Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/21681392.2022.2059901
C. Mertens, Stéphanie Perazzone, David Mwambari
The contributions of this special issue explore the concept of colonial durabilities in a bid to unearth both the concrete and invisible sites through which coloniality continues to circulate and materialise in the African Great Lakes Region (GLR). Colonial durabilities, we argue, are non-linear dynamic processes that suffuse the realities and structures of international and national politics, as well as the conduct of daily life. These become particularly evident in the knowledge economy of the GLR, in endeavours as broad as state building and everyday practices, within international development and peacebuilding interventions, and in academic theorising, methodologies and writing formats. We introduce the papers in this special issue that urge us to address an important question: Can we truly decolonise if we do not fully understand the coloniality of the present and its effects? We argue a careful investigation of the structural conditions that enable coloniality to actively form and re-form is essential to accurately understand real-world ramifications of asymmetrical power relations, a crucial aspect of the process of decolonisation. Lastly, we reflect on avenues for re-thinking the effects of colonial durabilities and to work towards generating anti-/de-colonial knowledges to perhaps achieve ‘epistemic freedom’.
{"title":"Fatal misconceptions: colonial durabilities, violence and epistemicide in Africa’s Great Lakes Region","authors":"C. Mertens, Stéphanie Perazzone, David Mwambari","doi":"10.1080/21681392.2022.2059901","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2022.2059901","url":null,"abstract":"The contributions of this special issue explore the concept of colonial durabilities in a bid to unearth both the concrete and invisible sites through which coloniality continues to circulate and materialise in the African Great Lakes Region (GLR). Colonial durabilities, we argue, are non-linear dynamic processes that suffuse the realities and structures of international and national politics, as well as the conduct of daily life. These become particularly evident in the knowledge economy of the GLR, in endeavours as broad as state building and everyday practices, within international development and peacebuilding interventions, and in academic theorising, methodologies and writing formats. We introduce the papers in this special issue that urge us to address an important question: Can we truly decolonise if we do not fully understand the coloniality of the present and its effects? We argue a careful investigation of the structural conditions that enable coloniality to actively form and re-form is essential to accurately understand real-world ramifications of asymmetrical power relations, a crucial aspect of the process of decolonisation. Lastly, we reflect on avenues for re-thinking the effects of colonial durabilities and to work towards generating anti-/de-colonial knowledges to perhaps achieve ‘epistemic freedom’.","PeriodicalId":37966,"journal":{"name":"Critical African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76305281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/21681392.2022.2039733
Astrid Jamar
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Burundi has been mandated to account for colonial and post-colonial violence. To examine such accountability efforts, I deploy a decolonial and legal anthropological approach. Through fieldwork in Burundi, I examine the entanglements between violence, accountability, and coloniality; how specific dynamics of violence and hegemonized norms operate within transitional justice (TJ) practices; and by implication how colonial durabilities reproduce themselves. I document three key findings. First, TJ professionals consolidate hegemonic but contested norms to articulate TJ agendas; norms that then gradually ‘slip’, i.e. the gradual weakening of normative commitments moving the burden of accountability from the State to alleged beneficiaries. Second, regular TJ activities reproduce hierarchies of knowledges marked by the epistemic supremacy of Western legalism and power asymmetries; while side-lining political struggles fought through accountability efforts. Third, criticisms of colonialism have been instrumentalised by the ruling regime through the work of the TRC itself, while violence continues to be used to repress political opponents. Overall, I argue that due to the durable effects of colonialism, the Burundian TRC simultaneously accounts for and inflicts violence. Specifically, as TJ professionals adopt texts and run activities that consolidate hegemonized norms, reproduce colonial tropes and take part in strengthening authoritarianism, colonial logics inform whose norms and knowledge matter, thus inflicting epistemic violence.
