The Metaphor of War in Political Discourse on COVID-19 in Uganda

Abstract

The article examines the use of the metaphor of war in political communication on the novel COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda using two analytical tools of the social representation theory, anchoring and objectification. Drawing data for analysis from six widely televised presidential addresses to the nation on COVID-19 made by Uganda’s president, H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni during the months of March 2020 to September 2020, the article argues that during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a persistent dominant use of the metaphor of war by government representatives as a rhetorical device to communicate about and to make intelligible an emerging unknown virus as a threat that should be managed through combat behavior. In so doing, the use of the war metaphor and its implied call for combat behavior to control, manage, and eradicate the virus spread engendered consequences such as standardizing hegemonic understanding of the nature and causes of the virus as well as normalizing and legitimizing interventions that the government adopted to manage it.

Militarism and the Politics of Covid-19 Response in Uganda

“…Elites may frame pandemics as (1) national security threats requiring high-handed responses; (2) alien threats to national survival, which provoke fear and stigma, of a dangerous Other, among the population; and (3) spatial and travel threats in response to which coercive control of place and mobility becomes important. Framing in security, alien, and spatial terms also provokes notions of territorial control ( Atuhura, 2022 ). This legitimizes military deployments, military presence, and suppression of dissenting opinions and practices.…”

“…265–266). In Uganda, the “metaphor of war” was used in reference to Covid-19 while in Kenya the armed forces rhetorically declared war on the pandemic but played more supportive roles ( Atuhura, 2022 ; Ipapo 2022 ). Thus, militarized responses to Covid-19 varied across countries and within regions for reasons that are likely to be context-specific.…”

“…Museveni’s rhetorical anchoring of the Covid-19 pandemic was such that ideas about the pandemic, despite its novelty, were constructed and related to the well-known phenomenon or context of war to make them more intelligible to his audiences ( Atuhura, 2022 , p. 3). Museveni used the war metaphor to explain, communicate about, and make directives about Covid-19, consistent with and rooted in Uganda’s context of warfighting and militarism.…”

“…Between March and September 2020, the president made six addresses to the nation, on March 18, April 14, May 4 and 18, June 3, and September 20, to provide updates on the pandemic ( Atuhura, 2022 , p. 4), as well as guidelines on, and preventive measures against, Covid-19. National response measures and policies followed and implemented the guidelines specified in the president’s speeches in which, among other far-reaching steps, lockdowns were announced.…”

“…On the other hand, the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) took a dominant presence in pandemic-related decision making, security measures, policing, and guarding health sector infrastructure, and overall securitization of Covid-19. State elites defined Covid-19 as a security threat exceeding capacities of civilian structures and represented it through war metaphors, thereby justifying military deployments ( Atuhura, 2022 ). Second, they diverted military resources, technologies, and personnel to non-military roles and functions making visible military deployments ever-present.…”