Acknowledgments  ix

Orientations: War and culture in Uganda  1

1. Acholi worlds and the colonial encounter  29

2. Neocolonial legacies and evolving war  63

3. Rebel manifestos in context  99

4. Displacements  131

5. Wartime rumors and moral truths  167

6. Uprooting the pumpkins  197

Reorientations: Unfinished realities  233

Notes  245

Acronyms  253

References  255

Index  277

Winner, Margaret Mead Award (American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology)

“This subtle, sensitive, and sophisticated ethnography adds enormously to our understanding of contemporary northern Ugandan society and, more broadly, of everyday life during ‘low-intensity’ warfare. . . . This book is very good indeed and should find a wide readership among social anthropologists, Africanists, and students of conflict and violence.”—Mark Leopold, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

“[An] insightful, compelling ethnography. . . . Finnström has important things to say about ethnographic intimacy, the phenomenology of fieldwork, and the universality of culture as human existence. The book offers a fine example of the merits of local, detailed ethnographic knowledge for understanding civilian life in a warzone, as well as glimpses of the emotional connections an anthropologist forms with
informants and collaborators.”—Catherine Besteman, American Ethnologist

“[Living with Bad Surroundings] combines rich ethnographic detail with sharp theoretical acumen. . . . [A]n important text.:—Alicia C. Decker, International Journal of African Historical Studies

“I recommend it to anyone wanting to understand the problematic side of Africa. It reads more like the writing of a good and thoughtful war correspondent rather than a traditional social scientist. It what is useful and appropriate for understanding the world of contemporary northern Ugandans whom the author clearly liked and cared about.”—T.O. Beidelman, Anthropos

“Finnström’s analysis of the factors involved in the devastating conflict in Northern Uganda between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is a valuable contribution to the literature on contemporary armed conflicts. . . . Finnström’s careful examination is essential for students, scholars, and practitioners who want to understand the political, economic, historical, cultural, and religious complexities involved in ay armed conflict.”—Joanne Corbin, African Studies Review

“Living with Bad Surroundings . . . [is] a very good book, perhaps the best written on northern Uganda since the 1970s. It will be an ideal text for courses dealing with Africa and the local realities of modern armed conflicts.”—Tim Allen, Times Literary Supplement

“This is a moving, politically engaged and penetrating study. It has . . . page-turning qualities. . . . If you are going to read just one book on northern Uganda, this is the one to go for.”—Tim Allen, Africa

“Finnström’s book makes a clear case for rethinking the social and political dimensions of conflict in Northern Uganda. This book will appeal most to scholars interested in Acholi history and contemporary conflict in Uganda, and those interested more generally in culture and power, state violence, and rebel movements.”—Kristen Cheney, Journal of Anthropological Research

“This complex and empirically rich account clearly and very tactfully analyses the harsh realities of the war. . . . [Finnström] vividly challenges the reductionist view that focuses on consequences of war rather than causes.”—Sarah Khasalamwa, Journal of Refugee Studies

“[T]he book is still impressive in its historical and analytical scope, and is not only very readable, but also moving. The narrative voice vividly evokes the inter-subjectivity of the ethnographic experience. Living with Bad Surroundings is an essential reference for studies on northern Uganda, and is also accessible to a wider, non-specialist readership. The work also provides a valuable contribution to the ethnography of conflict as well to literature challenging the ‘breakdown’ paradigm of displacement.”—Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon, African Affairs

“At times poetic, often philosophical, Finnström brings the reader to a new level of insight into war and its effects on the lived realities of affected persons—and how and why it is possible for people to survive the impossible day by day. Equally important, he vividly connects these personal stories to the political domain, unveiling, as each chapter evolves, the politics that divide people. . .”—Erin K. Baines, African Studies Review

“As well as being a valuable text for anyone interested in contemporary Africa and issues such as ethnicity, property rights, post-colonialism, and the relevance and continuation of tribalism, Living with Bad Surroundings is a powerful analysis of relations between stakeholders within the modern nation-state.”—Justin L. C. Hancock, Australian Journal of Anthropology

Winner, Margaret Mead Award (American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology)

“This subtle, sensitive, and sophisticated ethnography adds enormously to our understanding of contemporary northern Ugandan society and, more broadly, of everyday life during ‘low-intensity’ warfare. . . . This book is very good indeed and should find a wide readership among social anthropologists, Africanists, and students of conflict and violence.”—Mark Leopold, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

“[An] insightful, compelling ethnography. . . . Finnström has important things to say about ethnographic intimacy, the phenomenology of fieldwork, and the universality of culture as human existence. The book offers a fine example of the merits of local, detailed ethnographic knowledge for understanding civilian life in a warzone, as well as glimpses of the emotional connections an anthropologist forms with
informants and collaborators.”—Catherine Besteman, American Ethnologist

