Poisoning at the periphery: allocating responsibility across the Uganda/South Sudan borderlands

Abstract

This paper presents ethnographic evidence from three sites across the Uganda/South Sudan borderlands. At each location, procedures to identify alleged poisoners were documented. Novel voting processes were initiated by hybrid local authorities. Addressing widespread anxiety about proximate wrong-doing seemed to promote order locally. In this paper, we discuss similarities between locations and review what constitutes poison. Descriptions of indigenous electoral processes are then provided. We reveal the contested nature of accountability, responsibility and democracy at the intersection of the spiritual ontologies and codified law. We argue that hybrid constellations of authority operate along different logics than those of development experts.

Keywords:

• Law
• poisoning
• South Sudan
• Uganda
• witchcraft

Acknowledgements

Liz would like to acknowledge the wisdom, patience and generosity of all those that continue to assist her doctoral research in West Nile. In reference to this paper, particular thanks go to her research assistant, Osuta Jimmy, for insight into the dynamics of this particular poisoning case. Ryan wants to thank the people of Pajok, especially Obwoya Patrick Mariako Paul, the family of Omal David and the members of the African Inland Church (AIC); everyone in the Justice and Security Research Programme; and those who provided help and comments throughout the PhD process. Kyla thanks Ronald Iya, her research assistant Ceasar, and the people in Laropi town for their hospitality and guidance. The authors wish to thank Tim Allen for his insightful discussions, the guest editors for the invitation to contribute, and the reviewers for their insightful comments. The usual disclaimer apply.

Notes

1. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft among the Azande, 1–3.

2. Allen, “Study of the Ugandan Madi”; and Middleton, Lugbara Religion.

3. Allen and Reid, “Justice at the Margins”.

4. Ibid.

5. Allen, “Study of the Ugandan Madi,” 52.

6. Allen, “Violence and Moral Knowledge”; Atkinson, “Ethnicity among the Acholi”; and Atkinson, The Roots of Ethnicity.

7. Leopold, “Crossing the Line”.

8. Allen, “A Flight from Refuge”.

9. Porter, “Justice and Rape on the Periphery”; and Porter, After Rape.

10. Gifford, Christianity, Development and Modernity.

11. Behrend, Resurrecting Cannibals, 12.

12. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft among the Azande, 21.

13. Ibid.

14. Middleton, Lugbara Religion, 236.

15. Leonardi, “Poison in the Ink Bottle,” 34.

16. Ibid.

17. See, e.g. Middleton and Winter, Witchcraft and Sorcery.

18. See, e.g. critiques by Turner, “Witchcraft and Sorcery”.

19. Barnes Dean, “Lugbara Illness and Social Change,” 72.

20. Harrell-Bond, Imposing Aid.

21. Allen, “The Violence of Healing”.

22. Allen and Storm, “Quests for Therapy in Northern Uganda,” 32.

23. Allen and Storm, “Quests for Therapy in Northern Uganda”; and Allen and Reid, “Justice at the Margins”.

24. Allen and Reid, “Justice at the Margins”.

25. Allen, “Vigilantes, Witches and Vampires”.

26. Ibid., 361.

27. Ibid., 382–4.

28. Lund, “Twilight Institutions”.

29. See e.g. Leonardi, “Poison in the Ink Bottle”.

30. Geschiere, The Modernity of Witchcraft.

31. Tapscott, The Government has Long Hands, 13.

32. World Bank, World Bank Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security and Development, 42.

33. Macdonald and Allen, “Social Accountability,” 280.