- Link:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10202/33
- Collection:
-
- Subjects
- Ethnic conflicts Violence Uganda
- Creator:
- Espeland, Rune Hjalmar
- Language
- en
- Publisher
- Chr. Michelsen Institute
- Relation
- CMI Working paper
- Relation
- WP 2007: 3
- Type
- Working Paper
- Description
- Across Africa land rights conflicts are escalating
between indigenous and migrant ethnic groups. This paper analyses
the communal violence that took place in connection with an
ethnicised land redistribution in Western Uganda in 2004. The paper
specifically employs the term communal violence to analyse a
situation where neighbours became killers. Since the concept is
rarely used in African ethnography, the paper draws on theoretical
developments and empirical contributions concerning communal
violence in South Asia. Looking at the wider political context, the
paper traces the processes from conflict to communal violence. It
argues that rather than being irrational and incomprehensible,
communal represented a particular form of meaningful action. It
foregrounds the role of rumours to show how when ethnicised they
play a vital part in the formation of a common moral imagination as
well shaping the direction of social processes between ethnic
groups. The paper argues that rumours are not simply a response to
ethnic contention but constitutive of it. Moreover, this
constitution is productive of communal violence. This paper is
based on fieldwork conducted in Kibaale District, Uganda during the
spring of 2003.
- Visits:
- 1
- Access:
- Instructions in case access is denied
Site powered by:
