Kristof Titeca

Tycoons and contraband: informal cross-border trade in West Nile, north-western Uganda

Abstract This article presents ethnographic evidence on the activities of the “tycoons” – large-scale cross-border contraband traders in north-western Uganda. It shows how engagement with state officials, but also integration in the broader community are two crucial aspects which explain the functioning of informal cross-border trade or “smuggling” in north-western Uganda. In doing so, it shows how, although there is a high degree of interaction between the “formal” and the “informal”, the informal economy still has a distinct regulatory authority rather than simply merging in the state regulatory framework. Secondly, the regulatory authority governing this trade has a distinct plural character: rather than being either a “weapon of the weak” for marginalised sections of the population or a “weapon of the strong” for political elites, it has a much more ambiguous character, which influences the behaviour of the tycoons: both of these interactions limit the maneuvering space of these traders.

Bridging community associations in post-conflict Burundi: the difficult merging of social capital endowments and new ‘institutional settings’

Associations have been labelled the main ‘building blocks ’ for creating social capital. It has been argued that community associations need to transform ‘ bonding ’ into ‘bridging’ ties to ‘ reach out ’ while also creating ‘linking’ ties to ‘ scale up ’. External development actions follow a reverse logic in promoting these associations : they assume that linking ties with the external intervener will reinforce prior social capital endowments. This article highlights the inherent difficulties of such a ‘social engineering ’ approach in the context of post-conflict reconstruction, describing three development interventions in the north of Burundi. It defines the process of ‘ institutional syncretism ’ – merging local with global institutional settings – as a key element to social capital building. The findings illustrate how the three interventions failed to reach this objective, and

Rebels without borders in the Rwenzori borderland? A biography of the Allied Democratic Forces

Abstract This article provides a detailed analysis of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel movement that is operating from Congolese soil but so far has attracted very limited scholarly attention. Having its roots in Ugandan Islamic community, it has become part of larger transborder dynamics of rebellion and resistance. It is argued that although its institution is linked to several internal dynamics in Uganda, the movements character has been largely shaped by the specific characteristics of the Uganda–DRC Rwenzori borderland, where it became a key player of local power struggles and conflicts. The article provides a detailed account of the origins, characteristics and strategies of the ADF, its integration into Congolese society and its impact on local and regional dynamics of conflict.

Make Schools, Not War? Donors' Rewriting of the Social Contract in the DRC

The school being one of the most important ‘faces’ of the state at the local level in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, investment in education can play an important role in reconstructing the social contract between the population and the state after violent conflict. However, this is particularly difficult since the state has largely retreated from the education sector since the 1980s, and education is now organised through public‐private partnerships with religious networks. Moreover, schools have been turned into tax units, in response to the retreat of the state and the declining wages of school administrators. This has had a clear effect on donor interventions, which, instead of changing the current system, have become part of existing configurations and led to an expansion of the current system.

Blood cigarettes: cigarette smuggling and war economies in central and eastern Africa

Objective To analyse cigarette smuggling practices in central and eastern Africa. Methods Primary data were gathered during long-term qualitative field research in which about 400 interviews were conducted. Analysis of secondary sources included academic literature and reports from non-government organisations, multilateral organisations and the press. Results Our research suggests that the following factors play an important role in cigarette smuggling in eastern and central Africa: (1) government officials encounter difficulties monitoring the long and porous borders; (2) there is a general problem of corrupt government officials and particularly those who allow large-scale smugglers to operate; (3) criminal elements also play an important role in smuggling—cigarette smuggling has helped rebel groups to finance their activities, something illustrated through examples from the war economy in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Conclusions Our research suggests that cigarette smuggling in this region is not primarily the result of different taxation levels in neighbouring states, but rather the outcome of weak state capacity, high levels of corruption and the activities of rebel groups. Under these conditions smuggling cigarettes becomes an attractive option as taxation is so easily avoided. This explains why in the low-income countries in this study there are high levels of smuggling in spite of low cigarette prices. Comprehensive supply control and enforcement legislation, and cooperation at national, regional and global level are needed to tackle fraudulent practices facilitated by corruption at state level, and to effectively punish interaction between cigarette traders and rebel groups.

