![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we examine how oil-related activities in the Albertine region have the potential to influence conflicts of different forms and intensity in Uganda, a new African oil producer in the making. We view this through the lens of the future, for which we propose the ‘in-the-making’ perspective. Through this approach we identify three geographies of conflict, framed around three local narratives on mobility, namely: the peripatetic tradition of a social group commonly known as ‘Balaalo’, speculative labour mobility and ensuing narratives about oil-induced pressure on fishing, and the link between elephant mobility and community grievances. With this paper we seek to contribute to the growing body of empirical research on Uganda’s oilscape, and add a case to the existing work on the interface between oil exploitation and social practices across various oil-producing world regions. We conclude that in Uganda’s pre-oil situation, the emergence of complex local narratives, resulting from a combination of lack-or inadequacy-of information, pre-existing but low-lying ethnic sentiments, and institutional challenges, are important indicators of how materialities of the future frame relationships within societies today.
Acknowledgements
This paper is a product of empirical research conducted with funds from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the framework of the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Interview, Hoima-Uganda, 10 March 2015.
2 The Albertine graben gained the SPA status through a Ministerial Policy Statement of the Ministry of Land and Urban Planning in 2015. The ‘SPA’ status is generally attributed to oil.
3 e.g. Kathman and Shannon, “Oil Extraction and the Potential for Domestic Instability”; Vokes, “The Politics of Oil in Uganda”; International Alert, Oil and Water? and International Alert, Governance and Livelihoods.
4 Our preference is not to dwell much on the resource-curse, but rather to focus on the different aspects of tensions that may be framed as the resource-curse, yet in an actual sense are narratives that highlight among others, pre-existing situations escalated by prospects of oil. In light of this, we do not hope to pay adequate attention to the resource-curse thesis, but to concentrate on the three already complex case studies, and how else they can be understood.
5 Clarke, Africa: Crude Continent and Yates, The Scramble for African Oil.
6 Shaxson, Poisoned Wells.
7 Klare, Resource Competition and World Politics, Le Billon, The Political Economy of Resource Wars; Mitchell, Carbon Democracy
8 Ross, “Does Oil Hinder Democracy?”; Karl, The Paradox of Plenty; Karl, “Understanding the Resource Curse.” and Collier, Economic Causes of Civil Conflict.
9 Behrends, et al, Crude Domination, 23., see also Watts, “Resource Curse”; Watts, “A tale of Two Gulfs”; Behrends, “Fighting for Oil” and Le Billon, “Political Economy of Resource Wars.”
10 Collier, Economic Causes of Civil Conflict.
11 Ross, “Does oil Hinder Democracy?” and Ross, “A Closer Look at Oil, Diamonds and Civil War.”
12 Watts, “Resource Curse?”; Watts, “Righteous Oil?” and Oyefusi, Oil and the Propensity to Armed Struggle.
13 Oyefusi, Oil and the Propensity to Armed Struggle.
14 Watts, “Resource Curse?,” 59–66.
15 Watts, “A Tale of Two Gulfs,” 447.
16 Behrends, “Fighting for Oil.”
17 Khan, “Political Settlements.”
18 e.g. Hickey et al., ‘Political Settlement and Oil in Uganda’.
19 Khan, “Political Settlements,” 20.
20 Watts, “Resource Curse?” 76.
21 see for instance, Bategeka et al., “Oil Discovery in Uganda: Managing Expectations,” 16–22.
22 Rogers, “Oil and Anthropology.”
23 Oil in Uganda: “Oil Timeline.” http://www.oilinuganda.org/categories/oil-timeline, last updated 13 April 2017; Patey, “Oil in Uganda,” 4.
24 Interview, Kampala, July 2016.
25 MEMD 2014, Progress of Implementation of the National Oil and Gas Policy, 3.
26 Ibid., 28.
27 Hickey et al., Political Settlement and oil in Uganda; Hickey et al., The politics of governing oil effectively.
28 Mbabazi, The Oil Industry in Uganda; Van Alstine et al., Resource Governance dynamics; Patey, “Oil in Uganda.”
29 Barry, “Material Politics.”
30 Ibid., 9–12.
31 We use the term Balaalo in double quotes because of its erratic meanings
32 Muhereza, The December 2010 ‘Balaalo’ Evictions.
33 e.g. Olanya, “Resource Curse, Staple Thesis and Rentier Politics” and Muhereza, The December 2010 ‘Balaalo’ Evictions.
