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Rural Radicalism and the Tactic of Third-Party Leverage: How Acholi Peasants Drew a UN Agency into Their Struggle against Land-Grabbing by the Ugandan State
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2024
Abstract
This article analyzes a 2018 protest instigated by rural activists in northern Uganda, who chose to contest violent state-driven evictions by peacefully occupying a UN compound in the urban center of Gulu. With their contribution to this ASR forum on rural radicalism, Laing and Weschler argue that in militarized contexts such as Uganda, remote geographies present rural political actors pursuing radical goals with certain advantages but also unique challenges. The case they examine demonstrates the capacity of rural activists to draw on rural-urban ties and a tactic they have dubbed “third-party leverage” to imaginatively circumvent such constraints.
Résumé
Cet article analyse une manifestation organisée en 2018 à l’instigation de militants ruraux dans le nord de l’Ouganda, qui ont choisi de contester les expulsions violentes menées par l’État en occupant pacifiquement un complexe de l’ONU dans le centre urbain de Gulu. Avec leur contribution à ce forum ASR sur le radicalisme rural, Laing et Weschler soutiennent que dans des contextes militarisés tels que l’Ouganda, les zones géographiques éloignées présentent aux acteurs politiques ruraux poursuivant des objectifs radicaux certains avantages, mais aussi des défis uniques. Le cas examiné démontre la capacité des activistes ruraux à tirer parti des liens entre les zones rurales et urbaines et une tactique qu’ils ont surnommée « l’influence d’un tiers » pour contourner de manière imaginative ces contraintes.
Resumo
O presente artigo analisa uma manifestação ocorrida em 2018 e instigada por ativistas rurais no norte do Uganda, os quais decidiram contestar as expulsões forçadas e violentas levadas a cabo pelo Estado contra os arrendatários de terras. Com este fim, ocuparam pacificamente as instalações da ONU no centro urbano de Gulu. No seu contributo para este fórum de debate da African Studies Review sobre o radicalismo rural, Laing e Weschler defendem que, em contextos militarizados como o do Uganda, é nas geografias remotas que se encontram atores políticos rurais com objetivos radicais, os quais detêm algumas vantagens mas também enfrentam desafios únicos. O caso aqui analisado pelos autores revela a capacidade dos ativistas rurais para tirarem partido dos laços entre rural e urbano e o seu recurso a uma tática que apelidaram de “third-party leverage” (“alavancagem em terceiros”) de forma a contornar criativamente esses desafios.
Keywords
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- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of African Studies Association
Footnotes
*
Both authors contributed equally to this text; their names are listed alphabetically.
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