{"title":"Accounting for which violent past? transitional justice, epistemic violence, and colonial durabilities in Burundi","authors":"Astrid Jamar","doi":"10.1080/21681392.2022.2039733","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2022.2039733","url":null,"abstract":"The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Burundi has been mandated to account for colonial and post-colonial violence. To examine such accountability efforts, I deploy a decolonial and legal anthropological approach. Through fieldwork in Burundi, I examine the entanglements between violence, accountability, and coloniality; how specific dynamics of violence and hegemonized norms operate within transitional justice (TJ) practices; and by implication how colonial durabilities reproduce themselves. I document three key findings. First, TJ professionals consolidate hegemonic but contested norms to articulate TJ agendas; norms that then gradually ‘slip’, i.e. the gradual weakening of normative commitments moving the burden of accountability from the State to alleged beneficiaries. Second, regular TJ activities reproduce hierarchies of knowledges marked by the epistemic supremacy of Western legalism and power asymmetries; while side-lining political struggles fought through accountability efforts. Third, criticisms of colonialism have been instrumentalised by the ruling regime through the work of the TRC itself, while violence continues to be used to repress political opponents. Overall, I argue that due to the durable effects of colonialism, the Burundian TRC simultaneously accounts for and inflicts violence. Specifically, as TJ professionals adopt texts and run activities that consolidate hegemonized norms, reproduce colonial tropes and take part in strengthening authoritarianism, colonial logics inform whose norms and knowledge matter, thus inflicting epistemic violence.","PeriodicalId":37966,"journal":{"name":"Critical African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87625951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-27DOI: 10.1080/21681392.2021.1977158
Ute Röschenthaler
Liberalizing the economy brought both social and economic complications to the lives of many Cameroonians and growing numbers of affordable commodities manufactured in China. Focusing on electronic devices (primarily mobile phones, computers, recording gadgets and solar kits), this article considers how these new private possessions have become integrated into existing practices of social representation and to what extent they have transformed the lives of Cameroonians. The article examines through whose agency these commodities arrived, the findings being based on interviews with travelling traders and consumers and upon observations on Cameroonian and Chinese markets in the 2010s. It highlights that African importers of Chinese-manufactured products carefully select and order supplies in China that are affordable and meet the tastes of local consumers. The availability of these goods enables Cameroonians to engage in the consumption of global commodities, heightening their sense of global connection, whilst also concurrently complicating the display of social hierarchies. The importation of these commodities also created business opportunities for numerous traders and service providers.
{"title":"Chinese-manufactured commodities and African agency in the democratization of consumption: the example of electronic devices in Cameroon","authors":"Ute Röschenthaler","doi":"10.1080/21681392.2021.1977158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2021.1977158","url":null,"abstract":"Liberalizing the economy brought both social and economic complications to the lives of many Cameroonians and growing numbers of affordable commodities manufactured in China. Focusing on electronic devices (primarily mobile phones, computers, recording gadgets and solar kits), this article considers how these new private possessions have become integrated into existing practices of social representation and to what extent they have transformed the lives of Cameroonians. The article examines through whose agency these commodities arrived, the findings being based on interviews with travelling traders and consumers and upon observations on Cameroonian and Chinese markets in the 2010s. It highlights that African importers of Chinese-manufactured products carefully select and order supplies in China that are affordable and meet the tastes of local consumers. The availability of these goods enables Cameroonians to engage in the consumption of global commodities, heightening their sense of global connection, whilst also concurrently complicating the display of social hierarchies. The importation of these commodities also created business opportunities for numerous traders and service providers.","PeriodicalId":37966,"journal":{"name":"Critical African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90093470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/21681392.2021.2005378
Laura S. Martin, C. Bradbury‐Jones, Simeon Koroma, Stephen Forcer
This article explores the theoretical and practical role(s) of humour in facilitating outreach about sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Sierra Leone. While humour might be considered an insensitive way of approaching difficult issues, this project shows that incongruity can in fact be productive. Recognizing that humour itself can be a form of symbolic or physical violence in some contexts, we argue that humour is a means of opening up conversations about violence (in this case SGBV) in order to address the social and legal challenges associated with it. Our pilot project – devised by an interdisciplinary team and conducted in partnership with a Sierra Leonean access-to-justice NGO, Timap for Justice – used comedy and performance to meet two key challenges: to disseminate awareness about social and legal issues related to commonplace practices of SGBV, and to open up a broader discussion about experiences of SGBV. Using empirical evidence from focus groups and interviews, this article shows how a humorous approach proved to be a productive mode of engagement and examines key concepts including ‘the vicinity of laughter’ (involving the spatial and interpersonal aspects of humour), the connections between laughter and memory, and the paradoxical relationship between lived experience, humour and violence.
