Civil society in Uganda: the struggle to save the Mabira Forest Reserve

Abstract

Over the past twenty years Uganda's civil society has been virtually invisible, yet in 2007 government proposals to degazette the Mabira Forest Reserve provoked an unprecedented public reaction. Mabira was transformed from being a symbol of Uganda's natural beauty, into a symbol of civil society efficacy. Mabira is now indicative of other social struggles that suggest Ugandans are increasingly willing to demand accountability from their government. This paper deploys discourse analysis to examine the development, trajectory and dénouement of the fight to save the Mabira Forest Reserve, using the concept of civil society as a “field of struggle”. This alternative conception of civil society is uniquely suited to capturing the heterogeneity of diverse associations in non-Western settings, particularly those that gravitate toward a broadly inclusive issue such as the “environment”.

Keywords:

• Uganda
• Mabira
• forests
• environment
• activism
• civil society

Notes

1. Haynes, “Power, Politics and Environmental Movements.”

2. Dalton, “The Greening of the Globe?”

3. There is an enormous body of scholarly literature that postulates a positive relationship between climate change and civil conflict. According to much of the literature Africa is conspicuously at risk. See, for example, Homer-Dixon, “Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict”; Brown et al., “Climate Change”; German Advisory Council on Climate Change, Climate Change as a Security Risk.

4. The Mabira Forest was certainly not the first ecological site of civil society struggle in Uganda, but it is undoubtedly the most significant in terms of its popular resonance and impact on the development of Ugandan democracy. For example, the Bujagali Hydroelectric Dam controversy has been ongoing for more than a decade now and has also attracted considerable attention from national and international civil society groups and coalitions, including the Save Bujagali Crusade. To date, however, the project has failed to ignite widespread popular outrage for a number of reasons, not least because many Ugandans are acutely aware of the country's desperate need to develop electrical generating capacity.

5. Mayers, International Institute for Environment and Development, www.iied.org/mediaroom/releases/070417Uganda.html.

6. The Monitor (Kampala), December 23, 2007.

7. Anti-Corruption Coalition of Uganda, www.anticorruption.or.ug/news7-7-07.html. (accessed August 2008)

8. There is a substantial literature on this debate. For a review see, for example, Eyoh, “African Perspectives on Democracy.”

9. Kasfir “Conventional Notion of Civil Society.”

10. Kasfir “Conventional Notion of Civil Society.”.

11. Mardin, “Islam and Civil Society.”

12. Chabal and Daloz, Africa Works.

13. Quoted in Obadare, “Alternative Genealogy of Civil Society,” 9.

14. Howell and Pearce, Civil Society and Development, 36.

15. See, for example, Whitfield, “Civil Society as Idea”; Kaviraj and Khilnani, Civil Society History and Possibilities; Obadare, “Alternative Genealogy of Civil Society.”

16. Whitfield, “Civil Society as Idea.”

17. Abrahamsen, Disciplining Democracy.

18. Berman, “Ethnicity, Bureaucracy and Democracy,” 51.

19. Eriksen, “A Non-Ethnic State for Africa?,” 1.

20. Bayart, “Civil Society in Africa.”

21. Beck, The Risk Society, 176.

22. Obadare, “Alternative Genealogy of Civil Society.”

23. Whitfield, “Civil Society as Idea” 380.

24. Young, “In Search of Civil Society,” 43.

25. Bayart, “Civil Society in Africa,” 114.

26. Robinson and Friedman. “Civil Society, Democratisation and Foreign Aid,” 7.

27. Carbone, “Political Parties in ‘No-Party Democracy’.”

28. Bazaara, “Contemporary Civil Society.”

29. Robinson and Friedman. “Civil Society, Democratisation and Foreign Aid,” 8.

30. Previous presidential elections were held in 1996 and 2001.

31. Quoted in Tripp, “Changing Face of Authoritarianism,” 3.

32. Oloka-Onyango, “New-Breed Leadership.”

33. I do not mean to suggest that before 2001 Museveni could have been called a “good democrat.” I have chosen this date because before the 2001 election nobody really expected him to be a good democrat.

