Ugandan Drama and the War in the North (1987–2006): Resisting Approaches to Post-Conflict Transition and Humanitarian Intervention
This study explores three plays written and staged between 2003 and 2019, and analyses how their dramaturgies embody and encourage resistance to two key aspects of the war in Northern Uganda (1987–2006). Silent Voices (2019) by Adong Judith challenges post-conflict transition orthodoxies, while both Forged in Fire (2010) by Sam Okello Kelo and Forgotten World (2009) by Asiimwe Deborah Kawe contest the approaches to humanitarian interventions by Europe, the United States of America, and international agencies: the World Bank, United Nations, and the International Monetary Fund. The study argues that these plays are designed to haunt and provoke any individuals or authorities who may have an insufficient understanding of the two issues or approach them from a fixed standpoint. The plays draw attention to the concealed manipulation of victims, provide alternative viewpoints, and clarify the inconsistent narratives and histories about that war in particular regard to post-conflict transition and humanitarian interventions. Through play-text analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis of original interviews of the playwrights, the study demonstrates that the selected dramas enable a re-evaluation of the conduct of the war, the various actors, its resolution, and its aftermath.
Northern Uganda, Drama, War, Resistance, Post-Conflict Transition, Humanitarian Intervention
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