UMU Institutional Repository
The Uganda Martyrs University Institutional Repository (UMU-IR) preserves research output from the Uganda Martyrs University community
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- Uganda Martyrs University book series and book chapters by staff and students
- Proceedings of conferences held at Uganda Martyrs University and conference presentations by students and staff outside the University
Recent Submissions
Patriarchial backlash in Uganda? contested masculinities in conflict and peacebuilding
(Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2025-02-01) Edström, Jerker; Ashaba Mwiine, Amon; Tshimba, N., David
A backlash against gender equality and minority rights is sweeping across many countries across
the globe, including Uganda. Despite decades of experiencing conflicts and post-conflict nationbuilding, Uganda continues to boast of many apparently progressive policies on gender, such as
affirmative action for women’s political representation from 1989, a gender-inclusive Constitution
in 1995, a Domestic Violence Act in 2010, or the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme
(UWEP) more recently. Yet pushback has been increasing, and inclusive gender-egalitarian policies are often postponed or diluted amidst a shift in discourse toward ‘protection of the family’
(Mwiine et al., 2023). Sexual minorities and groups challenging hegemonic gender norms have
become increasingly demonised and criminalised with little visible wider public opposition – such
as in the context of the recently passed Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023. This raises thorny questions over how masculinities and gender justice are being contested in Uganda in the wake of
recent histories of conflict and peacebuilding and how this may relate to broader politics of gender
backlash across the world.
The question of ‘men and masculinities’ in feminist conversations is gradually gaining some
currency within conflict, post-conflict and peacebuilding initiatives in Uganda and beyond (Large,
1997; Dolan, 2002; Abirafeh, 2007; Anderson, 2009; Onyango, 2012; Watson, 2015; Bamidele,
2016). But it is harder to find analyses of this which link across regional contexts, from the local
to the global. Our central question in this chapter is: ‘How can we better understand the backlash
against gender equality and inclusive justice in Uganda today and its connections to masculinities,
conflict and peacebuilding?’ We argue that we can better understand such backlash in Uganda
by tracing historical constructions of masculinities, conflict and peacebuilding within a holistic
analysis. This is important because backlash is not an isolated or exogenous event but is itself
part of conflicted historical processes and recurring dynamics which shape how we understand
and engage with ideas of masculinity, gender, conflict and peacebuilding, both locally in Uganda
and as part and parcel of a more global evolving dis/order. Such an analysis must attend to at least
three dimensions: a spatial contextualisation linking the local to the global, a decolonial rereading
of history and a related deconstruction of meanings given to terms such as ‘gender’, ‘masculinity’,
‘the family’, ‘the nation’, ‘conflict’ and ‘peace’.
In spatial terms, we put the recent backlash against gender equality in Uganda in the context
of the concurrent global swell of ‘patriarchal backlash’ because these local dynamics are also
connected to global ones. Whilst taking multiple forms and involving diverse actors across settings, such backlash emerges in response to apparent crises and challenges to inequitable orders,
and it travels transnationally, operating in typically resonant ways. It focuses on deeply symbolic
spatial sites of body, family and nation to ‘righteously’ restore these to some supposed divinely
pre-ordained or natural state. We then take a decolonial turn and re-reading of history to recall how
the region’s colonial histories of subjugation under European imperialism earlier reshaped gender
orders and power relations from the global north. Since then, struggles for independence, local and
regional conflicts and efforts at peacebuilding have continued to be co-shaped with neo-colonial
influences and interests. We focus on Uganda while also looking at Africa and beyond, because
‘the nation’ is itself a central – and rather recent – construct in this dynamic, emerging from
post-colonial and regional conflicts, and can thus only be understood within that deeper history.
We then deconstruct the symbolic sites of the body, family and nation in Uganda to highlight
related binary, hierarchical and categorical traps embedded in divisive conflictual narratives about
these. We explore contested masculinities around recent conflicts and peacebuilding by drawing
attention to how vulnerabilities and diversity amongst men have been occluded by patriarchal and
reductive constructs and to how conflicts, backlash politics and statecraft take on highly masculine
modes of performance. The site of the body gets heteronormatively constructed in blunt sex-binary
terms, which occludes other possibilities and gendered intersectional nuances. This does the ideological work of naturalising a binary principle onto other appositions as a simplistic, reductive
either/or logic, such as in conflict/peace or perpetration/victimisation. The family gets constructed
as traditionally hierarchical and male headed, naturalising a hierarchical principle for broader
social organisation and providing a model for the nation and the state as patriarchal and authoritarian. The nation as a whole, then, gets constructed as a bordered and coherent unit of population
or citizenry, identified in contradistinction with ‘the foreign’ and naturalising a homogenising,
circumscribed and exclusionary logic, a categorical principle.
As peacebuilding can itself become a mode of settling a new and differently oppressive social
contract – a ‘relative peace’ naturalising new orders of hegemonic masculinity, incorporating and
neutralising challenges – we then draw on this analysis to conclude with some reflections on
what might mitigate backlash and toxic patriarchal evolution with relevance for peacebuilding in
conflict-affected places like Uganda. We call for transcending the anxiety appealed to in backlash
by exposing its contradictions and simplistic binaries, hierarchies and categorical logics to aim for
more inclusive and negotiated transformations.