In the Name of the Father? Christian Militantism in Tripura, Northern Uganda, and Ambon

Although armed groups and political violence referring to Islam have attracted increasing attention since the start of the global war against terror, one particular religion can hardly be described as the main source of inspiration of what is commonly referred to as “terrorist acts of violence.” Faith-based violence occurs in different parts of the world and its perpetrators adhere to all major world faiths including Christianity. As such, this article treats three cases of non-state armed actors that explain their actions as being motivated by Christian beliefs and aimed at the creation of a new local society that is guided by religion: the National Liberation Front of Tripura, the Lords Resistance Army, and the Ambonese Christian militias. It analyzes the way by which they instrumentalized religion against respective backgrounds of conflict rooted in social change, the erosion of traditional identities, imbalances of power, and widening communautarian faultlines.

Hybrid Governance, Legitimacy, and (Il)legality in the Informal Cross-Border Trade in Panyimur, Northwest Uganda

Abstract: By looking at a number of different commodities and how they are traded, this article shows how informal cross-border trade in West Nile and Panyimur, Uganda, is governed by a locally negotiated system of hybrid governance, in which neither state nor nonstate actors have a regulatory monopoly. Notions such as legality and illegality are secondary to the functioning of these hybrid institutions, which instead are the outcome of perceptions of the legitimacy of regulatory actions and trading practices and the power configurations of the actors involved. There are different “registers” at play about what constitutes legitimate economic action among different moral communities, but the actual impact of this system depends on the power of the strategic groups involved. Résumé: En regardant un certain nombre de produits différents et la façon dont ils sont négociés, cet article montre comment le commerce informel transfrontalier dans la région du Nil occidental et le Panyimur est régi par un système négocié localement de gouvernance hybride, dans lequel les acteurs qui ont un monopole réglementaire ne proviennent ni de l’intérieur ni de l’extérieur du pouvoir d’Etat. Des notions telles que la légalité et l’illégalité sont secondaires pour le fonctionnement de ces institutions hybrides, qui sont plutôt le résultat de la perception de légitimité des mesures de réglementation, des pratiques commerciales et des configurations de puissance des acteurs impliqués. Il existe différents “registres” en jeu parmi les différentes communautés morales sur ce qui constitue la légitimité d’une action économique, mais l’impact réel de ce système dépend de la puissance des groupes stratégiques impliqués.

Trade networks and the practical norms of taxation at a border crossing between South Sudan and Northern Uganda

This article provides an ethnographic insight into how the daily realities of state performance along the South Sudanese most Southern border of Magwi County are an outcome of negotiations between traders and state officials. It is argued that the ‘practical norms’ of taxation, meaning the actual rules that govern the actions of state officials, are largely framed by the way in which state officials and traders are embedded in different networks. The analysis distinguishes between regional trade networks of accumulation based on associative ties that appropriate elements of state performance and SPLM/A authority into their business practices, and local trade networks of survival based on communal ties that relate to state performance more through the informal institutions of kinship and subsistence security. It is demonstrated that the types of network ties and their embedded institutional content that connect traders and state officials yield very different practical norms with different implications for South Sudans state-building process ‘from below’.

When revolutionaries grow old: the Museveni babies and the slow death of the liberation

Abstract The liberation struggle plays a crucial role in providing legitimacy for post-liberation regimes. This was the case for the Museveni regime, for whom the liberation argument provided strong moral authority, and a legitimising foundation for its patronage and coercion strategies. But what happens when the liberation argument ‘grows old’, i.e. when the liberation generation elite starts to die or defect, and the young population is no longer impressed by the liberation argument? This article argues that in response to this changing situation, the Museveni regime almost exclusively relies on patronage and coercion, yet is increasingly devoid of the legitimising liberation foundation.

Everything changes to remain the same? : State and tax reform in South Sudan

South Sudan is in a unique combination of (post)-conflict reconstruction and the birth of a new state in which old policies are re-activated and new policies introduced. By looking at three case-studies of taxation and private sector regulation reforms, the paper will show how the overlapping and often contradictory regulatory frameworks of the state provide the setting for bricolage strategies by different actors. These actors, and particularly state officials, rely on a variety of institutional resources to implement, resist or remake certain regulatory measures. Although the breadth of regulatory measures has increased exponentially, the institutional corridor – the space in which bricolage is performed and on which various actors can rely – remains narrow. This space is contingent on wartime authority structures, and more particularly pre-existing Sudan’s People Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) power structures, as well as a deep-rooted resistance to centralised control. Importantly, these regulatory practices are not fixed: intense periods of rearrangement of the social order or ‘open moments’ may provide a window of opportunity for regulatory reform.