Child sacrifice: myth or reality?

The paper makes an effort to define, contextualise and present cases of child sacrifice and some of its drivers. It argues that child mutilation and sacrifice is not a myth but rather an emerging unfortunate reality in some communities in Uganda and other parts of Africa. The paper also presents the historical overview, theoretical, policy and programming implications of the phenomenon of child mutilation and sacrifice

"When I Steal, it is for the Benefit of Me and You": Is Collectivism Engendering Corruption in Uganda?

This paper examines the beliefs and practices that collectivism engenders in Uganda and how they may influence the principal-agent relationships present in the situation of "corruption". Within some specific contexts of collectivism, vices that may qualify to be corruption may be interpreted otherwise as long as they are perceived not only serve only individual but also group or community goals. The paper shows that in some societies in Uganda, corruption or even theft can be acceptable as long as it is perceived to bring benefits to the family, kinship or community. The paper argues that the drivers and manifestations of corruption in Uganda cannot be understood without reference to beliefs and practices engendered by collectivism. It provides examples that show that in quite many collectivistic cultures, acceptance or rejection of corruption depends on the contextual interpretations of the act and the perception and meaning attached to the party to whom the act has been committed. In some cases, especially where the state has either lost or has never gained legitimacy among some sections of the population; stealing state funds may be interpreted as being "smart" rather than immoral. This tendency towards conceptualizing "corruption" as something that takes place only when the individual does not share his loot with others but enjoys its benefits alone contributes to making individuals shun the individual responsibility for their corrupt actions and complicates the moral issues related to corruption in the context of collectivism. It could be that the level of individuals' sense of responsibility for their actions in collectivistic environments is lower thus making interventions that solely focus on individual retribution less effective in combating corruption

Negotiating Universalism and Cultural Relativism in Peace and Development Studies

Culture is an Indispensable Factor for both Sustainable Development and Lasting Peace since It forms the Fabric for People?s Mutual Respect and Co-Existence. The paper Argues for the Need Toconstantly Negotiate between Universalism and Cultural Relativism in Peace and Development Studies. It Argues that any Attempt to Radically Lean towards either Universalism or Cultural Relativism Without providing Room for A conversation between the Two would either Lead to Narrowly Focusing on the Local context without Taking into Account the Global Discourses or Following the global Discourses that Maybe Far Removed from the Local Context to Make any Sense to the Affected People. Without Sounding idealistic, the Paper Argues for the Need to Nurture and Create Space for Hybridity that Emerges out Of the Negotiation between Cultures Rather than Suffocate it in Favor of the Local Context or Universals. The paper Argues for Adoption of Concepts such as Cosmopolitan Localism that take into Account Global discourses but Also Maintain a Strong Focus on the Context in which People Experience Conflict, Peace and Development as Perceived and Experienced by them

Perception, understanding and practice of ethics during research on humans.

Background: Scandals have occurred over time involving conduct of research in different parts of the world. This study was aimed at exploring researchers’ perception, understanding, appreciation and practice of research ethics during research on human subjects.Methods: A qualitative approach using the exploratory and descriptive designs was used. Participants in the study academic staff and graduate students in the Faculties of Medicine and Social Sciences.Results: Of the 37 respondents 68% were faculty while 32% were graduate students in the fields of social sciences, clinical and basic sciences. Research experience ranged from one to thirty four years. 27% had had formal training in research ethics; the remaining 73% had a vague idea about research ethics. All respondents appreciated the importance of confidentiality although data management procedures were lacking in many. A total of 22% of the participants appreciated the need for research subjects to understand the informed consent, 38% think it is not always the case and in many cases their subjects do not have to understand, while the remaining 40% believe that research subjects’ understanding of the informed consent process may not be necessary. Sixty five percent of participants have no knowledge and usually give no feed back to research communities unless the funding organization request so.Conclusion: Most researchers appreciate the importance of confidentiality, but have limited understanding of the process of informed consent, information handling and the importance of feedback

The Role of Rotary Clubs in Post-Conflict Peace Building: A Case of Northern Uganda (2006-2010)

This paper presents the Peace building experience of Rotary Clubs in Northern Uganda between 2006 and 2010, so as to identify their contributions in post-conflict peace building processes. Through the Reflective Peace Practice (RPP) analytical framework, the paper presents an insight into Rotary clubs’ post-conflict Peace building interventions in the Northern Ugandan districts of Gulu, Kitgum, Lira and Pader. The paper is premised on the theoretical framework of Rotary’s outline of international service that identifies the paths to peace as: patriotism, conciliation, freedom, progress, justice, sacrifice, and loyalty. The paper discusses Rotary clubs’ peace building projects in Northern Uganda as clustered along three generic lines: the improvement of health, alleviation of poverty, and education support. The effectiveness of the “paths to peace” principles was hampered by challenges such as: the eroded core values of the people owing to life in Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) camps, the beneficiary non-ownership of Rotary projects, the difficulty in recruitment and maintenance of Rotary clubs’ membership as well as limited funding. The paper acknowledges that Rotary clubs’ approaches to peace building especially the peaceplus ‘model’ has potential if adapted to the local context, to contribute to conflict transformation efforts in post conflict Northern Ugand