本文探讨幽默在促进塞拉利昂性暴力和性别暴力(SGBV)宣传方面的理论和实践作用。虽然幽默可能被认为是处理棘手问题的一种麻木不仁的方式，但这个项目表明，不协调实际上可以是富有成效的。认识到幽默本身在某些情况下可能是一种象征性或身体暴力，我们认为幽默是一种开启关于暴力(在本例中为SGBV)对话的手段，以解决与之相关的社会和法律挑战。我们的试点项目由一个跨学科团队设计，并与塞拉利昂诉诸司法的非政府组织timmap for Justice合作，利用喜剧和表演来应对两个关键挑战:传播与性暴力相关的社会和法律问题，以及就性暴力的经历展开更广泛的讨论。利用焦点小组和访谈的经验证据，本文展示了幽默方法如何被证明是一种富有成效的参与模式，并研究了关键概念，包括“笑声的邻近”(涉及幽默的空间和人际方面)，笑声和记忆之间的联系，以及生活经验，幽默和暴力之间的矛盾关系。
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Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/21681392.2021.1999834
Graeme Young
Rapid urbanization and the transformations that it brings are raising urgent questions about understanding the African city. This article stresses the value of viewing urban development through a critical lens that focuses on questions surrounding neoliberalism and the state, highlighting how such an approach can provide important insights into the dynamics of informal economic activity. Examining the recent history of Kisekka Market in Kampala, Uganda, it argues that development processes in the informal economy, even when apparently neutral or ostensibly empowering for the urban poor, facilitate forms of accumulation and dispossession that result in the consolidation of political and economic power. The destruction and rebirth of Kisekka Market, despite its changing politics, has consistently benefitted wealthier vendors and external investors, threatened to displace poorer traders and served the interests of President Museveni, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and their allies. Exploring these dynamics demands addressing traditional political economy questions that must serve as the foundation for analysing the institutions, structures and processes shaping contemporary African cities.
{"title":"Neoliberalism and the state in the African city: informality, accumulation and the rebirth of a Ugandan market","authors":"Graeme Young","doi":"10.1080/21681392.2021.1999834","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2021.1999834","url":null,"abstract":"Rapid urbanization and the transformations that it brings are raising urgent questions about understanding the African city. This article stresses the value of viewing urban development through a critical lens that focuses on questions surrounding neoliberalism and the state, highlighting how such an approach can provide important insights into the dynamics of informal economic activity. Examining the recent history of Kisekka Market in Kampala, Uganda, it argues that development processes in the informal economy, even when apparently neutral or ostensibly empowering for the urban poor, facilitate forms of accumulation and dispossession that result in the consolidation of political and economic power. The destruction and rebirth of Kisekka Market, despite its changing politics, has consistently benefitted wealthier vendors and external investors, threatened to displace poorer traders and served the interests of President Museveni, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and their allies. Exploring these dynamics demands addressing traditional political economy questions that must serve as the foundation for analysing the institutions, structures and processes shaping contemporary African cities.","PeriodicalId":37966,"journal":{"name":"Critical African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81544850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/21681392.2021.2005377
Innocent Dande
This paper examines the emergence of informal dog breeding businesses in Zimbabwe’s high-density suburbs between 1990 and 2019. It uses the dog breeding practices of the working-classes and informal workers as an entry point into the global dog historiography that overly focuses on the dog breeding practices of the ruling classes and of the middle classes in Western Europe and in North America. It, thus, provides an animal-sensitive assessment of the Zimbabwean crisis drawing from archival sources, newspapers and from digital ethnography. It argues that the dog breeding practices of the working-classes and informal workers in Harare’s high-density suburbs avails a global south dog history that is not overly influenced by Western Kennel Club rules and breeding standards. The paper also focuses on the various types of dogs that gained popularity at different times owing to Zimbabwe’s changing political-economy during the period under review. Informal dog breeders bred different dog breeds at different times in reaction to the fashionable trends to solve evolving urban security needs as a result of changing urban sub-cultures. These informal dog breeding businesses created strong downstream and upstream business ventures that enabled successful dog breeders to attain breadwinner statuses during the Zimbabwean crisis. It concludes by showing that human-dog relations changed during the Zimbabwean crisis in Harare’s high-density suburbs.
