Paper short abstract:

Based on an engaged ethnography of mental health activism in Uganda, this paper explores the limits of 'traditional' activism and suggests alternative ways of viewing activism. Particularly, we consider how an ethic of care can be understood as resistance towards hostile dominant power structures.

Paper long abstract:

Activism has long carried negative connotations, due to its associations in the public imaginary as being 'loud' and 'unruly'. In an increasingly divided world, such stereotypes have been used as discursive tools to vilify efforts of resistance. Based on an engaged ethnography of mental health activism in Uganda, this paper explores alternative understandings of what activism means and looks like.

In the Ugandan context where mental health is highly stigmatised (and even criminalised), in part as a consequence of the legacies of colonial psychiatry, individuals are often subjected to experiences of marginalisation and processes that seek to make them 'invisible'. In response, much of mental health activism efforts strive to 'undo invisibility', in one way or another. However, given the tense political landscape that associates activism with the contested national opposition party, 'traditional' forms of activism and resistance may not only be hard to operationalise but also unproductive. In the spirit of 'undoing', we challenge commonly held ideas of activism, and instead look at activism as acts of compassionate care amongst activists that are rooted in contextualised understandings of need that draw on an ethic of care. It pertains to the ways people create spaces to make others feel seen in ways that are not afforded to them within wider societal structures, effectively enacting everyday resistance to unequal power structures. This then shifts our focus to consider how the value of activism may lie more in the 'process', in all its messiness, rather than the end goal.