Fishing for Power: Incursions of the Ugandan Authoritarian State

Abstract

A few months before Uganda’s 2016 presidential elections, the government issued an executive order dissolving community-based Beach Management Units, the local and democratic governance bodies responsible for managing fishing activities. The official narrative cited rampant corruption and the exploitation of Uganda’s valuable fishing resources as justification for the suspension. A popular counternarrative, however—told in carrying whispers at fishing landing sites around Lake Victoria—painted the order as President Museveni’s attempt to secure votes during a tough presidential campaign. Drawing on seven months of ethnographic research on fisheries management in Uganda and critical studies on the nexus of coloniality, securitization, and common pool resource theories, this article analyzes sociopolitical narratives around fisheries governance a year before and after the presidential elections in Uganda. The author illustrates how recent policy changes in the country’s fisheries governance sector are underlined by a powerful narrative of peace and security and argues that the political intervention can be interpreted as efforts by the national government to secure the ruling elite’s increasingly authoritarian hold on state power. Key Words: authoritarianism, coloniality, fisheries governance, securitization, Uganda.

乌干达2016年总统选举的数月前, 政府批准一行政命令, 解散以社区为基础的海滩管理单位, 该单位是负责管理渔业活动的在地且民主治理单位。官方叙事引用猖獗的贪污和剥削乌干达宝贵的渔业资源, 作为中止该单位的藉口。但在维多利亚湖周边的渔船码头暗中流行的反叙事, 则将该命令描绘为总统穆赛韦尼在艰困的总统竞选活动中巩固得票的企图。本文运用在乌干达为期七个月对渔业管理的民族志研究, 以及对殖民性、安全化和共享资源理论轴线的批判研究, 分析乌干达总统大选一年前与一年后围绕着渔业治理的社会政治叙事。本文作者描绘出该国渔业管理部门的晚近政策变迁, 如何由强而有力的和平与安全叙事所强化, 并主张政治介入可诠释为国家政府为确保治理菁英把持逐渐威权化的国家权力之努力。关键词： 威权主义, 殖民性, 渔业管理, 安全化, 乌干达。

Pocos meses antes de las elecciones presidenciales de Uganda en 2016, el gobierno expidió una orden ejecutiva por medio de la cual se disolvían las Unidades Administrativas de Playa, de base comunitaria, que eran los cuerpos de gobernanza democrática local encargados del manejo de las actividades pesqueras. La narrativa oficial citó la corrupción rampante y la explotación de los valiosos recursos pesqueros de Uganda como justificación para la suspensión. Sin embargo, una contranarrativa popular—referida en murmullos propagados en los sitios de atracadero alrededor del Lago Victoria—retrataron la orden como el intento del Presidente Museveni por asegurar votos durante una difícil campaña presidencial. Con base en siete meses de investigación etnográfica sobre el manejo de la pesca en Uganda y en estudios críticos sobe los nexos de la colonialidad, la titularización y teorías de los recursos comunes, este artículo analiza las narrativas sociopolíticas en torno a la gobernanza de la pesca un año antes y otro después de las elecciones presidenciales de Uganda. El autor ilustra el modo como los cambios de las políticas recientes en el sector de la gobernanza de la pesca del país están subrayados por una poderosa narrativa de paz y seguridad, y arguye que la intervención política puede interpretarse como los esfuerzos del gobierno nacional para asegurar el control cada vez más autoritario del poder del estado por la élite dominante.

Palabras clave:

• autoritarismo
• colonialidad
• gobernanza de la pesca
• titularización
• Uganda.

Acknowledgments

I thank the Office of the Provost and the School of International Service at American University for their support of my empirical fieldwork, the Ugandan Council for Science and Technology for granting me access to research their country’s fisheries sector, and the researchers at UNU WIDER, Helsinki, for their valuable input during the early stages of this work. I also thank Ken Conca, Malini Ranganathan, Tarek Tutunji, and the SIS PhD Colloquium community for their helpful comments on previous drafts and Megan Snow for geographic information systems support. I am also greatly indebted to my three reviewers, who provided invaluable and constructive feedback for this article. Finally, I am eternally grateful to all of my interview partners in Uganda, who welcomed me and allowed me access to their world. Thank you.

Notes

1 Tumukunde was forced to resign from his military posts in 2005 after he openly opposed the lifting of the presidential term limit (Kasasira 2015).

2 Due to political gridlock that has put a hold on a newly drafted Fisheries Bill since 2005, the current acting Ugandan law governing the fisheries sector is the outdated Fisheries Act from 1964. All other current governance instruments in the sector are based on this Act and are issued by the state’s executive in the form of statutory instruments. The 2004 Fisheries Policy released by the Ministry for Agriculture, Animals and Fisheries provides useful guidelines but is not law.

3 In 2016, Uganda exported a value of US$121 million in fish products, contributing 5 percent to the overall export revenue of the country (“Uganda Exports by Category” 2017). The fish export value as been on a steady decline since 2005 (Nakaweesi 2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anne J. Kantel

ANNE J. KANTEL is a Doctoral Candidate at the School of International Service at American University, Washington, DC 20016. E-mail: [email protected]. Identifying as a scholar of political ecology, her work engages with broader questions of justice, power, and equality in natural resource governance in sub-Saharan Africa.