This work explores the travels of Ugandan Enoch Olinga, as an example of a person who enjoyed connections with global minorities across national boundaries and as a unique lens into the Black international experience in the mid-twentieth century. I examine his internationalist experiences through the lens of emotions to emphasize different dynamics of global racial identities and transnational diasporic connections during the 1950s–1970s, an era of decolonization and civil rights movements. I argue that Olinga, a prominent Baha’i who traveled worldwide during this era, advocated for unification among global minorities by emphasizing common racial and cultural heritages and expansive concepts of a politicized kinship. Through the Baha’i Cause, he articulated his own ideas about striving for global harmony and racial unity, with a connection to Africa serving as the linchpin. Emotional analysis provides insights into how Olinga invoked diverse notions of family and kin to arouse particular emotions amongst people of color both within and beyond the unity offered by the Baha’i Faith.

The diffusion of agricultural technologies, such as biofortified crops, is often non-linear, characterised by adoption, discontinuation, and re-adoption. This study examines the factors shaping these dynamic patterns for high-iron beans (HIBs) in Uganda. Based on cross-sectional survey data, we employed a multinomial logit model to categorise and analyse farmer adoption status. The results reveal that a combination of socio-economic and institutional factors significantly influences adoption behaviour. Specifically, the gender and age of the household head, as well as participation in off-farm income, were key socio-economic predictors. Regarding institutional factors, access to reliable markets and the presence of payback schemes emerged as the primary drivers. These findings suggest that overcoming adoption barriers requires addressing both the demographics of farmers and systemic constraints. We recommend a strategic pivot towards decentralising seed production by establishing certified community seed enterprises and enhancing training programmes that focus on both agronomic practices and market linkages to ensure the sustained cultivation of HIBs.

This paper considers dangers and pitfalls associated with a range of oversight options and scenarios, including self-regulation, government regulation, donor monitoring and community participation. The paper outlines the blind spots and sources of potential bias associated with each of these oversight mechanisms. Examining the Ugandan case study we find that perceptions of corruption and ineffectiveness tarnished the reputation of the sector, but at this stage the proposed peer review mechanism and stricter government regulation are unlikely to improve NGO sector outcomes. Government regulation is anticipated to be ineffectual due to poor design and insufficient resource allocation, but both of these factors may be attributable to the underlying political motivations. Similarly, not much is expected from the peer review mechanism because participation is voluntary, offers few benefits and the list of guidelines is too long and contains too many vague and intangible quality standards. The paper argues for more empirical research to inform the design of oversight mechanisms and to monitor the impact of self-regulation and government regulation on the NGO sector. This may also help to expose and limit opportunistic interventions by government, often thinly concealed under the conceptual cloak of accountability and oversight.

Research confronting inequality in volunteering has mostly focused on the attribution of its benefits to different groups and communities, with little attention paid towards fundamental factors that shape such inequalities and how these intersect with volunteering opportunities. This paper highlights the importance of volunteering for young refugees in Uganda, as a means of both learning new skills and earning a livelihood. However, evidence suggests that not everyone has equal access to these opportunities, with inequalities primarily distributed along the lines of language, gender and education. The paper provides a critical examination of the kinds of volunteering organised and promoted by state actors and civil society organisations with a particular focus on access to volunteering opportunities and the ways they can produce inequalities among young people. Based on data drawn from a study among young refugees from South Sudan, Burundi, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in four settings in Uganda, the paper explores issues of access to opportunities as a core premise around which these inequalities are shaped. It demonstrates that rather than address social inequality, the obfuscation of these experiences in how volunteering is organised only serves to reinforce the status quo.

