issue 2 • september 2018 THE MISR REVIEW a publication of the makerere institute of social research the misr review the misr review Copyright © 2018 The M I SR Review All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Cover & Publication Design: Aurobind Patel Editorial Services Consultant: Gretchen Baldwin Printed in India by Prodon Enterprises, Mumbai First Printing, 2018 ISBN 978- 9970- 473- 06- 9 Makerere Institute of Social Research P. O. Box 16022 Wandegeya Kampala, Uganda Tel: +256 414 532 838 | +256 414 554 582 | +256 312 132 100 Email: [email protected] www.misr.mak.ac.ug contents • issue 2 • september 2018 THE MISR REVIEW 6 : Introduction mahmood mamdani 8 : Contributors to this Issue 12 : Indirect Writing and the Construction of Burundi’s History haydee bangerezako 40 : Colonial Developmentalism and Politics: From Occupation as Rapture to Colonial Legacy yonas ashine 84 : What do Binaries Do? Tracing the Effect of Social Science Categories on Knowledge Production in the Great Lakes lisa damon 116 : “Ffe tuli ku kituufu, abalala bali ku byaabwe” The Intra-Salaf Debate and Violent State Intervention in Uganda’s Muslim Community Joseph kasule 168 : The Public Politics of Nudity lyn ossome 180 : Reflections on Sylvia Tamale’s Inaugural Professorial Lecture samson a. bezabeh 186 : History, Nudity and Protest mahmood mamdani 196 : Guidelines for Contributors 6 the misr review introduction: in this issue 7 Introduction: In This Issue The Inaugural issue of MISR announced that its aim was two-fold: ism and de-tribalization as an early attempt to decolonize. first, broadcast the intellectual work undertaken at MISR to the Joseph Kasule’s essay, “Ffe tuli ku kituufu, abalala bali ku wider scholarly community; and second, aim to energize and pro- byaabwe,” The Intra-Salaf Debate and Violent State Intervention in mote debate in the broader scholarly community. Uganda’s Muslim Community, seeks to throw light on murders of This issue marks a step in that long journey. The bulk of the Muslim clerics and personalities between 2012 and 2016 by relating issue draws on chapters from doctoral thesis successfully defend- these developments to internal debates among the group of Salaf ed over the past year. Haydee Bangerezako’ essay, Indirect Writing Muslims in Uganda on how to respond to the status of Muslims as and the Construction of Burundi’s History, analyzes history writing in a minority group in Uganda. He focuses on the different tenden- the era of colonial indirect rule. Because it borrowed its categories cies in this debate indicative of the deep division this debate pro- and conceptions from the colonial project, Bangerezako dubs this duced in the Islamic reformist movement: some seeking a politi- genre of writing ‘indirect history.’ The essay focuses on the nar- cal reform of the state, others forming the ADF rebel movement to ratives produced by African chiefs reinterpreting the past within effect an Islamic revolution, a third group seeking autonomy from the colonial epistemological framework. Bangerezako argues that the state to concentrate on Dawah; and finally a group that opted their work was marked by an internal tension. As they projected for collaboration with the state to secure social-political-economic colonial ideas onto the past, these writers privileged a dynastic benefits for itself. Kasule argues that it is the competition between past, embraced the Hamitic hypothesis and presumed male au- these diverse Muslim publics that degenerated into intra-Muslim thority, but their oral accounts at the same time challenged these violence and ultimately threatened the very survival of the Mus- underlying assumptions. lim community they had intended to reform, while undermining In his essay, Colonial Developmentalism and Politics: From Occu- the political gains of the ruling NRM whose patronage some had pation as Rupture to Colonial Legacy, Yonas Ashine Demisse brings sought. Eventually, violence bred more violence, feeding on itself. to bear a critical light on Ethiopian scholarship of the Italian colo- Lisa Damon’s bibliographical essay, What do Binaries Do? Trac- nial occupation and on the historiography of that period. He does ing the Effect of Social Science Categories on Knowledge Production in this in three different ways. Instead of the standard representation the Great Lakes, is not the product of a doctoral thesis but part of of Italian colonial rule as a failed project mired in war and crisis, preparation for doctoral fieldwork. The article argues that the bulk Ashine rethinks the occupation as driven by a deveopmentalist of social science work on the Great Lakes region of Central Africa policy whose objective was to mobilize an alternative social base over the past hundred years has relied heavily on two binaries: the from non-Christian and non-Amharic speaking subjects. Ashine native and the foreigner and modernity and tradition. The author thus casts the legacy of Italian