The Intimate Governance of Land in Northern Uganda

After war in northern Uganda, conflicts over land became pervasive. Families, clans and neighbours often relate through tensions and contradictions over customary land and how it is governed. This article discusses the changing gendered dynamics of the governance of customary land amidst land confl...

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Main Author: Julaina Obika
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nordic Africa Research Network 2022-06-01
Series:Nordic Journal of African Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.njas.fi/njas/article/view/833
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author Julaina Obika
author_facet Julaina Obika
author_sort Julaina Obika
collection DOAJ
description After war in northern Uganda, conflicts over land became pervasive. Families, clans and neighbours often relate through tensions and contradictions over customary land and how it is governed. This article discusses the changing gendered dynamics of the governance of customary land amidst land conflicts in a post-war society. Drawing on fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Pader District in the Acholi sub-region, carried out between 2014 and 2016, the paper highlights strategies that different categories of women involved in land conflicts use, to perform, communicate and activate their belonging and attachment to land. Relating the notion of property to how women (re)-position themselves in land conflicts, and (re)-construct those positions and their identities on and through land, demonstrates how these conflicts in post-war northern Ugandan offers women a way of grounding themselves on customary land. The article, therefore, advances the notion of ‘intimate governance’ to understand in particular, women’s increasing role in land governance, suggesting that it is becoming (en-)gendered through land conflicts.
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spelling doaj.art-95ad1a8f70bc4bce8e86cc5e53473e682023-09-03T13:16:42ZengNordic Africa Research NetworkNordic Journal of African Studies1459-94652022-06-0131210.53228/njas.v31i2.833The Intimate Governance of Land in Northern UgandaJulaina Obika0Gulu University After war in northern Uganda, conflicts over land became pervasive. Families, clans and neighbours often relate through tensions and contradictions over customary land and how it is governed. This article discusses the changing gendered dynamics of the governance of customary land amidst land conflicts in a post-war society. Drawing on fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Pader District in the Acholi sub-region, carried out between 2014 and 2016, the paper highlights strategies that different categories of women involved in land conflicts use, to perform, communicate and activate their belonging and attachment to land. Relating the notion of property to how women (re)-position themselves in land conflicts, and (re)-construct those positions and their identities on and through land, demonstrates how these conflicts in post-war northern Ugandan offers women a way of grounding themselves on customary land. The article, therefore, advances the notion of ‘intimate governance’ to understand in particular, women’s increasing role in land governance, suggesting that it is becoming (en-)gendered through land conflicts. https://www.njas.fi/njas/article/view/833performing property, intimate governance, customary land, access, women
spellingShingle Julaina Obika
The Intimate Governance of Land in Northern Uganda
Nordic Journal of African Studies
performing property, intimate governance, customary land, access, women
title The Intimate Governance of Land in Northern Uganda
title_full The Intimate Governance of Land in Northern Uganda
title_fullStr The Intimate Governance of Land in Northern Uganda
title_full_unstemmed The Intimate Governance of Land in Northern Uganda
title_short The Intimate Governance of Land in Northern Uganda
title_sort intimate governance of land in northern uganda
topic performing property, intimate governance, customary land, access, women
url https://www.njas.fi/njas/article/view/833
work_keys_str_mv AT julainaobika theintimategovernanceoflandinnorthernuganda
AT julainaobika intimategovernanceoflandinnorthernuganda