College

This study historicises the terrorism debate in Uganda between 1976 – 2015 and is intended to rethink the evolution of the meaning of the term terrorism, causes, manifestations and state responses to terrorism by examining the alternative approaches, in part provided by the Critical Terrorism Theory (CTT), to the predominant understanding of terrorism provided by The Orthodox Terrorism Theory (OTT). It presents a critical and discourse analysis approach to the understanding and explaining the historical usage of the concept, its causes, manifestations and state responses with an initial focus on the explanation and description of the Orthodox Terrorism Discourse, clarifying how and why it is constructed the way it is, and the implications it has for researching and understanding terrorism. The purpose is to develop a nuanced explanation to the understanding of terrorism from a historical perspective thereby providing a reflexive critique of the commonly held explanations of the OTT. This is not intended as a new theory of terrorism but rather a broader, comprehensive and holistic approach to the understanding of terrorism. To test this comprehensive framework for understanding terrorism, the study examines the 1976 Entebbe Incident, Atiak Massacres, 1996-1999 bombings, 1998 Kichwamba Massacre, and the 2010 Kampala bombings and discusses how the state and non-state terrorism can be re-examined through the application of the CTT.

The study found that Uganda has experienced three types of terrorism: state terrorism, non-state terrorism and international terrorism manifested through bombings, hostage-taking, kidnapping and abductions, assassinations and arson. This study concludes that the conceptualisation of the term terrorism is beyond the limits of the two theories, but CTT provides a better explanation.

Presenter: Zaid Sekito, PhD History, Makerere University
Chairperson: Dr. Charlotte Mafumdo, History Dept, Makerere University

The Ivory Tower meets Jua Kali: Reflections on Theorizing the Profound from the Ordinary

In his essay 1987 entitled: “Rediscovery of the Ordinary: Some New Writings in South Africa”, the South African Literary Scholar and Public Intellectual Njabulo Ndebele calls on black writers to write about ordinary lives as lived experiences in South African Townships and Suburbs if they are to distil profound insights about the South African condition. Conceding that the obscenity of the apartheid system often justified the prominence of the spectacular in political writing akin to the wrestler as theorized by Roland Barthes, Ndebele notes that such writing lacks the punch of the ordinary. While Ndebele’s argument comes out of a particular spatial and temporal context and is particularly anchored in literary and cultural studies, his thesis that the profound can be theorised from the ordinary is an innovative way of conceptualising knowledge production in the Humanities and Social Sciences. That scholars in the Humanities and Social Sciences are capable of distilling important insights into the socio-political and economic reality of particular milieu out of the ordinary experiences is not only the core essence of the decolonising project at different epochs in the continent’s intellectual trajectory, but it has been noted by many scholars and public intellectuals as an innovative platform for collective approaches to knowledge production.

This is particularly significant given the complexity surrounding African epistemology in the postcolonial moment. Cognisant of Ekeh’s double publics, Grace Musila’s epistemic disarticulation and Bhekizizwe Peterson’s multiple imagined readers — theoretical assumptions that underscore a double locale for knowledge production on the continent — the Humanities and Social Sciences Scholars congregated by the 2020 CHUSS Symposium seeks to investigate how and with what successes the academy can centre the untapped node of knowledge that exists on the periphery of the Ivory Tower — here framed as “Jua Kali” wisdom. By bringing the Ivory Tower into a conversation with Jua Kali, the meeting will enact a platform to interrogate the benefits of bringing these seeming parallel affiliations of knowledge production in sync. It will ponder how the double publics (Eke), multiple imagined audiences (Peterson) and the inevitable epistemic disarticulations (Musila) can be reconfigured to innovatively open space to debate the lived reality of the majority of the continent’s inhabitants. Undergirded by Musila’s argument that a reliance on a onedimensional knowledge registers produce blind spots and opacity that not only disenfranchise, but also results into inaccurate and disarticulate conclusions of the African condition by all Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines, the scholars will reflect on how the ordinary can counter the said blind spots, opacities and epistemic deceits that colour our
insights of the African condition to enact fulfilling intellectual conversations. 

Launch of CHUSS Centre of Excellence in Research, Teaching and Learning (CERTL) 

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS) received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York to establish the CHUSS Centre of Excellence in Research, Teaching and Learning. To ensure proper running of the Centre, the College seeks to contract services of a Project Administrator.  Interested individuals should submit their application letters along with the Curriculum Vitae and copies of relevant academic credentials to the CHUSS Human Resources Office, Room32, Western Wing of the former Arts Building by Thursday, 30^th July 2020.

See full advert below

The Organizing Committee cordially invites you to the 2020 Humanities and Social Sciences Symposium scheduled to take place on Thursday 2^nd - Friday 3^rd April, 2020 in the Makerere University Main Hall starting at 8:00am-4:30pm on each day.