{"title":"The political economy of informal dog breeding businesses in Harare’s high-density suburbs, Zimbabwe, 1990-2019.","authors":"Innocent Dande","doi":"10.1080/21681392.2021.2005377","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2021.2005377","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the emergence of informal dog breeding businesses in Zimbabwe’s high-density suburbs between 1990 and 2019. It uses the dog breeding practices of the working-classes and informal workers as an entry point into the global dog historiography that overly focuses on the dog breeding practices of the ruling classes and of the middle classes in Western Europe and in North America. It, thus, provides an animal-sensitive assessment of the Zimbabwean crisis drawing from archival sources, newspapers and from digital ethnography. It argues that the dog breeding practices of the working-classes and informal workers in Harare’s high-density suburbs avails a global south dog history that is not overly influenced by Western Kennel Club rules and breeding standards. The paper also focuses on the various types of dogs that gained popularity at different times owing to Zimbabwe’s changing political-economy during the period under review. Informal dog breeders bred different dog breeds at different times in reaction to the fashionable trends to solve evolving urban security needs as a result of changing urban sub-cultures. These informal dog breeding businesses created strong downstream and upstream business ventures that enabled successful dog breeders to attain breadwinner statuses during the Zimbabwean crisis. It concludes by showing that human-dog relations changed during the Zimbabwean crisis in Harare’s high-density suburbs.","PeriodicalId":37966,"journal":{"name":"Critical African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74233084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/21681392.2021.1999833
Fiona Siegenthaler
This paper focuses on artistic engagements with urban change in Johannesburg. The guiding questions are: (1) How do artists perceive and reflect urbanity, social change, and the transition of inner-city Johannesburg within their work? (2) In what ways can artworks contribute to Southern theories and decolonial and pluriversal conceptions of the city? The paper consists of three parts. The first offers a conceptual framing of the relationship between images, imageries, and imagination and their relation to artistic representation and practice. The second part focuses on the work of David Koloane, Jo Ractliffe and Anthea Moys between the late 1990s and the early 2010s, whose artistic work relates in various ways to urban imaginaries, individual experience, and the visual representation of Johannesburg. Inspired by the concepts of cityness and invisibility (Simone), the third part of the paper discusses the interplay between individual positionality and urban experience, the role of socio-political discourses and urban imageries for the artistic expression as well as the potential of such analysis for theorizing urban life and its artistic representations from pluriversal perspectives, as suggested by proponents of decolonial theories.
{"title":"Representing Johannesburg in transformation: urban experience, imageries, and the work of art by David Koloane, Jo Ractliffe and Anthea Moys","authors":"Fiona Siegenthaler","doi":"10.1080/21681392.2021.1999833","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2021.1999833","url":null,"abstract":"This paper focuses on artistic engagements with urban change in Johannesburg. The guiding questions are: (1) How do artists perceive and reflect urbanity, social change, and the transition of inner-city Johannesburg within their work? (2) In what ways can artworks contribute to Southern theories and decolonial and pluriversal conceptions of the city? The paper consists of three parts. The first offers a conceptual framing of the relationship between images, imageries, and imagination and their relation to artistic representation and practice. The second part focuses on the work of David Koloane, Jo Ractliffe and Anthea Moys between the late 1990s and the early 2010s, whose artistic work relates in various ways to urban imaginaries, individual experience, and the visual representation of Johannesburg. Inspired by the concepts of cityness and invisibility (Simone), the third part of the paper discusses the interplay between individual positionality and urban experience, the role of socio-political discourses and urban imageries for the artistic expression as well as the potential of such analysis for theorizing urban life and its artistic representations from pluriversal perspectives, as suggested by proponents of decolonial theories.","PeriodicalId":37966,"journal":{"name":"Critical African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77007562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-26DOI: 10.1080/21681392.2021.1964996
W. Monteith, L. Camfield
Marketplaces have long provided a context for observing the negotiation of everyday life amid broader processes of social and economic transformation. A growing scholarship has debated the relationship between markets and capitalist modes of production in Africa. However, less attention has been paid to the changing moral dimensions of economic life within popular urban marketplaces. This article examines the moral economy of a central marketplace in Kampala, Uganda, through an analysis of a rare archive: the records of the market disciplinary committee. We show that market vendors have responded to the expansion of market economy in Kampala by invoking principles derived from the past, including the obligation to ‘feed’ others. Rather than an abstracted market economy, disputes in the market were interpreted in the context of an embedded market society in which value is placed on livelihood facilitation. These findings advance the burgeoning literature on capitalism in Africa by demonstrating the ways in which neoliberal norms and values are situated within a broader moral landscape that places limits on what can be exchanged with whom.
