Research Articles

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    COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SECONDARY EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY OF PARENTS-TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATIONS (PTAs) IN KASESE DISTRICT
    (Gulu University, 2010) Mpisi Sulayman Ramadhan, BABIIHA; Development Studies (UMU);, MA Ethics
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    International Capital, Inclusive Planning and Post-War Recovery: The Case of Acholi Land, Northern Uganda
    (2015-06) Mpisi Sulayman*, Babiiha
    As people of Uganda’s Acholi sub region struggle to rebuild their livelihoods after more than two decades of armed insurgency and internal displacement, they remain suspicious of the government’s motive to allocate their land to foreign investors. By taking Amuru District Land Board to court for allocating their land to Madhvani Group’s Amuru Sugar Works in 2007, the local community has underlined its distrust of the government and its institutions. They hold that the idea of promoting large scale agro-based industrial production through Madhvani sugar project was a falsehood and that Madhvani was merely a smokescreen to disguise land grabbing by big people in government. The findings of this study highlight deep suspicion of government motive in allocating 1,200 hectares of land in Amuru district to Madhvani Group which, to them, strongly revives the historical perception of marginalisation of northerners (who include the Acholi). The conclusion from the study is that although international capital is vital for the recovery process, where it involves natural resources such as land, its effectiveness is likely to be affected negatively unless local communities are included in the planning process; which calls for an inclusive rather than a top-down recovery strategy.
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    We shall secede…’ - narratives of marginalisation in post war participatory recovery of Acholi, northern Uganda
    (A Journal of Language, Culture and Communication, 2018) Sulayman Babiiha, Mpisi
    Set in a remote part of Acholi, on the northern side of Murchison Falls National Park, northern Uganda, this paper focuses on the efforts of the local community in Pabit Parish as they rebuild their agricultural livelihoods in the aftermath of the 20-year civil war. Their struggle to recover, however, hung in the balance as problem animals started to destroy their crops. Their recovery became even more uncertain when their efforts to dialogue with the government about the unfair wildlife policy remained unheeded. Meanwhile, the Acholi Culture and Tourism Centre project set up by Purongo Sub County Local Government to supplement the people’s agricultural livelihoods was marred in conflicts that threatened its very existence. What had started as a post war participatory development thus turned out to be an arena of conflict.Using ethnographic methods of data collection integrated within a case study, this study focuses on the tourism centre project. Premised on principles of participation, the project had been considered instrumental, not only in the protection of wildlife in Murchison Falls Park which would attract more tourists, and thus more revenue to the community from commercial tourism, but also through promoting agricultural livelihoods, the mainstay of the local economy. However, the reluctance of wildlife officials to engage communities in policy discussions, and internal weaknesses in the governance structural systems, combine to frustrate efforts in the local community to recover their livelihoods for a better standard of living.
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    “When elephants come…” - Narratives of marginality in post war Acholi(’s) Murchison Falls National Park, northern Uganda
    (2016-12) Mpisi Sulayman, Babiiha
    Set in post conflict northern Uganda, this paper analyses the challenges facing local communities living adjacent to Murchison Falls National Park in Acholi land as they grapple with efforts to restore their livelihoods, in view of costs and losses inflicted on them by problem animals. Their return to their villages after 20 years of the war between insurgents of Lord’s Resistance Army and the government of Uganda held a lot of promise. The state sponsored Peace, Recovery and Development Plan; donor funded projects; multinational agricultural companies setting up in the area; and the tourism revenue sharing fund; all pointed to an empowering recovery process for the local community to achieve self-reliance. However, the pain of consistent destruction of their crops by wildlife, an unfair policy on compensation of damage caused by problem animals, worsened by the government refusal to plan with the affected communities made them feel left out. This paper focuses on the Tourism Revenue Sharing Fund as a tool to analyse the costs and losses incurred by local peasants who continue to lose their agricultural livelihoods but whose appeals for dialogue continue to be ignored by the state. Data for this paper were collected using ethnographic methods that included in-depth interviews of key informants, observation, as well as both formal and informal interactions with members of the local community in Pabit parish of Purongo in Acholi sub region, and government documents.