Fellow Status
Thesis Title
“We Are No Longer Banyarwanda, we are Bavandimwe”: Postcolonial Citizenship, and the Politics of Belonging in Uganda
Research Focus
My research focuses on the emergence of the Abavandimwe identity among the Banyarwanda Ethnic group in Uganda. This campaign was launched in 2021 by a section of Banyarwanda to move away from the identity Banyarwanda which has long been branded as ethnic strangers in Uganda. Despite being constitutionally recognized as indigenous, the Banyarwanda continue to
face political discrimination and exclusion. I intend to examine how this new identity functions as a political strategy to claim belonging within the Ugandan postcolonial state whose citizenship remains shaped by colonial constructions of indigeneity and difference. I, however, argue that instead of resolving the exclusion, this new identity reproduces the same colonial logic that politicized ethnicity as a requirement for political belonging.
face political discrimination and exclusion. I intend to examine how this new identity functions as a political strategy to claim belonging within the Ugandan postcolonial state whose citizenship remains shaped by colonial constructions of indigeneity and difference. I, however, argue that instead of resolving the exclusion, this new identity reproduces the same colonial logic that politicized ethnicity as a requirement for political belonging.