Religious (de)politicisation in Uganda’s 2016 elections

Abstract

Religion has influenced Ugandan politics ever since colonial times. While the interrelations of religion and politics have altered since the coming to power of president Museveni's National Resistance Movement (NRM), religion continues to influence Ugandan public culture and formal politics in important ways. Building on ethnographic fieldwork in Kampala and Acholi, as well as analysis of media reporting and discussions in social media, this article focuses on the role of religious leaders during Uganda's 2016 parliamentary and presidential elections. We argue that the striking differences between Ugandan clerics' teaching on politics relate in part to genuine differences in religious beliefs, but also to patronage, intimidation, and ethnicity, and to the strategic calculations religious leaders make about how best to affect change in a constricted political environment. In discussion with previous research on religion and politics in Africa, and utilising analytical concepts from the study of publics, the article proposes a model of religious (de)politicisation, whereby both the politicising and depoliticising effects of religion are acknowledged. To do so, the analysis distinguishes between NGOised and enchanted planes of religion, and shows that on both planes, religion contributed simultaneously to enhancing and diminishing the space for public debate in election-time Uganda. While many religious leaders actively or silently supported the incumbent regime, religious leaders also took vocal public stands, fostered political action, and catered for vernacular imaginaries of political critique, by so doing expanding the space of public debate. However, by performing public debate that remained vague on crucial issues, and by promoting a religious narrative of peace, religious leaders participated in the enactment of a façade of political debate, in so doing legitimising the autocratic facets of Museveni's hybrid regime. Acknowledging religion as an important constituent of public culture contributes to more nuanced understandings of election dynamics in Eastern Africa.

Hegemony of Political Parties and Regional Political Oligarchy

“…Regional political oligarchies can also strengthen political party hegemony by providing financial and political support to existing political parties, as well as exploiting their connections and influence to maintain the party's political dominance. Political or economic elites who are part of an oligarchy often have close ties to the dominant political party, and the two support each other to maintain their interests and power at the regional level (Alava & Ssentongo, 2018;Alcantud, 2020). The ties between political party hegemony and regional political oligarchy create a mutually reinforcing political and economic environment.…”

The Lord’s Resistance Army and the arms that brought the Lord

“…As my research participants argued, supporting the regime is the only way in which Acholi region could hope to gain medicine for government hospitals or tarmacked roads-the latter of which was completed through the region, with Chinese funding, right after the 2016 elections. But the tensions belying this support are volatile, as is repeatedly shown by the violence between opposition and government supporters during elections and by-elections in different parts of the country (see Alava and Ssentongo 2016;Titeca and Onyango 2012;Vokes and Wilkins 2016).…”