Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the struggle of Sudanese refugees to make meaning in exile in Uganda, in a way that accommodates the social and political dimensions of their uprooting and asylum. It considers funerary, agricultural and initiation practices, with reference to their explicitly cultural aspects.

Paper long abstract:

Large numbers of displaced Sudanese aspire to resettlement in a developed country and the UK government has recently re-institued a formal resettlement programme from which small numbers of Sudanese refugees in Uganda have benefited. For the vast majority, however, Uganda is not a staging post but, by default, an exilic destination. Whether or not forced migrants are able to move on from their region of origin, displacement brings challenges to identity, socio-cultural norms and practices, livelihoods and the enjoyment of rights. The protection failures of the Southern host state hint at lessons learned from northern states restrictive policies and asylum practices. Based on ethnographic research with longterm Sudanese refugee populations living in settlements in Uganda, this paper explores refugees' struggles to make and maintain meaning in exile in ways that accommodate the social and political continuities and contradictions inherent in their uprooting and experience of asylum. It considers the kinds of explicitly socio-cultural practices - marriage and funeral practices, initiation and rainmaking - that may or may not be sustained in exile, suggesting reasons for such differences and exploring their implications.