Non-governmental organizations’ (NGOs’) significant role in the development sector has augmented scholarly debate on their legitimacy and accountability over the last two decades. While this literature is often framed from a Northern theoretical perspective and focused on one or a few case studies, this article follows a different approach. Through an innovative social media analysis of the #UgandaNGOsExhibition X (formerly Twitter) campaign, this article inductively investigates the perception of Uganda’s urban public (Twitter/X users), a new emerging advocacy actor in Uganda’s civic space, concerning NGOs’ legitimacy and accountability. Our findings reveal that holding NGOs accountable in closed civic spaces can take various collective forms aside from direct control and co-optation by the government or increased donor scrutiny. Prioritizing naming, shaming, and peer accountability, the urban public appealed to NGO leaders to be more altruistic and practice the same ethos of social justice and accountability they demand from the government. However, NGOs should be receptive of valid criticism to maintain their legitimacy amid different accountability loci.

Indigenous NGOs in Uganda are a key stakeholder in the development process. Unfortunately, their impact on the ground has over the years been affected by their poor credibility. Until this research, no empirical research had been done to explore this terrain in Uganda. It is in the wake of this that this research was undertaken. This work was undertaken under the Swedish International Development Agency/Swedish Department for Research Cooperation grant for capacity-building for Makerere University. It was carried out on 100 NGOs selected randomly from some purposively selected districts. A total of 783 respondents responded to a questionnaire whereas some 100 key informants were also involved. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Factor analysis with loadings above 0.4 established that several variables affect each of the factors, with the highest randomly selected loading in each factor being as follows: in accountability (0.61291), transparency (−0.66958), legitimacy (0.43661) partnership/networking (0.48110), ICT (−0.42610) and effectiveness (−0.77667). The beta (β) column under the standardised coefficients shows that the beta for legitimacy = 0.236; efficiency = 0.171; transparency = 0.153; accountability = 0.141; partnership = 0.120 and ICT = 0.080 and that all are significant at 0.001 level. The coefficients show that legitimacy is the most predictive factor for credibility and that the least predictive factor is ICT. All in all, it was established that the credibility of the NGOs is just average. The level of credibility was found to be insufficient for the badly needed effective service delivery and poverty eradication in a country where 24.5% of the population still live in absolute poverty. It is recommended that in practice, for NGOs to effectively participate in poverty eradication and enhance their credibility, they should invest in the above factors in proportion to their predictive power. Theoretically, more research needs to be done in order to develop a robust theory on the NGOs’ credibility. However, it was noted that these key factors could still provide guidelines for the theoretical explanation of the NGOs’ credibility in Uganda.

Debates over the links between ethnicity and conflict often focus on the national level and take an ahistorical approach. This approach hides cases of ethnic conflict that arise at the subnational level and leaves unanswered questions over how ethnicity became a driver of conflict. This article explores these blind spots, using three cases in the African Great Lakes region. The cases reviewed here are the bipolar situations of Hema v. Lendu in Ituri (DRC), Banyarwanda/Banyamulenge v. ‘Autochthons’ in South and North Kivu (DRC), and Hima v. Iru in Ankole (Uganda). These cases suggest that polarisation is a more useful approach than fragmentation, but simple correlations between ethnic dyads and conflict obfuscate the nature and depths of the cleavages, as well as the mechanisms fuelling them. We elaborate on the pathways of escalation, highlighting how and when elite manipulations can activate deeply held identitarian norms. We conclude by emphasising the many lulls and moments of de-escalation, countering the portrayal of ethnic conflict as somehow inevitable.

Environmental taxation is often justified by the ‘double dividend’ hypothesis, yet evidence overwhelmingly derives from high-income countries. In low-income countries (LICs), where broadening the tax base is a central fiscal priority, we identify a special case – the ‘tax base’ double dividend– in which environmental levies simultaneously curb emissions and strengthen revenue capacity. Exploiting Uganda’s 2018 reform of vehicle import duties as a natural experiment, we use administrative microdata covering all motor vehicle imports and a difference-in-differences strategy to assess this proposition. The reform generated substantial revenue gains alongside modest improvements in the emissions profile of imports. Effects varied by vehicle type, highlighting the need for policy tailoring. Drawing on these results, we outline design principles for LICs, emphasising sequencing, enforcement and inter-agency coordination. Uganda’s experience shows that administratively simple, import-based carbon taxes can serve as an effective and politically feasible entry point to carbon pricing while advancing domestic resource mobilisation.

