VI OPPTATT AV I 2012?

Vi har bladd i arkivet til Kula Kula for å se om sosialantropologer for ti år siden hadde noe å si som kan være relevant for dette semesterets tema, mellomrom. Der fant vi en artikkel skrevet av Dag B. Kolstø i 2012. Den omhandler hans observasjoner mens han var på utveksling i Uganda. Han jobbet som frivillig i organisasjonen ”Dwelling places”, og fikk oppleve hvordan organisasjonen prøvde å flytte Karamojong-migranter tilbake til deres hjemsted Karamoja. Det han skriver om syns vi berører mange aspekter ved begrepet mellomrom. “Dwelling places” forsøker å redde hjemløse barn fra gata i Kampala, og forberede de på en overgang til et nytt og bedre liv i Karamoja. Artikkelen beskriver håpet både de frivillige og de hjemløse barna har for en bedre tilværelse ved denne overgangen. Uten fungerende veier, er regionen Karamoja isolert fra resten av landet, og kan slik forstås å være i en liminal fase uten framgang. Hans artikkelen er derfor tatt med i denne utgaven fordi den illustrerer temaet på flere måter.

As a student of social anthropology at the University of Bergen I am allowed two semesters of free student credits. I have used this liberty to experience Ugandan social and political life, first as a student of Makerere and then as a volunteer in a local NGO. While much can be said to promote Makerere, as East-Africa’s most prominent university, and to encourage other students to participate in similar exchange programs, I want instead to write about my experience with a relatively small, local organization called Dwelling Places, and more specifically about its resettlement program in Karamoja. I argue that the district of Karamoja serves as a suitable example for structural violence and its effects.

The concept of “structural violence” was first coined by the Norwegian sociologist and pioneer within peace research, Johan Galtung, to widen the notion of “violence”. Violence should, in Galtung’s view, also include social injustices historically built into the structures of a society, without necessarily a clear subject-object relation or even intention behind the violence. Towards the end of the article I shall discuss whether the structural violence inflicted upon Karamoja has any subject-object relation (i.e. government-towards-Karamojong violence) or intent behind it.

The Karamoja migration fits well into Mike Davis’ hypothesis in Planet of the Slums. He is arguing that global, rapid and uncontrolled urbanization in Third World countries, like Uganda, will soon result in a world dominated by slums.

Kampala has no capacity to receive these eco-refugees, and as a result the Karamojong migrants in the city resort to begging in the streets and dwelling in the slums. Dwelling Places attempts to establish contact with the street children, talk with the mother and eventually invite the child into their “Transitional Rehabilitation Home” (TRH). It is crucial for Dwelling Places to emphasize that the home functions as a transitional “rehabilitation” only. The children live in the home for about six months, during which time they receive minimal social and academic education. My current occupation is as a teaching assistant in the TRH-education department.

Resettlement in theory

Dwelling Places seems to have understood Mike Davis’ warning of uncontrolled urbanization: they insist that these children and their families need to be “resettled” in their region of Karamoja, despite the difficulties of the district. After approximately six months of “rehabilitation” the children and their families are supposed to be prepared to “go home”.

Dwelling Places

Dwelling Places works as an independent organization trying to “rescue, rehabilitate, reconcile and resettle” street children and vulnerable families in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Most street children in Kampala have emigrated from the climatically challenging, culturally conservative and politically controversial area of Karamoja, a northeastern district of Uganda.

It should be noted that this resettlement program is initiated with the official consent of the parent(s). They are given “resettlement” packages consisting of basic food, mattresses, cooking equipment (pots and pans), agricultural equipment (machetes and shovels) to secure, or at least attempt to secure, their sustainability in their homes in Karamoja. In addition, the children receive educational kits to facilitate their reentry into the school system. These packages are given in a metallic case for each child attending school in preparation for boarding school. The organization also pays each child’s student fees throughout his or her years of school-attendance.

Still, despite these attempts to promote the sustainability of the “returnees”, nothing is guaranteed in terms of their continued resettlement. When all the food has been eaten and no income is generated the parents may still take the children out of school and send them on a bus heading for Kampala.

Resettlement in practice - through the eyes of a hobby participant-observer

Being enormously interested in seeing the desolate area of the northeast, I was very excited when I was invited to participate in the relocation of about twenty families “ready” for resettlement in Karamoja. Standing in the bus park, waiting for the families and staff to assemble and the bus to arrive, I was struck by a strange feeling of seriousness and happiness – I really felt that I was part of something truly “good” and successful. It appeared to be a happy day for the families. They seemed excited to return home to Karamoja and settle on firm ground rather than cajoling their little ones to beg on the street in Kampala. Or at least I thought/felt so at the time of departure.

It took about five hours of driving before we could somatically feel the structural violence inflicted upon the north of Uganda. Having crossed the trading center of Lira (geographically half way to Karamoja) we could see and feel the extreme degeneration of the road. Beyond that point, the government’s concern for the roads diminishes rapidly. As a result our bus broke down only half an hour from Lira and we arrived at our destination in Karamoja 18 hours later.

which means that the enormous pot-holes (that word does not really describe the crates that nature had dug out on these exhausted roads) were full of water. Having driven the two-wheel-drive van through water-filled crates for hours and having pushed it numerous times through the mud, our experienced and couragous driver finally decided that we should turn around.

