles

Agrarian Conflicts Across Ugandan Societies: A Complex Struggle

Agrarian conflicts in Uganda are deeply embedded in the nation's historical, social, and economic contexts. Rooted in colonial-era land policies, such as the Mailo land system, these conflicts continue to shape land ownership and agricultural practices, contributing to socio-economic inequalities. This paper examines the causes and consequences of agrarian disputes in Uganda, focusing on land tenure disputes, ethnic and regional conflicts, government policies, population pressures, and the commercialization of agriculture. The study finds that historical land tenure systems, particularly the Mailo system, have created lasting inequalities, while modern governmental policies and population growth exacerbate land-related conflicts. Additionally, the shift towards large-scale commercial agriculture has marginalized smallholder farmers, contributing to social instability. Addressing Uganda’s agrarian conflicts requires a comprehensive and inclusive approach to land reform, incorporating stronger governance, sustainable land management, and respect for indigenous rights.

Assessment of the Efficiency of Problematic Animal Interventions in Mitigating Human-Wildlife Conflicts in Uganda: A Case Study of Lake Mburo National Park

Human-wildlife conflict is a significant challenge in Uganda, particularly in areas where human populations and wildlife habitats overlap. This study examines the efficiency of various interventions aimed at mitigating human wildlife conflicts in and around Lake Mburo National Park, a region renowned for its rich biodiversity and diverse ecosystems. Lake Mburo National Park is surrounded by agricultural and pastoralist communities that frequently experience crop raiding, livestock predation, and threats to human safety from wildlife. Various interventions, including physical barriers, deterrents, translocation of problematic animals, and community engagement initiatives, have been implemented to address these conflicts. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, including field observations, community surveys, and analysis of intervention outcomes. A total of 125 households were interviewed across several parishes of Rurambira, Rwamuhuku, Rwabarata, Kizimbi, Kashojwa and Rwetango in Kiruhura and Isingiro districts. The findings indicate that the majority of respondents have lived in the area for over 20 years, providing them with extensive knowledge of local wildlife interactions. The results highlight that hippos (76%) are the most problematic animals, primarily causing crop damage, which significantly impacts local livelihoods. The study reveals that guarding property (98%), though stressful and time-consuming, is the most effective and commonly used intervention. Other measures, such as strong shelters, trapping, translocation, and various deterrents, show varying degrees of effectiveness depending on the species involved. The study concludes that understanding the species-specific and context-specific effectiveness of these interventions is crucial for developing sustainable strategies to mitigate HWC. The insights gained from this research can inform future conflict mitigation strategies and contribute to the broader discourse on human-wildlife coexistence in Uganda and similar settings worldwide

Weaponisation of trespass to land and its implications for land justice and enjoyment of property rights in neoliberal Uganda

Protection of the right toproperty is among the central concerns of Uganda’s Constitution and laws. The law on civil and criminal trespass aims at facilitating enjoyment of property by prescribing damages for civil trespass and penalty for criminal trespass. Despite this, criminal and civil trespass have been used as weapons by some actors in land conflicts to undermine property rights of weaker parties and escalate land conflicts. The relationship among property, land conflicts and trespass is a theme of empirical significance in Uganda. Yet, weaponisation of trespass and its repercussions on property rights and resolution of land conflicts in Uganda is not significantly studied. This paper fills this gap. It conceptualizes criminal and civil trespass as embedded in the law, and how they have been weaponised. Using qualitative methods (analysis of literature, court decisions, and web based material) the paper finds that criminal trespass has been weaponized to target weaker parties to land conflicts hence impacting on their property rights and delivery of land justice. Using the criminal justice system, they are charged with criminal trespass, incarcerated, and are unable to pursue civil remedies from courts of law, hence protracting the underlying civil/land dispute. Civil trespass has also been misused within Uganda’s escalating land dispute terrain; in pursuit of selfish objectives rather than of justice. Uganda’s neoliberal context is an enabler of all the above. Recalibration of the civil justice system for efficience and amendment to section 302 to offer clarity on the boundaries of its application are recommended.