occupation as an early, even pioneer- asks: How have they guided and circumscribed epistemological ing phase of state developmentalism in Ethiopia. Finally, through production on and of the Great Lakes? The essay probes the liter- a reading of newspapers as ethnographic sites, he suggests that we ature on migration, which seeks to territorialize people both geo- consider Haylä-Sellassé’s post-liberation policy of developmental- graphically and historically as native and migrant or first-comer 8 introduction: in this issue the misr review 9 and newcomer. To understand changing notions of land, and of power struggles around it, she reads scholarly debates on Bantu/ Hamitic migrations, colonial labor migration and post-colonial refugees. Through a reading of three sets of debates — the modes of production debates, the politics of land tenure over time, and the relationship of women to the land — the essay shows how the binaries come to overlap, with the migrant considered a harbinger of modernity and the native a guardian of tradition. The paper concludes by framing questions that may allow us to move beyond a critique of existing categories to imagining new ones. The concluding section of this issue presents three commen- taries — by Samson Bezabeh, Lyn Ossome and Mahmood Mam- dani — on Sylvia Tamale’s Inaugural Professorial lecture, Nudity, Protest and the Law in Uganda, delivered on October 28, 2016, http:// www.searcwl.ac.zw/downloads/Tamale_Inaugural_Lecture.pdf. The lecture opens thus: “Allow me to begin with the story that inspired my choice of topic. Around 8.15 on the morning of Monday April 18, 2016, I was just leaving home to go to work when my cell phone rang. On the line was a friend whose words sounded frantic and desperate: “Sylvia you’re the nearest one; you‘ve got to help... Oh my god! It‘s on Facebook... Stella has stripped naked at MISR!” It explains why research fellows at MISR found it difficult to resist the invitation to comment on it critically. We do so with modesty, generosity and in friendship. We hope you enjoy this offering. Mahmood Mamdani September 2018 10 the misr review contributors to this issue 11 Contributors to this Issue Haydée Bangerezako is a Postdoctoral Research at the Makerere Lyn Ossome is Senior Research Fellow at the Makerere Institute Institute of Social Research, specializing in historical, cultural of Social Research. Her research specializations are in feminist and political Studies. Her interest is in a decolonizing study of the political economy, land and agrarian studies and feminist political Great Lakes region from a feminist perspective. theory. She is the author of Gender, Ethnicity and Violence in Kenya’s Democratic Transitions: States of Violence (Lexington Books, 2018). Yonas Ashine is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Addis Ababa University. He earned his Samson A. Bezabeh is a Research Fellow at Makere Institute of PhD in interdisciplinary Social Studies from the Makerere Insti- Social Research, Makere University, Kampala, Uganda. tute of Social Research, Makerere University. His research inter- Mahmood Mamdani is professor and executive director, Maker- ests include political theory and historical and comparative poli- ere Institute of Social Research, Makerere University, Kampala, tics of state-society relations. Uganda, and Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Co- Lisa Damon is a fourth year PhD student at MISR in cultural and lumbia University. political studies. Her academic interests are mobility and its effect on political and social belonging in the Great Lakes from the late colonial period to the present. Joseph Kasule received his Interdisciplinary PhD in Social Stud- ies at the Makerere Institute of Social Research, Makerere Univer- sity. He specializes in political studies and political economy. His scholarly interests include debates in: Islam, secularism, nation- alism, political violence, agrarian studies and the food question. 12 the misr review IndIrect WrItIng and the constructIon of BurundI’s History 13 Indirect Writing: Colonial Introduction “He [Pierre Baranyanka] was then sent in 1916 as umushin- Rule and the Construction of gantahe1 to Kigoma [Tanzania] to the governor Malfayt, he was with Nyenama, Mboneko, Nzeye, son of Ntarugera; they Burundi’s History had gone to represent the king to arrange the affairs of Urundi, they accompanied the resident of Urundi who was in Kitega at the time. In Kitega there was Mr Rijckmans2, a judge Del- hoy (?)3 The resident: van Hende (?). They spend 15 days (in Haydée Bangerezako Kigoma) they went to decide if they wanted Belgians or Ger- mans, who they preferred. They preferred the Belgians, they had already arranged the thing here, they went to report their abstract This paper defines the relationship between colonial rule decision.” In an interview with historian Georges Smets and the production of historical narratives in Burundi as indirect writ- ing.