[African Forum] 6th African Forum: Kampala, Uganda (December 9-11, 2016)

AFRICAN FORUM

20161209-2

6th African Forum: Kampala
Date:December 9-11, 2016
Venue: Grand Global Hotel, Kampala, Uganda

Summary of Kampala Forum

From December 9-11 2016, The Sixth African Forum of ‘African Potentials’ project was held in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. As many as forty people participated and engaged in a heated debate on “African Potentials.” They included not only the project members but also graduate students from Makerere University, staffs from the Japanese Embassy and the executives of JICA Kampala Office.

The forum started with introductory remarks by the Project leader on the goals and direction of the second phase of the African Potentials Project, then followed by an insightful and powerful keynote speech by Prof. Edward Kirumira, principal of College of Humanities and Social Sciences (he is an internationally renowned sociologist of health and development). Prof. Kirumira has been an active core member of the project who has participated in all the “African Forum” and made a tremendous contribution for it since its inception in 2011. In his keynote, he persuasively raised the importance of reassessing the flexible, unbound, and dynamic aspects of autochthony or indigeneity for sophisticating the concept of “African Potentials” in the second phase.

The Forum was divided into five sessions: They are “Citizenship,” “Conflict,” “Nation/State,” “Gender,” and “livelihood.” Each session focused on a situation of “African Potentials” lively happening at an actual life site of the field, and theorization/conceptualization of its idea. Out of the total fourteen presenters, six were from Japan, and eight were from the Africa, that is, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. In addition, the core members instrumental in conceptualization of African Potentials idea from the first phase of the project served as commentators, helping to deepen and develop the debate. They were coming from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Sudan and South Africa. This time, “poster session” was introduced to further collaboration with, and cultivation of, the next generation researchers. Eight promising researchers, from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, as well as Japan, presented their research findings, and there was a lively and valuable interchange of ideas and views.

In the introductory remarks the project leader called on the members to explore applicability and feasibility of “African Potentials” idea in the second phase of 2016-2021 so that we could pursue local solutions in contrast with the hegemonic global prescriptions. Through this endeavor, we could approach to alternative resolution method and another mode of knowledge production in humanities. Also, at the same time, we would go into a new dimension of Japan-Africa research collaboration and strengthen a substantial network fostered during these five years of cooperation.

The Kampala forum became a very successful kickoff of the second phase of our “African Potential” Project.

Motoji Matsuda, Project Leader

20161209-1

PROGRAM

Program Timetable

December 9, Friday
18:00-19:00 Registration
19:00-21:00 Reception at Grand Global Hotel
December 10, Saturday
10:00-10:30 Opening remarks
Motoji Matsuda, Project leader
10:30-12:30 Keynote Address (Chair: Itaru Ohta) Edward Kirumira
African Potentials: creating for an interrogative and comparative discourse beyond conflict resolution
12:30-14:00 Lunch Break
14:00-16:00 Session 1: Citizenship (Chair: Yntiso Gebre) Commentator: Samson Wassara, Eisei Kurimoto
1. Shoko Yamada
Domesticating Democracy? Civic and Ethical Education Textbooks in Secondary Schools in the Democratization Period of Ethiopia
2. Sabiti Makara
Resilient Traditional Socio-economic Practices and the Politics of Pseudo-modernity in Post-colonial Africa
3. Charlotte Karungi Mafumbo
UBUNTU: The Sustainable Approach to Youth Empowerment in Select Communities in Uganda and Rwanda
16:00-16:15 Coffee Break
16:15-18:15 Session 2: Conflict (Chair: Francis Nyamnjoh) Commentator: Kennedy Mkutu, Itaru Ohta
1. Akiko Sugiki
Transnational Dynamics of Internal Conflict and Conflict Resolution: Why the Lord’s Resistance Army Still Matters to the Great Lakes Region in Africa
2. Itsuhiro Hazama
Alternative Citizenship in East African Pastoral Societies
18:30 Congress Dinner
December 11, Sunday
9:00-11:00 Session 3: Nation/State (Chair: Michael Neocosmos) Commentator: Francis Nyamnjoh, Shoko Yamada
1. Paddy Musana
The African Concept of Personhood and its Relevance in the Global Context
2. Francis Onditi
African National Anthems: Their Theoretical Potential in Modelling Afrocentric Peacebuilding and Development Architecture
3. Motoki Takahashi
African Potential beyond Dichotomy: Local Quest for National Integration?
11:00-11:15 Coffee Break
11:15-12:15 Poster Session
1. John Mwangi
The Potential of Nyumba Kumi (Citizen Led-community Policing) to Counter Crime at the Kenyan Coast
2. Mulu Getachew Abebe
The Lived Experience of Eritrean Refugees: The Case of Mai Aini Refugee Camp, Ethiopia
3. Galabba Bosco
Juveniles’ Right to Education: A Case Study of Kampiringisa National Rehabilitation Centre (KNRC) June, 2016
4. Georgina Seera
Obesity and Undernutrition in Mukono Municipality, Central Region Uganda: Attitudes to Body Size and Shape among Women
5. Shizuka Asada
A New Cooking Fuel Choice among Refugees in Kyaka II Refugee Settlement, Western Uganda
6. Kohjun Hori
Land Scarcity and Inter Vivos Transfer of Land Inheritance in High Populated Region of Southwestern Uganda
7. Hiroko Kawaguchi
A Narrative among the Local People to International Criminal Court
8. Yukiko Kondo
Aspiration for Fertility: Survival Practices over Land and Food in Southwestern Rwanda
12:15-13:30 Lunch Break
13:30-15:30 Session 4: Gender (Chair: Kennedy Mkutu) Commentator: Edward Kirumira, Michael Neocosmos
1. Lucy Massoi
Pastoralism, Women and the Church in Kilosa, Tanzania
2. Tom Gesora Ondicho
Indigenous Ecotourism as a Poverty Eradication Strategy: A Case Study of the Maasai Community in Amboseli, Kenya.
3. Kaori Miyachi
Aging in Africa: The Life of Elderly Women in Rural Kenya
15:30-15:45 Coffee Break
15:45-17:45 Session 5: Livelihood (Chair: Eisei Kurimoto) Commentator: Yntiso Gebre, Motoki Takahashi
1. Getachew Senishaw
The Nexus of Worldview, Environmental Values, and Practices in Human-environment Relations: The Case of Midland Gedeo, South Ethiopia
2. Noriko Tahara
The Creation of Mobility: Viewing People on the Move in Uganda through the Taskscape Perspective
3. Christine Mbabazi Mpyangu
Ritual as a Cultural Pathway to Improving Livelihoods in Post War Northern Uganda
17:45-18:30 General Discussion (Chair: Eisei Kurimoto, Motoji Matsuda)
19:00- Farewell Party at Mama Ashanti
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