Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T04:33:08.645Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sign language as a technology: existential and instrumental perspectives of Ugandan Sign Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2022

Gitte Beckmann
Gitte Beckmann*
Affiliation:
Independent Researcher, Stockholm, Sweden
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The introduction of Ugandan Sign Language in Acholi, northern Uganda, was part of a growing internationally linked disability movement in the country and was set within the framework of development policy and human rights-based approaches. In this context, Ugandan Sign Language appeared as a technology of development. But how did the appropriation of Ugandan Sign Language change deaf people’s lives, their being-in-the-world, in Acholi? In using the theoretical approach of existential and instrumental perspectives on technologies by Martin Heidegger, this article analyses the complex transitions following the appropriation of Ugandan Sign Language on international, national and local levels. The disability movement – including Ugandan Sign Language projects – reached Acholi during the time of war between the Lord’s Resistance Army and Ugandan national forces. Displacement brought scattered deaf people together in towns and camps, where Ugandan Sign Language was introduced through workshops and institutions including churches. This created new forms of communication and possibilities of sociality. After the war, gender differences emerged, as many deaf women returned to rural homes where they had few opportunities to communicate with other sign language users.

Résumé

Résumé

L’introduction de la langue des signes ougandaise à Acholi, dans le nord de l’Ouganda, faisait partie d’un mouvement international du handicap en pleine croissance dans le pays et s’inscrivait dans un cadre de politique de développement et de démarches fondées sur les droits humains. Dans ce contexte, la langue des signes ougandaise est apparue comme une technologie de développement. Mais comment l’appropriation de la langue des signes ougandaise a-t-elle changé la vie des sourds, leur façon d’être au monde, à Acholi ? En utilisant la démarche théorique des perspectives existentielles et instrumentales sur les technologies de Martin Heidegger, cet article analyse les transitions complexes qui ont suivi l’appropriation de la langue des signes aux niveaux international, national et local. Le mouvement du handicap, y compris les projets de langue des signes ougandaise, est arrivé à Acholi pendant la guerre qui opposait l’Armée de résistance du Seigneur (Lord’s Resistance Army, ou LRA) aux forces nationales ougandaises. Les déplacements de population ont regroupé les sourds dispersés dans des villes et des camps dans lesquels la langue des signes ougandaise fut introduite à travers des ateliers et des institutions, dont les églises. Il s’est ainsi créé de nouvelles formes de communication et possibilités de socialité. Après la guerre, des différences genrées ont émergé, lorsque de nombreuses femmes sourdes ont regagné leurs foyers ruraux où elles avaient peu d’opportunités de communiquer avec d’autres utilisateurs de langue des signes.