The African conception of sacrifice and its relationship with child sacrifice

Although the practice of human sacrifice is not new in the mythology around sacrifice in Africa, the practice of child mutilation and sacrifice at least in Uganda was just spoken about as fairytale. However events that have unraveled since the late 1990s have shocked the country with real cases of children being mutilated and killed in the context of what is commonly referred to as child sacrifice in Uganda. This paper presents the "African" meaning of the concept sacrifice and how demonstrates how the in African religious theology disassociates itself from murder and mutilation of children's body parts as part of the rituals for healing, dealing misfortunes or even prevention of unfortunate events. There was consensus from our study participants that although historically, there has been human and child sacrifice in the African and Uganda cultural mythology, the actual practice of these vices is a new phenomenon, not recognized and accepted in indigenous/traditional religious theology and practice of African religion and culture

The economic aspects of human and child sacrifice

The understanding of child sacrifice requires the broader understanding of the history, context of and rationale for the concept of sacrifice in all its forms including human sacrifice. Historically, sacrifices were made to atone for sins or wrong-doing and to ask for blessings. The forgiveness was for or blessings included but were not limited to material wealth (particularly land, domestic animals and other tangible possessions), children, health, and prosperity. In spite of the variations in understanding sacrifice, common to all is the underlying guiding principle of the value for value. It means the higher the value of the blessings to be sought or wrongs to be atoned, the higher the value of the sacrificial item. Overtime, this principle has been expressed in varied forms including human sacrifice, in general, and child sacrifice, in particular. These practices are closely associated with dominant cultural value systems that people hold in relation to what is important in life and how to get it. Despite economic progress of economies characterised by sophisticated wealth computations, predictions and protection through insurance, sacrifices remain part of the social fabric for solicitation, utilisation, maintenance and protection of wealth. This chapter, therefore, broadly analyses and explains the role of economic structures and institutions on society and the influence of society on the nature of economic structures and institutions. Though there is no established scientific basis for a correlation between human sacrifice and wealth acquisition, the sacrificial items are goods of high economic value and they bring economic returns to those involved in their exchange. It is important to explain how economic wealth creates and is further re-created by sacrifices, particularly, human sacrifice. Human sacrifice is strongly dominated by child sacrifices which are believed to be without blemish and of higher atoning value. Any attempt to destroy the practice of human and child sacrifice for wealth acquisition must first destroy the dominant cultural mentalities or values systems on which they are based

Psychosocial problems among survivors and suggested interventions for coping with child sacrifice in Uganda

Child sacrifice remains a profound challenge to human socio-cultural rights. The increasing problem manifests in several dimensions. It results to death of some children, disappearance of others, children with life-time deformations and/or irreversible disabilities, to the detriment of the child and his/her immediate and extended families. Each child and family victim faces unique and diverse traumatic experiences and peculiar challenges, so are the coping mechanisms, where coping ever occurs. This paper identifies some of the challenges contingent upon cases illustrated. Analysis of the challenges faced and possible coping is guided by a framework of theories that underpin coping with traumatic experiences. These include; the play therapy for children, cognitive-behavioural therapy, the stage specific model, narrative coping mechanisms, and support and self-help groups therapy. Hence, a reflection on how the victims, survivors and their families/caregivers actually cope in practice, based on documented cases is made

Responses to child sacrifice in Uganda

This paper reflects on the various interventions and responses that were mounted in response to the problem of child sacrifice. The paper asks and seeks answers to three basic questions: What were the civil society and government responses to the problem of child sacrifice? How were the civil society and government interventions implemented, coordinated, funded, and monitored? How adequate and sustainable were the interventions initiated

Perceptions of the Drivers of Sexual and Gender Based Violence in Post Conflict Northern Uganda

This paper explores the perceived forms and drivers of sexual and gender based violence in post conflict settings with focus on Northern Uganda. It applied qualitative approaches primarily using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Study findings revealed that although all forms of violence are perceived to be prevalent, physical and emotional violence were perceived to be the most occurring. Men were perceived to be the main perpetrators of violence. However, there were cases of men who reported to experience violence from women. Few men reported violence to authorities because it was perceived to be stigmatizing; such men would be perceived as weak in a patriarchal society that perceives ideal men to be strong and less susceptible to physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Early marriages are a major form of gender based violence which was perceived as normal in a number of communities despite the evidence that it contributes to negative social and reproductive health outcomes . Sexual violence cases in form of rape, defilement as well as incest were perceived to be on the rise in the sub-region. The study identified several drivers of SGBV including poverty, power imbalances in access to and control over resources, insecurity, blaming HIV infection on female partners, HIV related stigma and discrimination, alcohol and substance abuse