Some implications of literacy in Uganda

During the last fifty years, several debates have waxed and waned regarding the implications of literacy for African history. The present essay examines these debates. First, it outlines some of the ways in which literacy practice in Uganda has been ‘constructed out of specific social conditions’ and ‘in relation to specific political and economic structures’ more broadly in the country. Next, it looks more generally at the role of literacy in independent Uganda’s overall development since independence from Britain, and at the role of literacy in particular in the historical study of Uganda’s past. The essay pays attention to three generations of Ugandan authors writing vernacular histories which emerged immediately before and during the period of British protectorate rule. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]