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Urbanisation by subtraction: the afterlife of camps in northern Uganda*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2014

Susan Reynolds Whyte ,
Sulayman Babiiha ,
Rebecca Mukyala  and
Lotte Meinert
Susan Reynolds Whyte*
Affiliation:
Oester Farimagsgade 5, DK 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen
Sulayman Babiiha*
Affiliation:
Department of Development Studies, Gulu University, Uganda
Rebecca Mukyala*
Affiliation:
Department of Development Studies, Gulu University, Uganda
Lotte Meinert*
Affiliation:
Department of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Denmark
*
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

As peace returns to northern Uganda, a unique arithmetic of development is evident in the former Internally Displaced Persons camps. Small trading centres whose populations multiplied as they became camps now envision futures as Town Boards. Subtraction is necessary: the displaced people and the dead buried in the camps are being returned to their rural villages. Urban planners have produced meticulous drawings that envisage the division of land into plots for development. Donors are making additions in the form of new market buildings and water supplies. Yet this arithmetic must reckon with new problems as time passes. The article is based primarily on fieldwork in Awach, a former IDP camp now slated for status as a Town Board. In analysing material from interviews with landowners, ‘remainders’ who stayed behind after the camp closed, local leaders and officials, we emphasise the paradoxes, tensions and conflicts of this special path to development.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 597 - 622
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Footnotes

*

The study took place under the Gulu Enhancement of Research Capacity project entitled ‘Changing Human Security: Recovery from Armed Conflict in Northern Uganda’ funded by the Danish Consultative Research Committee for Development Research, which we gratefully acknowledge. Permission was obtained from the Gulu University Institutional Review Committee and the Uganda National Council of Science and Technology. We were ably assisted by Okema David, Oketayot Dennis, Otika Shanon, Opio Martin, Adongo Alice, Sunday Pii Acholi and three Gulu University Masters students: Opio Washington, J.B. Okot and Oyet Kenneth. Thank you for translations, discussions and good company.

References

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