Type
Disability and technology
Information
Africa , Volume 92 , Issue 4 , August 2022 , pp. 430 - 448
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aina, ‘G. (2015) ‘Overcoming cultural and linguistic barriers to HIV/AIDS education among deaf people in Africa’ in Cooper, A. C. and Rashid, K. K. (eds), Citizenship, Politics, Difference: perspectives from sub-Saharan signed language communities. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Baines, E. and Rosenoff Gauvin, L. (2014) ‘Motherhood and social repair after war and displacement in northern Uganda’, Journal of Refugee Studies 27 (2): 282–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Behrends, A., Park, S.-J. and Rottenburg, R. (2014) ‘Travelling models: introducing an analytical concept to globalisation studies’ in Behrends, A., Park, S.-J. and Rottenburg, R. (eds), Travelling Models in African Conflict Management: translating technologies of social ordering. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjarnason, D., Stefánsdóttir, V. and Beukes, L. (2012) ‘Signs speak as loud as words: deaf empowerment in Namibia’, Development in Practice 22 (2): 190–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branch, A. (2013) ‘Gulu in war … and peace? The town as camp in northern Uganda’, Urban Studies 50 (15): 3152–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crook, R. C. (1999) ‘“No-party” politics and local democracy in Africa: Rawlings’ Ghana in the 1990s and the “Ugandan model”’, Democratization 6 (4): 114–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Clerck, G. A. M. (2011) ‘Fostering deaf people’s empowerment: the Cameroonian deaf community and epistemological equity’, Third World Quarterly 32 (8): 1419–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Meulder, M., Murray, J. J. and McKee, R. L. (2019) ‘Introduction’ in De Meulder, M., Murray, J. J. and McKee, R. L. (eds), The Legal Recognition of Sign Languages: advocacy and outcomes around the world. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vos, C. and Nyst, V. (2018) ‘The time depth and typology of rural sign languages’, Sign Language Studies 18 (4): 477–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edward, M. and Akanlig-Pare, G. (2021) ‘Sign language research in Ghana: an overview of indigenous and foreign-based sign languages’, Journal of African Languages and Literatures 2: 114–37.Google Scholar
Eide, A. H. and Ingstad, B. (2011) Disability and Poverty: a global challenge. Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Finnström, S. (2008) Living with Bad Surroundings. Durham NC and London: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Friedner, M. (2010) ‘Focus on which (deaf) space? Identity and belonging among deaf women in New Delhi, India’ in Burch, S. and Kafer, A. (eds), Deaf and Disability Studies: interdisciplinary perspectives. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Friedner, M. (2011) ‘“Future life how?”: The making of deaf sociality and aspiration in urban India’. PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Friedner, M. (2015) Valuing Deaf Worlds in Urban India. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunkel, D. J. (2017) ‘Better living through technology’, Foundations of Science 22: 349–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haualand, H. and Allen, C. (2009) Deaf People and Human Rights. Helsinki: World Federation of the Deaf and Swedish National Association of the Deaf.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. (1977) ‘The question concerning technology’ in Heidegger, M. (ed.), The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays. New York NY: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
HRW (2018) ‘Uganda: events of 2017’, Human Rights Watch (HRW) <https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/uganda>, accessed 4 November 2018.,+accessed+4+November+2018.>Google Scholar
Kusters, A. (2014) ‘Deaf sociality and the deaf Lutheran church in Adamorobe, Ghana’, Sign Language Studies 14 (4): 466–87.Google Scholar
Kusters, A. (2015) ‘To the farm, again and again, once and for all? Education, charitable aid, and development projects for deaf people in Adamorobe, Ghana’ in Cooper, A. C. and Rashid, K. K. (eds), Citizenship, Politics, Difference: perspectives from sub-Saharan sign language communities. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Lane, H., Hoffmeister, R. and Bahan, B. (1996) A Journey into the Deaf-World. San Diego CA: DawnSignPress.Google Scholar
Lee, J. C. (2012) ‘They have to see us: an ethnography of deaf people in Tanzania’. PhD dissertation, University of Colorado.Google Scholar
Lule, D. and Wallin, L. (2010) ‘Transmission of sign languages in Africa’ in Brentari, D. (ed.), Sign Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lutalo-Kiingi, S. and De Clerck, G. A. M. (2015a) ‘Introduction’ in Cooper, A. C. and Rashid, K. K. (eds), Citizenship, Politics, Difference: perspectives from sub-Saharan signed language communities. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Lutalo-Kiingi, S. and De Clerck, G. A. M. (2015b) ‘Deaf citizenship and sign language diversity in sub-Saharan Africa: promoting partnership between sign language communities, academia, and NGOs in development in Uganda and Cameroon’ in Cooper, A. C. and Rashid, K. K. (eds), Citizenship, Politics, Difference: perspectives from sub-Saharan signed language communities. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Lutalo-Kiingi, S. and De Clerck, G. A. M. (2016) ‘Perspectives on the sign language factor in sub-Saharan Africa: challenges of sustainability’ in De Clerck, G. A. M. and Paul, P. V. (eds), Sign Language, Sustainable Development, and Equal Opportunities: envisioning the future for deaf students. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Lutalo-Kiingi, S. and De Clerck, G. A. M. (2017) ‘Perspectives on the sign language factor in sub-Saharan Africa: challenges of sustainability’, American Annals of the Deaf 162 (1): 47–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Makara, S., Rakner, L. and Svåsand, L. (2009) ‘Turnaround: the National Resistance Movement and the reintroduction of a multiparty system in Uganda’, International Political Science Review 30 (2): 185–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mbewe, E. (2015) ‘Deaf women in Africa’ in Cooper, A. C. and Rashid, K. K. (eds), Citizenship, Politics, Difference: perspectives from sub-Saharan signed language communities. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Mujuzi, J. D. (2012) ‘The drafting history of the provision on the right to freedom from discrimination in the Ugandan constitution with a focus on the grounds of sex, disability and sexual orientation’, International Journal of Discrimination and the Law 12 (1): 52–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, J. J. (2015) ‘Linguistic human rights discourse in deaf community activism’, Sign Language Studies 15 (4): 379–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mutibwa, P. M. (2016) A History of Uganda: the first 100 years 1894–1995. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.Google Scholar
Muyinda, H. (2008) ‘Limbs and lives: disability, violent conflict and embodied sociality in northern Uganda’. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Ndeezi, A. (2004) The Disability Movement in Uganda: progress and challenges with constitutional and legal provisions on disability. Kampala: NUDIPU.Google Scholar
Pabsch, A. (2016) ‘Sign language legislation as a tool for sustainability’ in De Clerck, G. A. M. and Paul, P. V. (eds), Sign Language, Sustainable Development, and Equal Opportunities: envisioning the future for deaf students. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Padden, C. and Humphries, T. (1988) Deaf in America: voices from a culture. Cambridge MA and London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pfaffenberger, B. (1992) ‘Social anthropology of technology’, Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 491–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reagan, T. (2010) Language Policy and Planning for Sign Languages. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar