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Researching Institutional Life in Modern Uganda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2018

Katherine Bruce-Lockhart  and
Jonathon L. Earle
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Abstract:

This introductory article reflects on the trajectories, possibilities, and limitations of studying institutional life in Africa, with a particular emphasis on Uganda. Engaging with some of the central issues articulated in the African Studies Association’s theme for the 2017 Annual Meeting – “Institutions: Creativity and Resilience in Africa” – it considers the category of “institution” and how it has been imagined and contested in Africa’s past and present. The article begins by examining the competing visions of institutions across the continent in the late colonial period. It then moves to a closer consideration of institutions within Uganda’s historiography, while also introducing the articles in this collection and the themes that tie them together. The final two sections turn to the question of sources, illuminating both the possibilities and limitations of recent developments regarding Uganda’s archives. In so doing, this article considers not only the shifting terrain of Uganda’s research landscape, but also explores the ways in which the study of institutional life is animated by deep, longstanding deliberations on questions of community, authority, and reciprocity.

Résumé:

Cette introduction fournit des réflexions sur les trajectoires, les possibilités et les limites de l’étude de la vie institutionnelle en Afrique en se penchant en particulier sur l’Ouganda. En se focalisant sur certaines questions centrales articulées par le thème “Institutions: Creativity and Resilience in Africa” de la conférence annuelle de 2017 de l’African Studies Association (Etats-Unis d’Amérique), cet article analyse la catégorie d’“institution” et la manière dont elle a été imaginée et contestée dans l’histoire africaine. L’introduction commence par examiner les visions concurrentes des institutions à travers le continent à la fin de la période coloniale. Elle passe ensuite à un examen plus approfondi des institutions dans l’historiographie de l’Ouganda, tout en introduisant les articles de cette collection et les thèmes qui les unissent. Les deux dernières sections abordent la question des sources, éclairant à la fois les possibilités et les limites des développements récents concernant les archives ougandaises. Ce faisant, cette introduction examine non seulement l’évolution du paysage de la recherche ougandaise, mais explore aussi les façons dont l’étude de la vie institutionnelle est animée par de longs débats sur les questions de communauté, d’autorité et de réciprocité dans le passé et le présent.

Type
Institutional Life in Uganda
Information
History in Africa , Volume 45 , June 2018 , pp. 175 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2018 

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