Browsing by Author "Kisitu, Gyaviira."

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The politics of knowledge on African sexualities and its effect on women's health : a case of the Sabiny female genital mutilation.
(2015) Kisitu, Gyaviira.; Siwila, Lilian Cheelo.
The purpose of this study was to understand ‗What knowledge matters‘, and ‗Whose knowledge matters in the study of African sexuality and in particular female genital circumcision. The Sabiny peoples of Uganda practice the tradition of wonsetapkorukor wosho as a rite of initiation for girls. This practice is elsewhere understood as female genital cutting, female genital circumcision or female genital mutilation. Discussions on African sexuality and female genital circumcision have taken either a Western perspective or an African point of view. Since the practice is understood differently, the values attached to it differ as a consequence of the wide range of opinions. In certain ways it is considered as a determinant of who has a normal sexuality or a normal body; distinguishes girls from women; confers true femininity as opposed to masculinity. Amidst these discussions, the aspect of women‘s health is peripheral and marginalized. Instead discussions seem to be limited by issues of language, naming, and standpoints by which various bodies of knowledge argue their different positions. Communication between the various sides of the debate is also minimal. Despite the claims that female genital circumcision is harmful to women‘s health attempts to eradicate it are faced by resistances. Through an African feminist approach to the politics of knowledge on African sexualities, in this study I argue that the discourses on African sexualities and in particular those on female genital circumcision affect the understanding of women‘s health. Second, the different approaches employed in the discussions of female genital circumcision evaluate the practice using different scales of values which affect the understanding of health through what they neglect or take for granted.
Religion and homosexuality criminalization in Uganda : the contribution of the American anti-homosexual evangelicals towards the 2014 anti-homosexuality law.
(2018) Kisitu, Gyaviira.; Siwila, Lilian Cheelo.
Although it was annulled within months of its promulgation, the 2014 Anti- homosexuality law in Uganda continues to generate critical questions on various aspects surrounding its promulgation. In this context, the study explored the contribution of the American Anti-homosexual evangelicals (AAEs) towards the legislation of the 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Law. The AAEs were a group of evangelical pastors from the United States who, having been invited to Uganda, campaigned against homosexuality in 2009. This was followed by enacting the 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Law (2014 AHL). A dominant claim argued and suggested that the AAEs were the prime instigators of 2014 AHL, a position that either dismissed or rendered secondary any possible contribution from the local context. The study was non-empirical and followed a qualitative research design. It employed qualitative content analysis, supported by both critical and interpretive approaches within a postcolonial theoretical framework. The study found that the AAEs did not seem to have essentially preached, taught or instructed something new which had a direct power to alter local perceptions on homosexuality, so as to independently influence the legislation of 2014 AHL. However, the study found that through their art of persuasion, established relationship with local persons of influence, power of disposition and the methodological approach on the subject of homosexuality, the AAEs’ influence was exposed. Through these means, the AAEs succeeded in rejuvenating the already present and evolving anti-homosexuality sentiments within the Ugandan society. However, the study found the AAEs’ influence not isolated. On the contrary, the Ugandan context as well as the AAEs, were found to have been active agents that facilitated the legislation of the 2014 AHL at different levels. Thus the study found that the extent to which the AAEs contributed to the making of the 2014 AHL, was limited to a locally supportive structure animated by a ‘Surveillance System on Homosexuality’ (SSH). The findings of the study critique first, a position that views the 2014 legislation on homosexuality as an overly contribution of the AAEs, with less recognition of contextual factors; Secondly, the reverse position that emphasizes the role of the local context over that of the AAEs in a dismissive approach. Therefore the thesis argues that beyond the scholarly discourse that strongly and almost exclusively focus on the role of the American anti-homosexual evangelicals, it is important to shift the analysis with the help of postcolonial theoretical insights to understand the construction of an almost perfect match between the dominant discourse within the Ugandan local society concerning homosexuality and the teachings of the American Anti-homosexual Evangelicals and its influence on the 2014 Anti-homosexual law. Hence the study proposes critical and intersectional approaches when interrogating contemporary influences of foreign religious actors and their contribution to controversies over policy making on homosexuality in Africa.