{"title":"‘Don’t you want us to eat?’: the moral economy of a Ugandan marketplace:‘Ne voulez-vous pas que nous mangions?’: L’économie morale d’un marché ougandais","authors":"W. Monteith, L. Camfield","doi":"10.1080/21681392.2021.1964996","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2021.1964996","url":null,"abstract":"Marketplaces have long provided a context for observing the negotiation of everyday life amid broader processes of social and economic transformation. A growing scholarship has debated the relationship between markets and capitalist modes of production in Africa. However, less attention has been paid to the changing moral dimensions of economic life within popular urban marketplaces. This article examines the moral economy of a central marketplace in Kampala, Uganda, through an analysis of a rare archive: the records of the market disciplinary committee. We show that market vendors have responded to the expansion of market economy in Kampala by invoking principles derived from the past, including the obligation to ‘feed’ others. Rather than an abstracted market economy, disputes in the market were interpreted in the context of an embedded market society in which value is placed on livelihood facilitation. These findings advance the burgeoning literature on capitalism in Africa by demonstrating the ways in which neoliberal norms and values are situated within a broader moral landscape that places limits on what can be exchanged with whom.","PeriodicalId":37966,"journal":{"name":"Critical African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87865638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-01DOI: 10.1080/21681392.2021.1931383
J. Hopwood
Access to land for the Acholi people of northern Uganda still has much in common with understandings of the pre-colonial situation. This paper reflects on how collective landholding has faced over a century of hostile policy promoting land as private property. The notion of coloniality arises in this confrontation: the failure of communication ensuing from understanding Acholi social ordering in terms of false entities; and the foregrounding of land as object. The durability of colonial mechanisms emerges in processes such as the codification of the principles and practices of Acholi ‘customary land’. Pressure for land reform is driven by external bodies, UN agencies, donor governments and international NGOs, claiming to be seeking to protect the interest of the poor. Yet these offer no respite for the growing numbers of landless people – the colonial agenda appears to have its own momentum, serving no one’s interests. Meanwhile misunderstandings and misrepresentations of land holding groups entrenches the subaltern voicelessness of their members, isolating them from any support in dealing with the challenges of too many people on not enough land.
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Pub Date : 2021-07-01DOI: 10.1080/21681392.2021.1931384
Juliane Okot Bitek
‘Bird, or How I Became an Acholi Poet’, is a poetic response that demonstrates wer, Luo for song, as a site for knowledge making and social memory as well as a method for resistance and decolonization. This poem features the voices of war veterans, Ugandan exiles who fought in the 1978–79 Liberation war between Tanzania and Uganda, who shared their stories with me during my doctoral fieldwork. One such is Capt. K, who joined the Ugandan exiles in Tanzania after a violent purge of ethnic Acholi and Lango officers and soldiers by Amin in 1972. As he shares his story, Capt. K describes the colonial British as filled with roro. This Luo term, denoting treachery, describes the colonial intent of the British: the creation of ‘the thing’ out from which Fanon’s notion of decolonization is the creation of the [hu]man. I reflect on how ‘bird’, ‘weather’, ‘map’, and ‘grammar’, concepts from Morrison, Brand, Sharpe and Spillers, form the foundation to think about the colonial spectre. I conclude that wer is a decolonial space from which Ugandans can articulate their own humanity beyond the colonial narrative as part of a continuing anti-colonial struggle.
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