Structural violence: “We shall not wait for Karamoja to develop”

Karamojong justifies the structural violence inflicted upon their region. In other words, the climatic challenges of the area in drought plus the cultural conservativeness of the Karamojong people make it seemingly impossible for the government to improve the living conditions of the district.

A few days into our stay in Karamoja we got to participate in the actual resettlement of the children into boarding schools and the families into the remote villages. At first we were actually asked not to come because our skin color symbolizes an extreme amount of wealth for the receiving communities, which leads to enormous expectations that the organization cannot fulfill. In addition, I think there was at least some aspect of concern for our security.

Eventually we were allowed into the field. What we experienced was not remote villages of an exotic nature, but horrible roads. Even though we were warned and considered ourselves quite used to the bad roads in North-Uganda, we did not expect the devastating condition of the roads ahead. This was aggravated by the fact that we were in the middle of the rainy season,

So, I never got to experience the remote villages of Karamoja, but I want to use this experience nontheless to illustrate the structural violence inflicted upon Karamoja. The devastating roads beyond Lira, gradually worsening for every kilometre north, signalled to me the general negligence and discrimination against the north, whether intended or not. It is the government’s responsibility to fascilitate movement and trade within its borders but it seems that its concern is diminishing the further north you go. This inhibits both trade and aid – generally resulting in structurally produced poverty and periodic famine.

Uganda’s first Prime Minister Milton Obote once stated after visiting the district of Karamoja: “We shall not wait for Karamoja to develop”, meaning that the rest of the country would move on without it. This presidential statement has been repeated by the current president Museveni, and has turned into a popular saying about Karamoja’s political status in Uganda. As a political ideology, it justifies the reproduction of structural violence inflicted upon the district. It is even repeated by our Karamojong street children in the TRH. In the statement, I argue, the implication is that the combination of the natural state of Karmoja and the cultural life of the

In popular discourse the concept of “a Karamojong” seems to be someone who is primordially cultural-conservative, isolated and stubborn. The question therefore follows: “how do you help someone develop when they do not want to develop?” For example, it is often assumed that Karamojong do not want to go to school because it is not relevant to their income generating activities, which is predominantly pastoralism.

“An NGO-worker told me: negligence towards the north has caused a lot of rebel activity to develop throughout Museveni’s regime (1986- ). This includes the most gruesome activities of the Lord’s Resistance Army. This is not to say that the Karamojong in general support LRA, or any rebel group for that matter. Rebel movements, like LRA, have gained support from “the north” in general, and are fueled mostly by child-abductions. The rebel activities reinforce the conflict nonetheless. If there was actually a subtle, underlying conflict between the north and the central regions of Uganda, then this would implicate that the structural violence is indeed directed and intended towards Karamoja.

“They (the emigrated Karamojong) are better off in Kampala begging, they do receive more money and have better food security than in Karamoja””

Critical voices in Uganda also believe that the government is neglecting the north as a result of a subtle, underlying conflict between the north and the central regions of Uganda. Obote hailed from the north and focused on the north. Today, Museveni seems to have flipped the coin; he comes from the west and favors the central and western regions of Uganda. It is possible that this seeming

Whatever the actual source, the structural violence continues to breed social violence and instability as well as unbearable life conditions in the district. An NGO-worker told me:

“They (the emigrated Karamojong) are better off in Kampala begging, they do receive more money and have better food security than in Karamoja”. His statement illustrates the difficult work NGOs like Dwelling Places face when working in desolate areas such as Karamoja.

Dritten i Midten

Skrevet av Noami E. Kvalstad-Lurås og Oskar A. Kvalstad-Lurås

Føler meg skitten

Bølge på bølge med vanskeligheter

Hvor er jeg på vei, hva er mine muligheter

Har jeg valgt helt galt

Eller alt for smalt

Vil jeg for alltid være dritten i midten

Nav, nav, nav

Ser på lånekassens stadig økte renter

Har grandis i ovnen og jeg venter

Både jeg og pizzaen er fastlåst i midten

Vi er begge lei all dritten

Hvor ble det av mine krav, hold kjeft nav

Jeg står midt i noe dritt

Vet ikke hva jeg ville

Har jeg egentlig noe vilje

Til å komme igjennom denne perioden

Har blitt voksen, skal for faan ha knekt koden

Tålmodigheten begynner å bli slitt

Hopper bortover på krykke

Langs den seige ferden i livet

Bare Netflix jeg vil fordrive

Ingen reiser seg på bussen, er i et venterom av dritt

Hva skjer i livet mitt

Har du pepsimax, jeg trenger litt lykke

Fyller glasset med øl, hvor ble det av tiden som russ

Livet flyter forbi

Er jeg sikker på veien, er jeg på rett sti

Hvem har jeg blitt

Er jammen noe dritt

Jeg finner meg selv når jeg venter på neste buss

Når du må stå litt alene

Er det en god ide å trene på å tenke litt med toppen

Hvordan finne frem moppen

Vaske bort litt dritt og bli fri

Dermed litt positivt å være dritten i midten kan man si

Det er noe å tjene på å vente litt alene