Key book on the debates surrounding the knowledge economy and decolonialization of African Studies, that brings the subject up to date for the 21st century. Decolonization of knowledge has become a major issue in African Studies in recent years, brought to the fore by social movements such as #RhodesMustFall and #BlackLivesMatter. This timely book explores the politics and disputed character of knowledge production in colonial and postcolonial Uganda, where efforts to generate forms of knowledge and solidarity that transcend colonial epistemologies draw on long histories of resistance and refusal. Bringing together scholars from Africa, Europe and North America, the contributors in this volume analyse how knowledge has been created, mobilized, and contested across a wide range of Ugandan contexts. In so doing, they reveal how Ugandans have built, disputed, and reimagined institutions of authority and knowledge production in ways that disrupt the colonial frames that continue to shape scholarly analyses and state structures. From the politics of language and gender in Bakiga naming practices to ways of knowing among the Acholi, the hampering of critical scholarship by militarism and authoritarianism, and debates over the names of streets, lakes, mountains, and other public spaces, this book shows how scholars and a wide range of Ugandan activists are reimagining the politics of knowledge in Ugandan public life.

Ugandas decentralization policy is one of the most ambitious and radical in sub-Saharan Africa. A long tradition of local government already existed in Uganda in 1986 when the National Resistance Movement came to power, so when the Presidential Policy Statement on decentralization was issued in 1992, it only formalized and articulated the Ugandan governments commitment to the decentralized system of governance. This commitment was subsequently strengthened and maintained through the provisions of the 1995 Uganda Constitution. Decentralisation led to the devolution of broad powers of administration and implementation to the districts, leaving the centre with responsibility for matters of defence, and law and order. This book examines the decentralization project after it has been in place for a number of years and deals with relevant crucial issues. Delius Asiimwe is a Senior Research Fellow at the Makerere Institute of Social Research, Uganda. Nakanyike B. Musisi is the Executive Director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research, Uganda.