The Government Has Long Hands: Institutionalized Arbitrariness and Local Security Initiatives in Northern Uganda

Tapscott, Rebecca

doi:10.1111/dech.12294

Cited by 18 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Jones (), writing about the neighbouring Teso sub‐region, saw the state as wilfully absent in rural Uganda. Tapscott () instead sees the Ugandan state (as observed in Acholiland) as a looming presence in citizens' perceptions, often absent in practice, but aware of what is going on and able to intervene when its interests are threatened; from what we were told, this resonates in Karamoja.…”

Section: Public Authority In Karamojamentioning

confidence: 94%

Resilient patriarchy: public authority and women's (in)security in Karamoja, Uganda

Hopwood¹,

Porter

Nangiro³

2017

Disasters

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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.

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Section: Public Authority In Karamojamentioning

confidence: 94%

Resilient patriarchy: public authority and women's (in)security in Karamoja, Uganda

Hopwood¹,

Porter

Nangiro³

2017

Disasters

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“…This effect resonates with most of the literature on plural policing, which has highlighted how private or community security actors do not so much erode state authority, as they reconfigure it through different forms of enrolment and complementarity (Abrahamsen and Williams, 2009; Baker, 2002; Jones and Newburn, 2006). Tapscott (2017) even goes as far as to suggest for Uganda that the diffusion of security provision to local groups works as a deliberate strategy to consolidate central state power. Yet, in Chasana, the strong reliance on civilians, based on inherently informal means, outside the current legal framework, was also precarious to state control and did not simply involve complementarity.…”

Section: Everyday Policing In the Inner-city Peripherymentioning

confidence: 99%

Provisional police authority in Maputo’s inner-city periphery

Kyed

2019

Environ Plan D

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In Maputo city, post-war liberalisation implied new police reforms based on the rule of law, but it also led to rising crime and an unequal distribution of public security provision that favours the inner-city over the poorer peripheries. This article explores how this spatial bordering of the city affected the configuration of police authority in an underprioritised inner-city periphery. Based on ethnography, I show how police officers struggle to perform their duty and assert authority through what I refer to as institutional–jurisdictional ‘bordering practices’. Central here is the borders that separate law from popular justice and civilians from the police as a state authority with the de jure monopoly on violence and law enforcement. The officers themselves continuously deborder their own distinct authority by resolving crimes informally and by relying on civilians. Yet, this co-exists with efforts to re-border their authority through displays of state power and threats of legal processes. These (de/re)bordering practices, I argue, reflect the provisional authority of the police. The officers constantly face conflicting demands: between the new rule of law restrictions and popular preferences for immediate justice, which are both informed by historical legacies of popular justice and by the spatial bordering of the city that produces the inner-city periphery as unsafe and uncertain spaces.

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“…This activity is partly enabled by the Anti-Terrorist Act of 2002 that gave security agencies a lot of power. Museveni's hold on power owes much to the, at times, brutal violence meted out by the army and special forces under the command of his younger brother, and to networks of informants that are commonly believed to have infiltrated all institutions, from village councils and churches to universities (Tapscott 2017). It has been argued that international donors have (often indirectly) strengthened the Ugandan military, and, thus, supported the authoritarian and violent regime (Anderson & Fisher 2016, 68).…”

Section: Violence: Militarization Of the Politymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…That makes for a constant flow ofand a constant suspicion ofinformation and questions that are considered a matter of or as scrutinizing "politics" and "security". (Verma 2013, 48) As noted by Rebecca Tapscott, who has recently conducted research on nonstate security provision in Acholi, there has been speculation as to the actual capacity of such local-level security initiatives and possible spy networks (Tapscott 2017). However, I would argue that from the perspective of Kitgum, and my informants, none of whom as far as I ever learned were themselves involved in such networks, the question of how efficient state security networks actually are, was somewhat irrelevant.…”

Section: Legacies Of State Violence In Northern Ugandamentioning

confidence: 99%

Practices of Citizenship in East Africa

Holma¹,

Kontinen

2019

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This vital collection offers fresh insight into the nature of citizen engagement. Challenging liberal and universalist framings of democratic participation, the authors focus on people's everyday habits, practices and experiences of cooperation for livelihoods and survival. Citizenship is repositioned as a gradual, learned and contextual process that spans public and private life. This highly empirical and theoretically innovative work by African and European scholars is essential reading."

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The Government Has Long Hands: Institutionalized Arbitrariness and Local Security Initiatives in Northern Uganda

Abstract: This article examines the relationship between the state security apparatus and local security initiatives in Gulu

Cited by 18 publications

References 45 publications

Resilient patriarchy: public authority and women's (in)security in Karamoja, Uganda

Resilient patriarchy: public authority and women's (in)security in Karamoja, Uganda

Provisional police authority in Maputo’s inner-city periphery

Practices of Citizenship in East Africa

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