Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

“We Are All Ugandans”: In Search of Belonging in Kampala’s Urban Space

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Forging African Communities

Part of the book series: Global Diversities ((GLODIV))

Abstract

This chapter draws on multi-sited research to explore why solidarities forged through the experiences of racialisation and racism in Britain struggle to translate into inclusive practices of belonging for Ugandan return migrants in Kampala, across time and space understandings of difference, hierarchies of integration, historical registers of belonging based on ethnicity and ‘race’ shift for migrants. I propose Simmel’s essay, the Stranger, as a useful framework to unpack the limitations of multi-directional social remittances within place-based socio-political and cultural realities. Despite migrants’ iterative coming, going, and settling again someday, social distance endures, embedded in colonial and postcolonial ontologies of alterity that choke pathways to belonging. Harsh inequalities, visible and invisible divisions persist to striate the Kampala cityscape thus undergirding obstacles to equitable belonging.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Luganda is the language of the Baganda, although it is not one of the recognised national languages, which are English and Kiswahili.

  2. 2.

    The Buganda Kingdom is led by the Kabaka, the King of the Baganda. Their traditional parliament, the Lukiiko sits at Mmengo in Kampala.

  3. 3.

    Kabaka is the title of the King of Buganda.

References

  • Adesina, J.O. 2008. Archie Mafeje and the Pursuit of Endogeny: Against Alterity and Extroversion. Africa Development 33 (4).

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, B. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Rev. ed. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Back, L., S. Sinha, and C. Bryan. 2012. New Hierarchies of Belonging. European Journal of Cultural Studies 15 (2): 139–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumann, G. 1996. Contesting Culture: Discourses of Identity in Multi-Ethnic London. Vol. 100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binaisa, N. 2011. Negotiating ‘Belonging’ to the Ancestral Homeland: Ugandan Refugee Descendants ‘Return’. Mobilities 6 (4): 519–534.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013. Ugandans in Britain Making ‘New’ Homes: Transnationalism, Place and Identity Within Narratives of Integration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 39 (6): 885–902.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boccagni, P. 2011. Rethinking Transnational Studies: Transnational Ties and the Transnationalism of Everyday Life. European Journal of Social Theory. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431011423600.

  • Brah, A. 1996. Cartographies of Diaspora. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brickell, K., and A. Datta, eds. 2011. Translocal Geographies. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carling, J. 2008. The Human Dynamics of Migrant Transnationalism. Ethnic and Racial Studies 31 (8): 1452–1477.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook, J., and L. Waite. 2015. ‘I Think I’m More Free with Them’—Conflict, Negotiation and Change in Intergenerational Relations in African Families Living in Britain. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies: 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2015.1073578.

  • Cruse, I. 2008. To Call Attention to the Concept of Britishness in the Context of the Cultural, Historical, Constitutional and Ethical Tradition of the Peoples of These Islands. House of Lords, Library Note.

    Google Scholar 

  • GCR. 2015. Kampala Capital City Authority. Global Credit Rating Co., May.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geschiere, P. 2009. The Perils of Belonging: Autochthony, Citizenship, and Exclusion in Africa and Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Giddings, S.W. 2009. The Land Market in Kampala, Uganda and Its Effect on Settlement Patterns. Washington, DC: International Housing Coalition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodfellow, T. 2010. ‘The Bastard Child of Nobody’?: Anti-Planning and the Institutional Crisis in Contemporary Kampala. Working Paper No. 67, Crisis States Research Centre, London School of Economics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodfellow, T., and S. Lindemann. 2013. The Clash of Institutions: Traditional Authority, Conflict and the Failure of ‘Hybridity’ in Buganda. Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 51 (1): 3–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2010. Patronage, District Creation, and Reform in Uganda. Studies in Comparative International Development 45 (1): 83–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grillo, R., and V. Mazzucato. 2008. Africa <> Europe: A Double Engagement. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 34 (2): 175–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. 1990. Cultural Identity and Diaspora. In Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, ed. J. Rutherford. London: Lawrence and Wishart.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1996. New Ethnicities. In Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies, ed. K.H. Chen and D. Morley. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isaac, N.N., and R.D. Mirembe. 2011. Consumer Attitudes, Ethnicity, Lifestyle and Housing Consumption in Kampala. Accessed 2 February 2014. https://ideas.repec.org/p/arz/wpaper/eres2011_273.html