Understanding Conservation Conflicts in Uganda: A Political Ecology of Memory Approach

Political ecologists have linked conservation conflicts in post-independence Africa to the continuities and legacies of colonial policies that displaced and dispossessed people to create ‘wild places’. This paper introduces a political ecology of vernacular memory to discuss the Basongora people’s vernacular memories of their historical dispossession to create the Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) in Uganda. It explores how these events spurred multidirectional memories of resilience, heroism, victimhood, and resistance that the Basongora pastoralists deploy to reclaim social-political autonomy and agency. Using archival data and historical ethnography, I examine how the Basongora mobilise vernacular memory in contemporary contestations with the state and conservation authorities in QENP. Vernacular memory provides a moral authority that helps subordinated groups contest the hegemonic dominance of conservation authorities. A political ecology approach to vernacular memory reveals how people use memory politics to legitimise their claims in contested environments—an essential fact of contemporary conservation conflicts. This paper is the first to conceptualise how vernacular memories can legitimise the decolonisation of conservation narratives and community resistance against conservation.

Reviewing the Role of Selected Land Governance Institutions in Land Conflict Management in Uganda

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the role of selected land governance institutions in managing land conflicts in Uganda.
 Methodology: A desk research was adopted given that it was purely based on secondary data.
 Findings: The outcomes suggest that although a variety of mechanisms are available, ad-hoc mediation is key is resolving land conflicts in Uganda.
 Conclusion: The study concludes that government strengthen ad-hoc mediation as well as making them more formal in land conflict management.
 Recommendations: From the study, it is encouraged that local council court members be periodically trained in conflict management; that government advocates, trains, and considers better facilitation for ad-hoc mediators to make them more effective.

The Role of Regional Organisations in Peacebuilding: The Case of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region

This article aims to examine the role of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) in peacebuilding in the Great Lakes Region (GLR) by focusing on its conflict transformation approach to peacebuilding. The region is made up of a complex network of political and economic resources that have had tremendous effects on peace and security. The region has experienced many atrocities, caused by heavy violations of human rights and the violation of the state sovereignty principle. This has opened avenues for illegal armed groups from within and outside the region, encouraged illegal mining, and led to conflicts becoming intractable in nature. The GLR has also registered intercommunal conflicts in Uganda and South Sudan which continue to compromise peace and security, affecting the safety and livelihoods of people. These intractable intercommunal conflicts do not affect the GLR alone but also the entire continent. This has led scholars, non-governmental organisations, international organisations, and intergovernmental organisations such as the ICGLR to seek to end the conflict in the region. This article finds that conflict persists because the ICGLR's structures are ineffective. Furthermore, despite the strides made in areas such as the illegal exploitation of mineral resources, human rights violations, sexual gender-based violence, and democracy, there are factors that hamper progress, including understaffing and unqualified personnel, coupled with a lack of political consensus in decision making and implementation, which has led to malfunctioning in the ICGLR.

Filling the gap: customary institutions as governance actors

ABSTRACT Customary institutions have taken a lead in providing justice and peace services following conflict in Uganda, taking on governance roles despite being relegated to only cultural status. This has been particularly prevalent in remote areas where government services are lacking, and where customary institutions remain both familiar and accessible. While this has some positive effects, it also has long term negative normative and political implications, which may contribute to uneven service delivery, increasing fragmentation of the state and impunity from the state’s responsibility to address serious crimes. This paper considers the role of customary institutions in delivering peace and justice in the aftermath of small-scale conflict. It argues that indigenous institutions can be enablers of impunity and that there is a need for a more inclusive and integrated framework in which the state works with indigenous structures to ensure service gaps are filled in a cohesive and sustainable manner.