34. The Monitor (Kampala), November 17, 2005.

35. Human Rights Watch, “Uganda.”

36. Reporters Without Borders, Annual Report.

37. Mwenda, “Personalizing Power,” 23.

38. Tripp, “Changing Face of Authoritarianism,” 3; Hickey, “The Politics of Staying Poor.”

39. Tripp, “Changing Face of Authoritarianism,” 23.

40. Uganda has received an average international aid inflow of over 783 million dollars between 1997 and 2003.

41. World Bank, “Country Economic Memorandum,” www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2007/12/04//000020439_20071204101319/Rendered/INDEX/392211UG0v1.txt (accessed May 15, 2008).

42. Mwenda, “Personalizing Power,” 23.

43. Sekanyolya, “The Story Behind the Story,” http://sekanyolya.blogspot.com/2007/04/story-behind-story-why-museveni-is-in.html (accessed May 15, 2008).

44. The “Save Mabira Forest Petition” collected 11,389 signatures over a one-year period from the day of its launch. It remains the most widely signed petition on petitiontime.com.

45. Barry, “Protect Uganda's Mabira Forest,” http://www.climateark.org/blog/2007/07/alert_protect_ugandas_mabira (accessed May 14, 2008).

46. The Monitor (Kampala), September 2, 2007.

47. Solveig Verheyleweghen, Second Secretary, Norwegian Embassy, Kampala Norwegian Embassy, Kampala, Personal interview.

48. The World Bank finally approved the Bujagali loan on April 26, 2007.

49. Seven civil society groups instigated legal action over the proposed giveaway, including the Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment, Green Watch, Environmental Alert, Environmental Action Network, Nature Uganda, National Association of Professional Environmentalists and the Anti Corruption Coalition Uganda.

50. See, for example, Sachs, The Development Dictionary; or Crush, Power of Development.

51. Museveni, The New Vision (Kampala), April 19, 2007.

52. Museveni, The New Vision (Kampala), April 19, 2007.

53. Museveni, The New Vision (Kampala), April 19, 2007.

54. Museveni, The New Vision (Kampala), April 19, 2007.

55. Museveni, The New Vision (Kampala), April 19, 2007.

56. The Independent (London), July 10, 2007.

57. The New Vision (Kampala), April 1, 2007.

58. Christian Aid, www.christianaid.org.uk/emergencies/current/africa_floods/update.aspx (accessed August 11, 2007).

59. The Monitor (Kampala), May 7, 2007.

60. United Nations Development Programme, The Human Development Report 2007/2008; Stern, Stern Review on The Economics of Climate Change, Executive Summary; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report”, 2007. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr.pdf (accessed May 13, 2008).

61. The New Vision (Kampala), 24 May, 2007.

62. Kanabahita, “Forestry Outlook Studies in Africa: Uganda”, unpublished paper, ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/003/X6647E/X6647E00.pdf (accessed May 14, 2008).

63. The Monitor (Kampala), March 25, 2007.

64. The government of Uganda hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala late November 2007. Fear that continued Mabira protests would embarrass the government no doubt played some role in President Museveni's decision to postpone a final announcement on the status of the giveaway.

65. Local nativism is defined as “the attempt to define one's ethnic group as indigenous to a given sub-national territory in order to exclude others from access to resources”. See Green, “Demography, Diversity and Nativism in Contemporary Africa,” 729.

66. Mamdani, “Asian Question Again,” http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/41273 (accessed June 3, 2007).

67. Although Uganda's Indian community is relatively small (roughly 15,000–20,000), their economic importance as investors and business owners is considerable. In 2006 India was the second largest exporter to Uganda (Kenya was the first). Their trade relationship is now valued at over 105 million dollars (US).

68. The New Vision (Kampala), April 10, 2008.

69. Green, “Ethnicity and the Politics of Land Tenure Reform,” 4.

70. Araghi, “Great Global Enclosure.”

71. Deininger and Mpuga, “Does Greater Accountability Improve the Quality of Public Service Delivery?”

72. Kaviraj and Khilnani, Civil Society History and Possibilities, 323.

73. Berman, “Moral Economy”; Blühdorn, “Sustaining the Unsustainable.”