Uganda citizens’ land tenure type preference and underpinning factors
(BP International, 2024-02-01) Nyadoi, Priscilla; Namirimu T.; Ogola L. S.; Tugume D.; Kusiima C. B.; Emanzi C.; Kyalisiime K.; Tayebwa G.
This publication presents in detail, existing land tenure systems, their levels of adoption, popularity and impacts on peoples’ livelihoods country wide in Uganda. A countrywide study was conducted to generate information on peoples’ perspectives of a range of land tenure system issues in Uganda, including their impacts on livelihoods, that was scanty and insufficient to guide land policy reforms. The study was aimed at elucidating the land tenure system most people would want adopted in Uganda and the reasons for their choice.
The study was guided by hypotheses that countrywide, (a) development demands and land use dynamics lead to homogenous distribution of land tenure systems (b) communities know about existing land tenure types(c)communities attribute livelihood limitations to specific land tenure types and (d)there exist one most preferred tenure type. Specific objectives were (1) to examine distribution of existing land tenure types (2) evaluate people’s knowledge of the tenure types (3) assess perceived impacts on livelihoods and (4) document the tenure type most preferred and (5) use generated knowledge to elicit support and influence Uganda’s policy on land use and ownership.
From each of Uganda’s four regions, random sample of five districts was selected and within each 40 households sampled at systematic intervals of 1km and adult member found in the house holds interviewed using a questionnaire. Overall 1224 respondents from 21 districts (11%) of Uganda’s current 111 were interviewed. The data were managed and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in Statically Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Ver 16 Inc. (Bryman and Cramer, 2009).
The results show that existing land tenure types were not equally distributed in Uganda, customary tenure is the most common, followed by freehold. Leasehold tenure is distributed countrywide but among few households while, mailo tenure is found in some districts in central and western regions of Uganda. Communal tenure is in a few areas in western and northeastern regions. The four land tenure types were not homogenously known country wide, most households in Gulu, Bududa, Kanungu and Mbarara districts with the following profile were more knowledgeable about different land tenure types in Uganda: age group 40-51, family size 4-6, secondary school level educated, those who had stayed for 16-20 or more years in the present area they are in , those who originated from within Uganda, those who had land near water bodies, those who owned land, those who had landholding size of 4-7 hectares and among those who were unhappy with the type of land tenure they held.
Communal and leasehold land tenure types were responsible for the following limitations to achievement of improved livelihoods as reported by respondents: access to food, medicine, income, access to land for tree planting, homestead establishment, inheritance, burial and land for offer as collateral for securing loans. Customary land tenure type limited land owners’ access to medicine, income, tree planting and homestead establishment. The mailo land tenureship limited owners’ access to medicine, tree planting and burial of deceased relatives.
Morethan3/4 of the households involved in this study preferred freehold land tenure system while, communal and mailo land tenure systems were the least preferred (by more than 1/2 of the households. These results provide evidence of the need for the government of Uganda to promote freehold land tenure system countrywide in practice and in the nations land policies and laws. This will however also require the government to carry out further consultations with different stakeholders and with communities countrywide, for proper policy and legal developments.
Going against the tide in Uganda’s higher education: a brief historical account of Uganda Martyrs University
(Makerere University, 2024-05-29) Mukidi, Acaali, Christopher; Olweny, Mark; Nakabo, S., Robinah; Otaala, A., Laura; Murongo, Fabian, Marius; Sentongo, Spire, Jimmy; Tshimba, David; Nina, M., Pius
Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) was founded in 1993 and was accredited as a private not-for-profit university by the Uganda National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) and chattered in 2005. This paper provides a brief granular historical account of Uganda Martyrs University (UMU), focusing mainly on three units, namely, its Registry, its Faculty of Agriculture, and its Faculty of the Built Environment. These units are purposively selected for their unique contributions to the remarkable journey of UMU over the past thirty years—a story of tenacity of purpose and hope daring decision-making and unconventional partnerships. The early years of UMU, were devoted to setting up the systems and infrastructure of the university, at the core of which the Registry ended up playing many key roles. The role of the Registry kept evolving, with the later years being characterized by expansion and refinement of programmes, policies, and functions of different academic units. The Faculty of Agriculture (FA), on its part, grew from a one diploma- and one degree-awarding programme to a fully-fledged multi-disciplinary undergraduate and postgraduate (master’s and doctoral) faculty, with the largest student cohort since 2000. Finally, the Faculty of the Built Environment (FoBE) evolved to become Uganda’s first-ever architectural programme to address the need to look at the teaching of architecture as a forward-looking field, to addressing future concerns for Environmentally Conscious Design (ECD) as a pertinent issue in built environment education and practice in both local and global contexts. Knitted together the story of these three units of UMU present a brief yet telling account of UMU going against the tide in the country’s higher education landscape in the post-Structural Adjustment dispensation.