34 see for instance, Don Wanyama, “Museveni Risks Burning His Fingers in Courting Bunyoro,” Daily Nation, 14 August 2009; and Francis Mugerwa, “Museveni Pledges to Address Bunyoro’s Colonial Injustices,” Daily Monitor, 13 June 2016.
35 Interview, Buliisa, 2015,
36 Interview, Kyapaloni village, Buseruka/Kabaale, Hoima, June 2015.
37 Muhereza, The December 2010 ‘Balaalo’ Evictions, 18.
38 Wanyama, “Museveni Risks Burning His Fingers.”
39 Mugerwa, Balaalo Victory in Court.
40 Olanya, “Resource Curse, Staple Thesis and Rentier Politics.”
41 Interview, Buseruka-Hoima, August 2015.
42 Interview, Hoima, August 2016.
43 Ibid.
44 Doyle, Population and Environment in Western Uganda.
45 Interview, Community leader, Buseruka/Kabaale, Hoima, 2015.
46 e.g. Muhereza, The December 2010 ‘Balaalo’ Evictions and Olanya, “Resource Curse, Staple Thesis and Rentier Politics.”
47 Interview, Hoima, July 2016.
48 Interview, Bunyoro Kingdom Official, July 2016.
49 Rubongoya, Regime Hegemony in Museveni’s Uganda.
50 Kagoro, Militarization in Post-1986 Uganda.
51 Shaka, “Migingo Island.”
52 Andrew Bagala, “4 Policemen Shot Dead at DRC Border,” Daily Monitor, 23 May 2016. http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Policemen-shot-dead-DRC-border/688334-3214530-rg7sxb/index.html.
53 Charles Eturiki, “Uganda, Kenya agree on Migingo Island,” The New Vision, 24 August 2016. http://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1433591/uganda-kenya-agree-migingo-island.
54 Interview, Hoima, June 2016.
55 Interview, Kaiso-Hoima, September 2016; International Alert, 2015; “Technology for Peace” workshop, Uganda Museum, Kampala September 2015, see http://www.international-alert.org/fr/news/peace-under-the-equatorial-sun.
56 Interview, Kaiso-Hoima, September 2016.
57 Interview, Kabaale-Buseruka, June 2016.
58 International Alert, Oil and Water?.
59 Eturiki, “Uganda, Kenya agree on Migingo Island.”
60 International Alert, Oil and Water?.
61 von Sarnowski, “The Artisanal Fisheries of Lake Albert.”
62 MEMD, Progress of Implementation of the National Oil and Gas Policy.
63 These figures were generated through a periodic incident reporting initiative with resident contact persons within Purongo Sub-county for the period between 2015 and 2016. Follow-up interviews with the victims of these incidents were conducted to establish the nature and extent of the grievances in 2015 and 2016.
64 Interview, Nwoya, October 2015.
65 Rabanal et al., “Oil prospecting and its impact,” Plumptre et al., An assessment of Impacts.
66 Interview, Kampala, June 2015.
67 Ibid.
68 Barth, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries.
69 Brubaker et al., “Ethnicity as Cognition.”
70 Nagel, “Constructing Ethnicity.”
71 Barth, “Boundaries & connections.”
72 Nagel, “Constructing Ethnicity”. 158.
73 Ofcansky, Uganda: Tarnished Pearl of Africa; Rubongoya, Regime Hegemony in Museveni’s Uganda and Kagoro, Militarization in Post-1986 Uganda.
74 Bategeka et al., “Oil Discovery in Uganda: Managing Expectations,” 11.
75 Interview, Kampala, March 2016.
76 Watts, “A Tale of Two Gulfs,” 451.
77 Reyna, “The Travelling Model that Would Not Travel,” 85.
78 cf. Bategeka et al., “Managing Expectations,” 11, 16.
79 e.g. Oyefusi, Oil and the Propensity to Armed Struggle and Watts, “Resource Curse?”
80 Interview, Kampala, July 2016.
81 Van Alstine et al., “Resource Governance Dynamics.”
82 Muhereza, The December 2010 ‘Balaalo’ Evictions.
83 Interview with Member of Parliament, Kampala, July 2016.
84 NTV On the Spot, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrXVB798vBM .
85 Watts, “Resource Curse?”
86 Hickey et al., “Political Settlements”; Van Alstine et al., “Resource Governance dynamics”
87 Dean, The Signature of Power, 110.
88 Barry, “Material Politics,” 6–7.
89 Interview, Civil Society activist, Kampala, September 2016.