“[Living with Bad Surroundings] combines rich ethnographic detail with sharp theoretical acumen. . . . [A]n important text.:—Alicia C. Decker, International Journal of African Historical Studies

“I recommend it to anyone wanting to understand the problematic side of Africa. It reads more like the writing of a good and thoughtful war correspondent rather than a traditional social scientist. It what is useful and appropriate for understanding the world of contemporary northern Ugandans whom the author clearly liked and cared about.”—T.O. Beidelman, Anthropos

“Finnström’s analysis of the factors involved in the devastating conflict in Northern Uganda between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is a valuable contribution to the literature on contemporary armed conflicts. . . . Finnström’s careful examination is essential for students, scholars, and practitioners who want to understand the political, economic, historical, cultural, and religious complexities involved in ay armed conflict.”—Joanne Corbin, African Studies Review

“Living with Bad Surroundings . . . [is] a very good book, perhaps the best written on northern Uganda since the 1970s. It will be an ideal text for courses dealing with Africa and the local realities of modern armed conflicts.”—Tim Allen, Times Literary Supplement

“This is a moving, politically engaged and penetrating study. It has . . . page-turning qualities. . . . If you are going to read just one book on northern Uganda, this is the one to go for.”—Tim Allen, Africa

“Finnström’s book makes a clear case for rethinking the social and political dimensions of conflict in Northern Uganda. This book will appeal most to scholars interested in Acholi history and contemporary conflict in Uganda, and those interested more generally in culture and power, state violence, and rebel movements.”—Kristen Cheney, Journal of Anthropological Research

“This complex and empirically rich account clearly and very tactfully analyses the harsh realities of the war. . . . [Finnström] vividly challenges the reductionist view that focuses on consequences of war rather than causes.”—Sarah Khasalamwa, Journal of Refugee Studies

“[T]he book is still impressive in its historical and analytical scope, and is not only very readable, but also moving. The narrative voice vividly evokes the inter-subjectivity of the ethnographic experience. Living with Bad Surroundings is an essential reference for studies on northern Uganda, and is also accessible to a wider, non-specialist readership. The work also provides a valuable contribution to the ethnography of conflict as well to literature challenging the ‘breakdown’ paradigm of displacement.”—Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon, African Affairs

“At times poetic, often philosophical, Finnström brings the reader to a new level of insight into war and its effects on the lived realities of affected persons—and how and why it is possible for people to survive the impossible day by day. Equally important, he vividly connects these personal stories to the political domain, unveiling, as each chapter evolves, the politics that divide people. . .”—Erin K. Baines, African Studies Review

“As well as being a valuable text for anyone interested in contemporary Africa and issues such as ethnicity, property rights, post-colonialism, and the relevance and continuation of tribalism, Living with Bad Surroundings is a powerful analysis of relations between stakeholders within the modern nation-state.”—Justin L. C. Hancock, Australian Journal of Anthropology

“Riveting. Powerful. Evocative. Anthropology at its best. Sverker Finnström is a gifted researcher and writer: in his hands the Acholi become a lens for understanding very twenty-first-century forms of violence and survival. This is a book about one of the more destructive and bitter wars on the African continent and its global connections. But it is also a book about hope, about facing and overcoming crises—of every culture being all cultures in the opus of experience, of mango trees surviving the tides of war and global ignorance. About sorrow and laughter and moments of coevalness in northern Uganda and beyond.”—Carolyn Nordstrom, author of Global Outlaws: Crime, Money, and Power in the Contemporary World

“Riveting. Powerful. Evocative. Anthropology at its best. Sverker Finnström is a gifted researcher and writer: in his hands the Acholi become a lens for understanding very twenty-first-century forms of violence and survival. This is a book about one of the more destructive and bitter wars on the African continent and its global connections. But it is also a book about hope, about facing and overcoming crises—of every culture being all cultures in the opus of experience, of mango trees surviving the tides of war and global ignorance. About sorrow and laughter and moments of coevalness in northern Uganda and beyond.”—Carolyn Nordstrom, author of Global Outlaws: Crime, Money, and Power in the Contemporary World

“Living with Bad Surroundings is a lucid, compelling, in-depth, and detailed exploration of the vexed position of youth in poverty-stricken Africa; a painstaking and authoritative account of one of the most refractory and long-running wars on that continent; and a demonstration of how imperative it is to complement historical and political-economic explanations of Africa’s conflicts with ethnographic perspectives that encompass local symbolic reality, local readings of history and tradition, local expectations and desires, and local understandings of power, morality, and reconciliation.”—Michael Jackson, author of In Sierra Leone

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