Between 2000 and 2009, every weekend, people around Uganda converged in the ebimeeza, open debates where « the common man and woman from the street » were invited to air their views, in English or in Luganda. These debates, also called « People’s Parliaments », were broadcast live on private radio stations. In September 2009, after what is commonly known in Uganda as the « Buganda riots », the government banned them.

Talkative Polity (Ohio Univ. Press, 2019), is based on the idea that the ebimeeza and their ban tell us more about the Ugandan political culture and about President Museveni’s regime than the fact that it is aging and less and less liberal. By being at the center of heated controversies about who is entitled to talk politics and how, the People’s Parliaments reflected old concerns about the forms and the basis of citizenship. But they also lead us to a better understanding of how political control is actually enacted in a context often labeled as « semi-authoritarian ».  Continuer la lecture →