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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Uganda in the Regional War Zone: Meta-Narratives, Pasts and Present
Author:Boas, MortenISNI
Year:2004
Periodical:Journal of Contemporary African Studies
Volume:22
Issue:3
Period:September
Pages:283-303
Language:English
Geographic term:Uganda
Subjects:political conflicts
civil wars
State formation
Military, Defense and Arms
History and Exploration
Inter-African Relations
Politics and Government
External links:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0258900042000283476
http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=P603406VH0L7N663
Abstract:The current pattern of conflict in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa is best viewed as a series of local and national conflicts which do not always have that much in common but which become intertwined through the weakness of the State system in this particular region. These conflicts are caused by more than just greed and banditry or ethnic hatred. They have an ideational dimension, informed by social and discursive practices which tap into and elaborate on already well-established meta-narratives of pasts and presents, of 'self' and 'other'. Four such meta-narratives illustrate Uganda's complex and turbulent interlinkages with the Great Lakes regional war zone: that of the Acholi and their place (or lack of it) in the Ugandan polity; that of political and economic marginalization in western Uganda, which contributed to the emergence of the Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF) in 1996; the Rwandan meta-narative of betrayal, resistance, sacrifice and security, exemplified in the tension between Kampala and Kigali and the rivalry between former 'brothers in arms' (Museveni and Kagame); and that of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) as the sole keeper of stability in Uganda. The NRM meta-narrative identifies all opposition to the NRM of Museveni as an attempt to bring back the chaos of the 1970s and 1980s. It also constitutes the three others through the argument that the only alternative to Museveni's Uganda is descent into chaos and violence. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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