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ABSTRACT
This article explores how the people of Bududa used culturally and spiritually embedded knowledge to tame extreme weather and ably live with the spectre and reality of landslides since the turn of the twentieth century. Drawing on multiple oral and written sources, the article shows how landslides were experienced in the past and chronicles recent government and community responses to living with landslides. The article shows that local approaches to managing risks worked effectively when land for expansion was still readily available. However, increasing population and heavy cultivation of the land over the course of the twentieth century put heavy pressure on the land thereby making it more susceptible to landslides. Consequently, the impact of the landslides became so severe necessitating government intervention to support the affected communities. Focusing on landslides as recurring risks that are socially constructed and managed, the article shows the innovativeness and resilience of the people of Bududa in living with and managing environmental risks.
Acknowledgements
I presented my initial thoughts of this essay at the Makerere University College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS) Symposia in 2019 and 2020, and the History Seminar in September 2021 where I received great feedback. I am also indebted to my research assistants namely Anatoli Lwassampijja, Julius Namisano, Arthur Kamya, Wycliff Watama and Isaac Mukholi. Lastly, I am extremely grateful to the editors of JEAS and the anonymous reviewers for the critical comments that shaped this essay.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The New Vision, “Bududa Disaster: 40 Bodies Recovered”, 12 October 2018.
2 Parliament of Uganda, “Report of the Committee on Presidential Affairs on the Status of the Resettlement of Landslide victims in the Elgon Sub-Region”, November 2018.
3 Government of Uganda, “Uganda National Policy for Disaster Preparedness and Management”, September 2010.
4 Mayeku, Wamimbi, and Wawomola, “Circumcision Year Names (Kamengilo) in Masaba and Their Meanings,” 61.
5 Perryman, “Native Witchcraft.”
6 Lupton, Risk.
7 Ibid.
8 Mandala, The End of Chidyerano.
9 Williford, “Seismic Politics: Risk and Reconstruction after the 1960 Earthquake in Agadir, Morocco.”
10 Ibid, 999.
11 Ibid, 1007.
12 Namono, “The Barriers to Landslide Responses Over the Mt. Elgon in Bududa District, Uganda.”
13 Austin, With Macdonald in Uganda, 126.
14 Ibid.
15 Perryman, “Native Witchcraft,” 21.
16 Roscoe, The Northern Bantu, 162–163.
17 Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals, 6.
18 Ibid, 23.
19 Landau, “When Rain Falls.”
20 Ibid, 28.
21 Southall, Alur Society.
22 Telephone Interview with Namisano, 18 July 2021.
23 Perryman, “Native Witchcraft,” 10.
24 Ibid, 12.
25 Purvis, Through Uganda to Mount Elgon, 350.
26 Roscoe, Twenty-Five Years in East Africa, 239.
27 Ibid, 240.
28 Roscoe, The Bagesu and Other Tribes, 10.
29 Perryman, “Native Witchcraft,” 10.
30 Roscoe, The Bagesu and Other Tribes, 10.
31 Ibid, 11.
32 Heald, “Divinatory Failure,” 311.
33 Hobley, “Some Reflections on Native Magic,” 247.
34 Ibid, 243.
35 Uganda National Records Centre and Archives (NRCA) MP 38/1918 N 145: DC Report, April 1918.
36 NRCA MP 38/1918 N145: DC Report, June 1918
37 NRCA, MP 38/1918 N145: DC Report August 1918.
38 Perryman, “Native Witchcraft,” 23.
39 Ibid.
40 Mayeku, Wamimbi, and Wawomola, “Circumcision Year Names (Kamengilo) in Masaba and Their Meanings,” 61.
41 Ibid.
42 Interview with Wanasolo, Bulambuli, 1 July 2020.
43 Ibid.
44 Focus Group Discussion, 8 October 2019.
45 Interview with Dominic Makwa, Makerere University, 17 July 2023.
46 The Independent, “Revisiting Nametsi ten years after landslides”, 2 March 2020.
47 Roscoe, The Bagesu and Other Tribes, 162.
48 NRCA: Mbale Reports, Native Affairs, 7 March 1911.
49 Roscoe, The Northern Bantu, 162–63.
50 McCann, “The Plow and the Forest.”
51
52 Kjekshus, Ecology Control and Economic Development.
53 Himmelfarb, “In the Aftermath of Displacement.”
54 Berkes, Sacred Ecology.
55 Fairhead and Leach, Misreading the African Landscape.
56 Blaikie, The Political Economy of Soil Erosion.
57 Purvis, Through Uganda to Mount Elgon, 272–73.
58 Berman and Lonsdale, John, Unhappy Valley.
59 Perryman, “Native Witchcraft,” 9–10.
60 Gayer, “Report on Land Tenure in Bugisu,” 8.
61 Ibid.
62 NRCA: N147 Bukedi District Commissioner to Provincial Commissioner, 11 November 1909.
63 Perryman, “Native Witchcraft,” 11.
64 Musoke, “History of Bugisu,” 37–38.
65 Perryman, “Native Witchcraft,” 10.
66 NRCA: A46/49 Uganda Protectorate, Summary Report for Mbale February 1910.
67 Perryman, “Native Witchcraft,” 11.
68 Ibid.
69 Mandala, The End of Chidyerano.
70 Heald, Controlling Anger, 80.
71 NRCA Annual Reports Eastern Provincial 1926, A46/266.
72 Misanya, “The Role of Community-Based Knowledge.”
73 Heald, Controlling Anger, 81–82.
74 Ibid.
75 NRCA, Mbale Archives, District Commissioner, Central District to Provisional Commissioner 22 August 1938.
76 Ross, Ecology and Power in the Age of Empire, 275.
77 NRCA Box 9 District Commissioner Central District to Provincial Commissioner, 22 August 1938.
78 NRCA District Officer, Central District to Provincial Commissioner,” Bugishu Land Tenure Committee Interim Report” (Undated).
79 Mayeku, Wamimbi, and Wawomola, “Circumcision Year Names (Kamengilo) in Masaba and Their Meanings.”
80 NRCA Mbale Archives Box 1 MB:/1/6: Bugisu District Council.
81 Interview with author, 9 October 2019, Bududa.
82 Makwa, “Musicking and Dancing Imbalu at Namasho.”
83 Mukhwana, Masaabaland, So Amazing.
84 Mayeku, Wamimbi, and Wawomola, “Circumcision Year Names (Kamengilo) in Masaba and Their Meanings.”
85 Interview with Makwa, 17 July 2023, Makerere, Kampala.
86 Interview with author, 9 October 2019.
87 Ibid.
88 Ibid.
89 Misanya, “The Role of Community-Based Knowledge,” 46.
90 Elunya, “Bududa Landslides were predictable and Avoidable” Uganda Radio Network, 5 March 2010.