The International Criminal Trial as a Site for Contesting Historical and Political Narratives: The Case of Dominic Ongwen

This paper considers how the international criminal trial emerges as a site for contesting historical and political narratives, and how the proceedings against Dominic Ongwen in the International Criminal Court gives us yet another opportunity to do so. It focuses on how the criminal trial appears to reinforce the hegemony of some contested historical narratives over others in attempting to deal with the past. It is suggested that the conflict in Uganda as well as what is currently happening in the Ongwen trial cannot be understood in isolation from, on the one hand, interregional and factional struggles within the Ugandan territory and, on the other hand, a postcolonial logic. Departing from this nexus, the paper introduces, discusses, and analyzes the strategy of rupture as developed by Jacques Vergès. By scrutinizing the legal strategies employed by Ongwen and his defense team, the paper argues that their strategies demonstrate the ways in which historical and political narratives are susceptible to ‘rupture’ by counternarratives put forth by defendants who refuse to play their part in the global justice drama by pointing to the struggle for larger contextual issues. In the setting of the Ongwen trial, this paper argues that by tapping into the victim-perpetrator narrative, Ongwen’s defense team are, wittingly or unwittingly, ‘rupturing’ the binaries in international criminal law. The paper concludes by arguing that the Court may need to find a new approach to ‘courtroom historiography’ if it is going to survive, either with or without the Global South.

Why They Don’t Fight: Explaining Non-violent Responses to Exclusion, Discrimination and Injustice among the Youth in Uganda

The youth has and continues to play a central role in various violent conflicts in Uganda. However, the majority of the youth does not participate in violence. This article explores factors that the youth utilises to respond to exclusion, discrimination and injustice without violence. Basing the research on grounded theory, a comparative study of participants from the Kampala and Jinja districts was conducted. Data was collected through interviews, focus group discussions and document reviews, and data analysis was conducted through open coding, axial coding, and selective coding to delineate explanations of the research problem. The findings revealed that the pursuit of self-advancement influenced the youth’s preference for non-violence to respond to exclusion, discrimination and injustice. Variations in the identity and cultural practices among victims of exclusion, discrimination and injustice notwithstanding, a range of internal and external factors combined to foster resilience and adaptation as responses to adversity among the youth who did not fight. During this process, resilience was not maintained as an end in itself but as a response undertaken to protect and pursue opportunities and pathways crafted towards self-advancement, especially of the individual and the family. Proactive action, self-regulation, problem-solving and the setting of clear expectations were found to be internal factors that facilitated resilience processes among those who did not fight. Positive peer influences, family environment, relationships with adults, education, groups and organisations that supported intellectual, emotional, moral, and behavioural competencies were some of the external factors that enabled victims of exclusion, discrimination and injustice to remain optimistic and to cope with adverse conditions. These factors can be cultivated among the youth through a range of national and community-level policies and programmes to promote non-violence and reduce youth participation in violence.

Ethnic emancipation and conflict escalation in Uganda

This article examines why the emancipation of ethnic groups has failed to address ethnic conflicts in Uganda. Successive Ugandan governments, especially the current regime of President Yoweri Museveni, have attempted to end the country’s history of ethnic strife by creating separate constituencies, separate districts and separate kingdoms for marginalised ethnic groups to free them from the domination of powerful ethnic groups. Focussing on the Rwenzori area of western Uganda where ethnic violence is severest, I show how the approach of ethnic emancipation reproduces ethnicity as the basis for political inclusion and escalates rather than abates ethnic contestations. This study should shed more light on the challenge of ethnic federalism in other countries like Ethiopia and Nigeria.

Antecedents of Family Conflict in Uganda

The purpose of this study was to explore the antecedents of family conflict in Uganda. A qualitative approach was used in this study. A sample size of 139 participants provided data which was subjected to content analysis. Results revealed that the core themes associated with family conflict are finances and priority of resources. Further findings show that differences in tastes and interests, selfishness and lack of communication played a key role as causes of family conflicts. The implication of this study is that finances and priority of resources are antecedents of family conflict in the context of Uganda. Therefore, the antecedents of family conflict that emerged from this study can be understood, defined and analyzed through the lens of social identity theory. Future research may include conducting quantitative studies with a particular demographic using the themes that have emerged from this study.

Antecedents of Family Conflict in Uganda

The purpose of this study was to explore the antecedents of family conflict in Uganda. A qualitative approach was used in this study. A sample size of 139 participants provided data which was subjected to content analysis. Results revealed that the core themes associated with family conflict are finances and priority of resources. Further findings show that differences in tastes and interests, selfishness and lack of communication played a key role as causes of family conflicts. The implication of this study is that finances and priority of resources are antecedents of family conflict in the context of Uganda. Therefore, the antecedents of family conflict that emerged from this study can be understood, defined and analyzed through the lens of social identity theory. Future research may include conducting quantitative studies with a particular demographic using the themes that have emerged from this study.

