New book investigates the impact of liberalisation in Uganda

Apr 19, 2019

The book questions mainstream narratives of a highly successful and socially beneficial post-1986 transformation of Uganda.

 

BOOK REVIEW

 

The book "Uganda: The Dynamics of Neoliberal Transformation" is the latest to be launched in Ugandan literary market.

 

It is an exploration of the New Uganda, Africa's most contentious capitalist market society, 30 years after the government accepted to liberalize the Ugandan economy, says Giuliano Martiniello.

 

Martiniello who was a Research Fellow at the Makerere Institute for Social Research (MISR), is an Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut and one of the three Editors of the book.

 

It aims to reopen the debate on the capitalist political economy in Uganda, after decades marked by a lack of critical scholarship on the topic. 

 

The task at hand is to analyse how neoliberal capitalism has restructured Uganda and to detail the dynamics of its neoliberal transformation.

 

 The Vice-Chancellor, Makerere University Professor Barnabas Nawangwe (Left) interacting with Dr. Daniel Lumonya (Ph.D.) from the University of Cornell (Right) during the book launch titled Uganda

 

The book questions mainstream narratives of a highly successful and socially beneficial post-1986 transformation of Uganda and contrasts it with firsthand evidence of a continued multi-layered crisis generated by neoliberal reforms.

 

One of the chapters written by Godfrey Asiimwe an Associate Professor and Head, Department of Development Studies, Makerere University, focuses on the impact of neoliberal reforms on Uganda's socio-economic landscape.

 

It explores the changes in Uganda's socio-economic landscape which were a result of neoliberal reforms introduced.

 

Daniel Lumonya (Ph.D.), a student at University of Cornell and previously Lecturer at Makerere University, Faculty of Social Sciences says the Book "Uganda: The Dynamics of Neoliberal Transformation" is timely.

 

Lumonya who provided a review of the book hopes it marks critical engagement on President Yoweri Museveni's rule of Uganda. "It's never late for such an engagement," he says.

 

The Vice-Chancellor Makerere University Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe presided over the book launch at a ceremony hosted by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS).

 

It was organized in collaboration with publishers Zed Books, at the School of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University.

 

He said Makerere University, must contribute to saving Africa from intellectual marginalization by publishing more books.

 

Nawangwe also said the academia must contribute to national debate without fear and not leave it to the politicians.

 

The book "Uganda: The Dynamics of Neoliberal Transformation" authored by over 25 indigenous (Ugandan) and foreign scholars is a result of research collaboration between Makerere University and the University of Leeds in the UK.