When a defence of insanity is put forward in answer to a criminal charge amnesia for the crime is not infrequently affirmed, in fact East (2) states that it is more often alleged than any other mental anomaly. The defence of amnesia is at times raised when there are no grounds for supposing that the prisoner is suffering from loss of memory, but there are undoubted cases where the crime, generally homicidal in character, has been committed during a disorder of consciousness or the memory of it subsequently has been lost. It is therefore of the greatest importance from a medico-legal point of view to distinguish between real and simulated amnesia. While amnesia may be simulated in cases where there is no mental disorder present, there are also instances where loss of memory is feigned by individuals in whom there are other reasons for regarding them as mentally abnormal. In this connection it must be realized that memory also is sometimes malingered; a prisoner who by reason of insanity accompanied by amnesia has escaped the responsibility for his crime may presently arrive at the conclusion that a persistence of his loss of memory will tend to keep him confined in an asylum, and therefore he asserts a remembrance of his crime, the story of which he is likely to have become familiar with at his trial or elsewhere. Not all such false memories, however, are definitely malingered. A patient may have heard the story of his crime so often that in the end he becomes convinced that he actually remembers it.

Women are often understood to be highly marginalised in typical African customary land regimes. The research presented in this article found that in the Acholi region of northern Uganda this is not the case. The crisis of land conflict that followed the twenty-year lra insurgency and mass rural displacement has seemingly passed, notwithstanding a minimal contribution from the formal justice, law and order sector: local state actors as well as clan elders are mediating and adjudicating disputes on the basis of custom. However some social institutions, in particular traditional marriage, have been deeply affected by displacement and the consequent poverty. In this context, custom appears to be becoming more responsive to the needs of women, including those who are divorced or separated. While women's customary land claims are often challenged, they appear to be generally respected and supported by communities and those with responsibilities for settling disputes.

This paper draws on fieldwork conducted in 2011 and 2016 to explore the differing experiences of Karamojong women following the Government of Uganda's most recent disarmament programme. Besides being deprived of their guns, Karamojong communities have lost most of the cattle on which their livelihoods and way of life were centred. The study assesses whether or not women's experience of patriarchy has changed in these new circumstances, and, if so, how this impacts on their security and control of resources, or the absence of them. It maps, using information primarily supplied by women, public authorities from below, and evaluates if and how they respond to women's protection and survival needs, as well as if current development/humanitarian interventions are of sustainable benefit to Karamojong women. The paper concludes that apparent shifts in gender relations are probably superficial, contingent on continuing food aid, and that economic development and positive social change for women remain elusive.

Childbirth and lactation entail a severe stress on the female sex, and, under certain circumstances, are liable to cause insanity, during the course of which attempts at infanticide and suicide are common. For this reason the insanities connected with child-bearing and lactation have a definite medico-legal aspect. In the past very little has been written on this subject, though infanticide is by no means uncommon, and cases of child murder account for a large percentage of the population of the female division of the State Criminal Lunatic Asylum at Broadmoor. Possibly a study of some of these cases may not be lacking in interest.

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 peoplethe 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.

Discussions on African responses to Covid‐19 have focused on the state and its international backers. Far less is known about a wider range of public authorities, including chiefs, humanitarians, criminal gangs, and armed groups. This paper investigates how the pandemic provided opportunities for claims to and contests over power in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan. Ethnographic research is used to contend that local forms of public authority can be akin to miniature sovereigns, able to interpret dictates, policies, and advice as required. Alongside coping with existing complex protracted emergencies, many try to advance their own agendas and secure benefits. Those they seek to govern, though, do not passively accept the new normal, instead often challenging those in positions of influence. This paper assesses which of these actions and reactions will have lasting effects on local notions of statehood and argues for a public authorities lens in times of crisis.

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This research project explored how refugee community organisations (RCOs) could become more involved in the government's health agenda to improve the level of consultation and responsiveness in the design and provision of mental health services for ethnic minorities. The method involved a review of relevant literature, interviews with refugee community organisation leaders and community workers, and a survey of refugee service users' involvement with RCOs. The research found that the causes and effects of mental ill health in refugees as understood by interviewees were consistent with much of the literature in this area.The mental health needs of refugees are very similar across nationalities and ethnicities, and distinct from those of the general population and of other migrant groups. Appropriate responses, as understood by community leaders and professional community workers, are currently only partly and insufficiently provided by statutory health services, and there is extensive unmet need.