Legal pluralism as a lens through which to understand the role and place of TJMS in international criminal justice

This article makes a contribution to existing literature by developing a pluralist account for international criminal justice, specifically where there are Traditional Justice Mechanisms (TJMs) at play. This account has the effect of challenging the dominant assumption that TJMs have no place in international criminal justice, in particular, where the option to conduct criminal prosecution is considered. Subsequent to the background section, the second section engages with literature on legal pluralism in international criminal justice. This review constitutes an analytical framework for evaluating the ways in which TJMs can interact with other systems of justice. The third section provides an overview of the Ugandan conflict with a view to demonstrating the multiple approaches invoked in addressing the effects of the conflict in Uganda. The fourth section gives an overview of the scope and nature of TJMs while the fifth section engages with the criticisms leveled against TJMs. In light of the discussion in the fifth section, it is recommended that if TJMs in Uganda are to be properly contextualized and understood, there is a need to interpret the Juba Peace Agreement through a legal pluralism lens. The sixth section engages with the practical ways that TJMs can play a role in criminal proceedings before the ICC and national courts. Overall, the argument advanced is that where the option to prosecute is considered by the ICC, TJMs should, on a case by case basis, play a role within the framework of international criminal justice. Rather than choosing between TJMs and international criminal justice, emphasis should be placed on how TJMs and international criminal justice complement each other.

English

The study, Conspicuously Absent: Women’s Role in Conflict Resolution and Peace Building in Northern Uganda in the Context of United Nations Resolution 1325. The research was carried out in war ravaged Acholi sub region covering the districts of Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum and Pader because they are located in the centre of Northern Uganda conflict between the Government and the rebels commonly known as the Lord’s Resistant Army (LRA). The main objective of the study was to locate women in conflict situations and assess their contribution. The study methodology is qualitative and builds upon a review of related literature, oral interviews, questionnaires and focus group discussions with men and women who participated in the study. The major research finding reveals that women played a big role in peace building and conflict resolution, but their involvement remained unrecognized. Worst still, the northern Uganda women appeared not linked with the growing number of women led initiatives internationally, nationally and sub-national levels. The lack of recognition of women’s roles makes women invisible actors in peace processes taking place in northern Uganda. The study concludes that including women in the formal peace process, while not a goal in itself, is symbolic and significant step in the promotion of women’s justifiable participation in peace building and conflict transformation processes. The study makes recommendations to enhance women’s capacity to contribute to peace processes formally and informally. Key words: Conflict mitigation, conflict resolution, gender, resolution 1325, peace-building, Lord’s Resistant Army (LRA), sub- region.

Social conflict and agrarian change inUganda's countryside

AbstractIn this paper, I explore the significance of Giovanni Arrighi's scholarship about the dynamics of capitalist accumulation and transformation in Africa and other “hostile” environments for critical agrarian studies. Specifically, I examine the relevance of his work for the analysis of multiple trajectories of agrarian change and social conflict in Uganda's countryside. By adopting synchronic and diachronic perspectives, the analysis here unveils the geographically uneven nature of transformation in the agrarian social structure in two distinct regions in Uganda: Buganda and Acholi. This complementarity allows us to grasp continuities and discontinuities in the processes of agrarian change and in the social struggles over the production and appropriation of surplus value in the longue durée. I argue that the agrarian social structure and the associated dynamics and forms of social conflict in the two regions massively diverged during the colonial period, while partially converging in the current era of neoliberal restructuring.