THEME OF THE SYMPOSIUM: The Ivory Tower meets Jua Kali: Reflections on Theorizing the Profound from the Ordinary

PREAMBLE

In his essay 1987 entitled: “Rediscovery of the Ordinary: Some New Writings in South Africa”, the South African Literary Scholar and Public Intellectual Njabulo Ndebele calls on black writers to write about ordinary lives as lived experiences in South African Townships and Suburbs if they are to distil profound insights about the South African condition. Conceding that the obscenity of the apartheid system often justified the prominence of the spectacular in political writing akin to the wrestler as theorized by Roland Barthes, Ndebele notes that such writing lacks the punch of the ordinary. While Ndebele’s argument comes out of a particular spatial and temporal context and is particularly anchored in literary and cultural studies, his thesis that the profound can be theorised from the ordinary is an innovative way of conceptualising knowledge production in the Humanities and Social Sciences. That scholars in the Humanities and Social Sciences are capable of distilling important insights into the socio-political and economic reality of particular milieu out of the ordinary experiences is not only the core essence of the decolonising project at different epochs in the continent’s intellectual trajectory, but it has been noted by many scholars and public intellectuals as an innovative platform for collective approaches to knowledge production.

 The 2020 Humanities and Social Sciences Symposium seeks to investigate how and with what successes the academy can centre the untapped node of knowledge that exists on the periphery of the Ivory Tower — here framed as “Jua Kali” wisdom.

GUEST OF HONOUR: Mr. Moses Matovu - He is a Ugandan musician and saxophonist. He is one of the founders of Afrigo Band, Uganda's longest-serving band, founded in 1975. Matovu has been in Uganda's music industry for close to 45 years. He started out in "Thunderbirds Band" in 1967 as a vocalist. From there, he joined the Police Band in 1968 and later "Cranes Band" in 1969 before he and other friends formed Afrigo Band in 1974. He has been performing with the band since then. Matovu is a historian of the band music industry in Uganda.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Dr Grace Musila - She is an Associate Professor in the African Literature Department at the University of the Witwatersrand. She holds a PhD in African Literature from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Her research interests include Gender Studies, Eastern and Southern African literatures, African popular culture, African intellectual archives and postcolonial whiteness in Africa. She has published journal articles and book chapters in these areas. She has also co-edited Rethinking Eastern African Intellectual Landscapes (Africa World Press, 2012). She is the author of “A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour: Kenya, Britain and the Julie Ward Murder (2015)”, which explores Kenyan and British interpretations of the 1988 murder of British tourist Julie Ann Ward in Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Kenya.

About the Humanities and Social Sciences Symposia

In 2018, CHUSS hosted the first Humanities and Social Sciences Symposium with the resolve that this intervention would become an annual academic event in the college. The symposia series are organised in pursuant with the college’s mandate, among which, is the need to foster a vibrant academic environment in the university and the country that can promote intellectual debate and knowledge production in the fields of Humanities and Social Sciences. Consequently, the 2018 symposium brought together the region’s Humanities and Social Sciences scholars to debate issues affecting the Eastern African polity in the Fourth Industrial milieu. Organized under the theme,  “A New East African: Agency and Identity Debates in the Region”, the 2019 CHUSS Symposium took major shifts in the East African society that have occurred in the last two decades as its point of departure in order to explore how agency and identity of the regions subjects have morphed during this period.

Related link: http://chuss.mak.ac.ug/news/2020-chuss-symposium-call-abstracts

The Coordinator of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS) Seminar Series, Dr Sarah Ssali invites you to the first 2020 seminar scheduled to take place on Friday, 13^th March 2020 starting at 2:00pm in CTF 1, Study Room 3.1.

 Presenter: Ruth Kelly from the Centre for Applied Human Rights,University of York

Topic:  Retelling Red Riding Hood: Situated Solidarities between Ireland and Uganda

See abstract below

End of Examinations

DATE: TUESDAY, 14^TH JANUARY, 2020

• College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
• College of Natural Sciences
• College of Education and External Studies
• College of Health Sciences

DATE: WEDNESDAY, 15^TH JANUARY, 2020

• College of Business and Management Sciences
• College of Computing and Information Sciences

• College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Bio-security

DATE: THURSDAY, 16^TH JANUARY, 2020

• Makerere University Business School

DATE: FRIDAY, 17^TH JANUARY, 2020

• College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology

•  College of Humanities and Social Sciences

•  School of Law

Source: Mak Department of the Academic Registrar, Room 501, Level 5, Senate Building

Did you know that over 18,000 children are living and working on the streets of Kampala? (Retrack,2018). Without family protection, many of them suffer untold sexual, physical and emotional violence and resort to harmful coping mechanisms.

‘Are we doing enough to protect children from street situations?’

Join the AfriChild Centre in a Public Dialogue to discuss the plight of street connected children on October 18 2019 at Makerere University’s Food Science Conference Hall starting at 9:00AM. You can follow the proceedings via Twitter: @AfriChildCenter and Facebook: @AfriChildCentreUg. Hashtag: #NoChildOnTheStreet

All are welcome!

The Coordinator of the CHUSS Lunchtime Seminar Series, Dr Sarah Ssali invites you all to the next seminar slated for this Friday, 20th September 2019 at the School of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University.