This article examines women’s storytelling and nanga (harp) performances in nineteenth- and twentiethcentury western Uganda to investigate how these songs shaped community identity and norms. Drawing on musical recordings, archival sources, and interviews, this article demonstrates that these performances functioned as important public histories, teaching audiences about past famines, droughts, climate change, and cattle events. These narratives both chronicled regional histories and provided the shared intellectual material from which community norms and a shared identity could be articulated. Extant scholarship has focused overwhelmingly on how male intellectuals contributed to ideas of race, nation, or ethnicity. This article thus provides an important alternative by showing how women produced histories that contributed to group identity—yet this historical production occurred through musical performances rather than in books, tracts, or petitions. In doing so, this article reintegrates western Ugandan women into narratives of imperial encounters and intellectual history.

In tropical forests, the relative thermal and climatic stability contrasts with the seasonal oscillations, mainly due to rainfall patterns, that structure life cycles in temperate zones, leading to different ecological strategies among species. This study investigates the seasonal activity patterns and size-abundance relationships of four sympatric Goliath beetle species (Goliathus goliatus, Mecynorhina confluens, Mecynorrhinella poggei, and Fornasinius russus) in the Mabira Forest Reserve and in other forest areas, Uganda. Over three years (2021–2023), 1,231 individuals were sampled monthly using standardised traps and random transects. Time series analyses were used to explore patterns of abundance. We found a significant negative correlation between body size and abundance (r = –0.78, P < 0.05), with the smaller species, M. confluens and F. russus, being most numerous. Time series and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed significant sinusoidal patterns of seasonality for G. goliatus, M. poggei, and F. russus, while M. confluens showed non-significant cyclical trends, indicating potential stochastic fluctuations or greater ecological flexibility. Seasonal peaks were species-specific and generally occurred during transitional periods between wet and dry seasons, diverging from previously reported insect patterns peaking during the wet season. These findings suggest that differing phenological strategies may facilitate coexistence and niche partitioning, particularly among species differing in body size. Furthermore, larger species appeared to emerge earlier in the year, possibly reflecting life history adaptations or competitive dynamics. Our study highlights the importance of long-term, species-specific monitoring to understand ecological roles and vulnerabilities of tropical beetles, especially large-bodied taxa increasingly threatened by habitat loss and climate variability. Such insights are essential for informing conservation strategies in biodiverse tropical ecosystems.

This paper analyses linguistic information regarding signage developed by Ugandan English speakers at the grassroots level, as a category of non-elite users of English. It specifically examines linguistic signs displayed at small‑scale informal businesses, focusing on the source of the signs and the language(s) used in terms of features and the justifications for the choice of the language(s). The results show three types of signs: those written in English (which are predominant), those that blend English and Acholi, and those written in Acholi. Where English is involved, the findings reveal that the choice was mainly based on attracting a wider readership and thus clientele, as well as the fact that English is the functional official language in Uganda. It was also observed that both standard and nonstandard English were used. The source of the signs was reported to be grassroots users of English but sometimes artists and/or acrolectal users of English were involved in writing/drawing the signs.

Do social media offer more opportunities for parliamentary opposition and independent candidates to reach voters in electoral autocracies? Social media have been seen as a great liberation tool, facilitating the mobilisation of disenfranchised citizens. However, scholarship on electoral autocracies highlights how they are well-versed in subverting democratic innovations. Taking the 2021 legislative campaign in Uganda as a case, we show that social media offer a range of opportunities for the opposition to campaign, while also providing new ways for the regime to try to maintain its dominance. Our findings rely on insights from 35 interviews with legislative candidates combined with data collected from their Facebook pages and Twitter profiles as well as from those of their opponents. We contribute to the literature on electoral autocracy and on candidates' use of social media in electoral campaigns by identifying the opportunities social media offer for both the regime and its opposition.