Advances in Wildlife and Environment Management in Uganda
(Book Publisher International, India- United Kingdom., 2024-01-11) Nyadoi, Priscilla; Biira, S.; Mbabazi, F. K.; Turyamwesimira J.; Baluku, R.; Nuwagaba, P.; Mugabi, M.; Kijjambu, C.; Barirega A.
This publication is a summary of the submissions, proceedings and presentations that were captured during the conservation conference held in February 2023, that featured advances in environment and wildlife conservation in Uganda, particularly elucidating Knowledge Contributions of the Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and non-STEM actors, around three sub themes namely, 1) Data Deficiencies limiting Interventions and Partnerships for Wildlife and Environment Conservation in Uganda, to guide research interventions 2) Building Knowledge and 3)Synergies for Wildlife and Environment Management, pegged on research, management experiences, contemporary policy and political challenges in perspectives, respectively. Held at Makerere University Central Teaching Facility (CTF) 2 Auditorium on the 9th of February 2023, from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm, as part of Uganda’s National events to mark the United Nations (UN) World Wildlife Day (WWD) celebrated annually every 3rd day of March. The conference proceedings were accessible to both physical and virtual participants that totalled to 283 individuals of which 13 were technical presenters, the rest being an audience made of participants from the academia, private sector, civil society, government agencies, ministries and the general public. While given in details in this publication, summarily, proceedings and technical presentations realised during the conservation conference 2023 reveal among others, the critical data gaps limiting, management of wildlife and environment in Uganda, the lacking but required stakeholder synergies that would improve wildlife and environment management in the country, areas of research in wildlife and environment that are important but currently given littlie or no attention in Uganda, and the need for full cost allocation in environment and social impacts of projects assessment. Also revealed by the conference submissions are a number of hypotheses on the relevance of targeted beneficiaries’ involvement in identification of interventions, for the success of wildlife and environment conservation projects and programmes. Knowledge shared in this publication will in particular be valuable for policy makers, practitioners, researchers, the academic, civil society and private sector whose business, work and or interest are in Uganda’s wildlife and environment.
Uganda Citizens’ Land Tenure Type Preference and Underpinning Factors
(Book Publisher International, India- United Kingdom., 2024-02-01) Nyadoi, Priscilla
Abstract
This publication presents in detail, existing land tenure systems, their levels of adoption, popularity and impacts on peoples’ livelihoods country wide in Uganda. A countrywide study was conducted to generate information on peoples’ perspectives of a range of land tenure system issues in Uganda, including their impacts on livelihoods, that was scanty and insufficient to guide land policy reforms. The study was aimed at elucidating the land tenure system most people would want adopted in Uganda and the reasons for their choice.
The study was guided by hypotheses that countrywide, (a) development demands and land use dynamics lead to homogenous distribution of land tenure systems (b) communities know about existing land tenure types(c)communities attribute livelihood limitations to specific land tenure types and (d)there exist one most preferred tenure type. Specific objectives were (1) to examine distribution of existing land tenure types (2) evaluate people’s knowledge of the tenure types (3) assess perceived impacts on livelihoods and (4) document the tenure type most preferred and (5) use generated knowledge to elicit support and influence Uganda’s policy on land use and ownership.
From each of Uganda’s four regions, random sample of five districts was selected and within each 40 households sampled at systematic intervals of 1km and adult member found in the house holds interviewed using a questionnaire. Overall 1224 respondents from 21 districts (11%) of Uganda’s current 111 were interviewed. The data were managed and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in Statically Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Ver 16 Inc. (Bryman and Cramer, 2009).
The results show that existing land tenure types were not equally distributed in Uganda, customary tenure is the most common, followed by freehold. Leasehold tenure is distributed countrywide but among few households while, mailo tenure is found in some districts in central and western regions of Uganda. Communal tenure is in a few areas in western and northeastern regions. The four land tenure types were not homogenously known country wide, most households in Gulu, Bududa, Kanungu and Mbarara districts with the following profile were more knowledgeable about different land tenure types in Uganda: age group 40-51, family size 4-6, secondary school level educated, those who had stayed for 16-20 or more years in the present area they are in , those who originated from within Uganda, those who had land near water bodies, those who owned land, those who had landholding size of 4-7 hectares and among those who were unhappy with the type of land tenure they held.
Communal and leasehold land tenure types were responsible for the following limitations to achievement of improved livelihoods as reported by respondents: access to food, medicine, income, access to land for tree planting, homestead establishment, inheritance, burial and land for offer as collateral for securing loans. Customary land tenure type limited land owners’ access to medicine, income, tree planting and homestead establishment. The mailo land tenureship limited owners’ access to medicine, tree planting and burial of deceased relatives.
Morethan3/4 of the households involved in this study preferred freehold land tenure system while, communal and mailo land tenure systems were the least preferred (by more than 1/2 of the households. These results provide evidence of the need for the government of Uganda to promote freehold land tenure system countrywide in practice and in the nations land policies and laws. This will however also require the government to carry out further consultations with different stakeholders and with communities countrywide, for proper policy and legal developments.