This is a look at individual experiences of the permutations resulting from the colonial encounter in Uganda. The Christian missionary project associated with schooling created a ruling Christian elite and thus a general hunger for school rather than apprenticeship education. The imperial project converted natives into producers and consumers supporting metropolitan imperial industries. Natives produced cash crops the raw materials that returned to them processed into consumer materials. The selective adoption of dress modes from Europeans and Arabs suggests aesthetic autonomy. The process of being colonized produced considerable personal and communal changes as individual committed to being migrants striving for new designated signals of success. Ultimately, succeeding meant being accommodating to new way of thinking and doing things. The pains of change created tensions in political, social and gender relations as people strove to share in the rewards of their sweat.

About the Author

Christine Obbo is a retired Uganda and United States trained Social and Cultural Anthropologist. Social change, gender dynamics and the impact of HIV on African societies are her main aim of interest. Her professional pursuits have enabled her to travel extensively in Africa, Asia and Europe.

Category: Anthropology, Cultural Studies/AFRICA

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