Rent-Seeking Practices, Local Resource Curse, and Social Conflict in Uganda’s Emerging Oil Economy

We consider the different types of rent-seeking practices in emerging oil economies, and discuss how they contribute to social conflict and a local resource curse in the Albertine Graben region of Uganda. The rent-seeking activities have contributed to speculative behavior, competition for limited social services, land grabbing, land scarcity, land fragmentation, food insecurity, corruption, and ethnic polarization. Local people have interpreted the experience of the consequent social impacts as a local resource curse. The impacts have led to social conflicts among the affected communities. Our research used a range of methods, including 40 in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation, and document analysis. We argue there is an urgent need by all stakeholders—including local and central governments, oil companies, local communities, and civil society organizations—to address the challenges before the construction of oil infrastructure. Stakeholders must work hard to create the conditions that are needed to avoid the resource curse; otherwise, Uganda could end up suffering from the Dutch Disease and Nigerian Disease, as has befallen other African countries.

In the wake of conflict: the long-term effect on child nutrition in Uganda

ABSTRACTThe Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency from 1986 to 2006 is one of the longest conflicts in Uganda. This paper examines the effect of the LRA insurgency on child nutrition using the 2011 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey. The distance from each village to the border of South Sudan is used as an instrument for identifying the intensity of the conflict. We find that each conflict event in a village lowers weight-for-age z-scores and weight-for-height z-scores for children born after the conflict. We further investigate a possible heterogeneous conflict effect on child nutrition in terms of gender, region, and maternal education. Low household wealth, limited access to healthcare, and poor maternal nutrition appear to be channels through which the conflict inhibits the growth and development of children 5 years after the end of the conflict.

Imagined futures, mobility and the making of oil conflicts in Uganda

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we examine how oil-related activities in the Albertine region have the potential to influence conflicts of different forms and intensity in Uganda, a new African oil producer in the making. We view this through the lens of the future, for which we propose the ‘in-the-making’ perspective. Through this approach we identify three geographies of conflict, framed around three local narratives on mobility, namely: the peripatetic tradition of a social group commonly known as ‘Balaalo’, speculative labour mobility and ensuing narratives about oil-induced pressure on fishing, and the link between elephant mobility and community grievances. With this paper we seek to contribute to the growing body of empirical research on Uganda’s oilscape, and add a case to the existing work on the interface between oil exploitation and social practices across various oil-producing world regions. We conclude that in Uganda’s pre-oil situation, the emergence of complex local narratives, resulting from a combination of lack-or inadequacy-of information, pre-existing but low-lying ethnic sentiments, and institutional challenges, are important indicators of how materialities of the future frame relationships within societies today.

THE QUEST FOR DEVELOPMENT TRANSFORMATION IN NORTHERN UGANDA

This paper discusses the dynamics of development agencies’ support to conflict-affected northern Uganda in the period between 2006 and 2012, and its implications for post-conflict recovery and development. The study utilizes a mainly qualitative approach incorporating in-depth interviews with key informants, focus group discussions and secondary data review. Data was analyzed thematically using template analysis methods. Findings show that, at the height of the northern Uganda conflict between the year 2001 and 2006, the region was a beehive of ‘development agencies’ activities, with scores of development agencies supporting the affected communities. These agencies (including the UN agencies, civil society organizations and even private sector agencies complemented government efforts in the resettlement and reintegration process for communities affected by the conflict. Yet queries remain. For example, have the interventions been done right and conceived within the right assumptions? This paper, therefore, analyses the trends and dynamics of both state and non-state actors’ interventions within northern Uganda,especially the post-2006 period. It is posited that donor priorities, interests and preferences other than government and non–state actors’ interventions and situation of the target groups seem to be the driving force behind programme planning, funding and implementation. This revelation presents important lessons and experiences to actors and social planners working in the area of post-conflict development and reconstruction. The main lesson drawn from this study is that government and indigenous agencies should proactively take the initiative in community rebuilding process and not extensively rely on foreign donors.

The effect of prenatal stress on cooperation: Evidence from violent conflict in Uganda

Are preferences endogenously determined in the womb? We play a public goods game with Ugandan children born during a conflict characterised by high civilian victimisation. Children whose caregivers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder are more likely to free-ride in the game. Genetic and environmental factors alone do not explain the relationship, but children’s 2D:4D digit ratio – a marker of fetal hormone exposure associated with epigenetic effects of maternal distress – does. Our findings extend the fetal origins literature to the domain of preferences. By reducing next generation’s taste for cooperation, conflict may have father-reaching economic consequences than previously thought.