  • KCCA. 2014. Kampala Capital City Authority: Strategic Plan 2014/15–2018/19 Laying the Foundation for Kampala City Transformation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kingombe, C. 2014. Africa’s Rising Middle Class amid Plenty and Extreme Poverty. Discussion Paper No. 167, European Centre for Development Policy Management, October.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuper, J. 1979. Goan and Asian in Uganda: An Analysis of Racial Identity and Cultural Categories. In Strangers in African Societies, ed. W.A. Shack, E.P. Skinner, and H. Challenor, vol. 220. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, Donald N. 1979. Simmel at a Distance: On the History and Systematics of the Sociology of the Stranger. In Strangers in African Societies, ed. W.A. Shack, E.P. Skinner, and H. Challenor, vol. 220. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, P., and D. Lamba-Nieves. 2011. Social Remittances Revisited. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 37 (1): 1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lwanga-Lunyiigo, S. 1989. The Colonial Roots of Internal Conflict. In Conflict Resolution in Uganda, ed. K. Rupesinghe. London and Athens: James Currey and Ohio University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mafeje, A. 1971. The Ideology of ‘Tribalism’. The Journal of Modern African Studies 9 (2): 253–261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2011. Africanity: A Combative Ontology. In The Postcolonial Turn: Re-imagining Anthropology and Africa, ed. R. Devisch and F. Nyamnjoh, 31–44. Leiden: Langaa & African Studies Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magubane, B. 1971. A Critical Look at Indices Used in the Study of Social Change in Colonial Africa. Current Anthropology 12 (4/5): 419–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mamdani, M. 1975. Class Struggles in Uganda. Review of African Political Economy 2 (4): 26–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazrui, A.A. 1979. Casualties, of an Underdeveloped Class Structure. In Strangers in African Societies, ed. W.A. Shack, E.P. Skinner, and H. Challenor, vol. 220. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGregor, J. 2008. Children and ‘African Values’: Zimbabwean Professionals in Britain Reconfiguring Family Life. Environment and Planning A 40 (3): 596–614.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mutibwa, P. 1992. Uganda Since Independence: A Story of Unfulfilled Hopes. London: Hurst and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nyamnjoh, H.M. 2013. Bridging Mobilities: ICTs Appropriation by Cameroonians in South Africa and the Netherlands. Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa RPCIG.

    Google Scholar 

  • Obbo, C. 1979. Village Strangers in Buganda Society. In Strangers in African Societies, ed. W.A. Shack, E.P. Skinner, and H. Challenor, vol. 220. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sejjaaka, S. 2004. A Political and Economic History of Uganda, 1962–2002. In International Businesses and the Challenges of Poverty in the Developing World: Case Studies on Global Responsibilities and Practices, ed. F. Bird and S. Herman. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shack, W.A., E.P. Skinner, and H. Challenor, eds. 1979. Strangers in African Societies. Vol. 220. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmel, G. 1950. The Stranger. The Sociology of Georg Simmel 402: 408.

    Google Scholar 

  • UBOS. 2014, November. National Population and Housing Census 2014: Provisional Results. Rev. ed. Kampala: Uganda Bureau of Statistics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Virdee, S. 2014. Racism, Class and the Racialized Outsider. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wimmer, A., and N. Glick Schiller. 2002. Methodological Nationalism and Beyond: Nation–State Building, Migration and the Social Sciences. Global Networks 2 (4): 301–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuval-Davis, N. 2006. Belonging and the Politics of Belonging. Patterns of Prejudice 40 (3): 197–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK

    Naluwembe Binaisa

Authors
  1. Naluwembe Binaisa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Oliver Bakewell

  2. African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Loren B. Landau

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Binaisa, N. (2018). “We Are All Ugandans”: In Search of Belonging in Kampala’s Urban Space. In: Bakewell, O., Landau, L. (eds) Forging African Communities. Global Diversities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58194-5_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58194-5_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58193-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58194-5

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation