Refugee-Led Organizations in Uganda

Agency, Gender, and Politics of Self-Organizing in Exile

Ulrike Krause, Gato Ndabaramiye Joshua, Hannah Schmidt

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9780228026976
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Afrikanische Politik

Self-organization plays an essential yet often overlooked role in the everyday lives of refugees in exile. By self-organizing, they challenge restrictions, claim political representation, foster social relations and belonging, and create ongoing economic opportunities.

While government authorities and aid organizations are supposed to provide protection and assistance, refugees often continue to face adversities, restrictions, and risks, prompting them to establish and maintain their own support systems. Refugee-Led Organizations in Uganda offers nuanced insight into the problems arising from the aid system and especially the significance of the spectrum of informal and formalized self-organizations. Ulrike Krause, Gato Ndabaramiye Joshua, and Hannah Schmidt draw on a gender-sensitive understanding of relational agency and situated knowledge and use empirical research in Uganda’s camp Kyaka II and the capital, Kampala, to reveal how individuals collectively contribute to their own support in times of emergency and in everyday life.

Interwoven with reflections written by refugees in Uganda – Bengekya Mugay Gédéon, Noella Kabale, Paul, Janvier Hafasha, and Isreal Katembo, as well as the director of an LGBTQ+ refugee-led organization – the book centres on individuals’ lived experiences of self-organization in exile.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Reflections Written by People with Lived Experience of Displacement
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Half-Title Page
• 1 Self-Organizing in Exile: An Introduction
• 2 “We Combined Our Efforts”: Approaching Refugees’ Self-Organization Through the Concept of Agency
• 3 “Life Is Hard”: Uganda’s Refugee Regime, (Mis)Use of Refugee Groups, and Prevalent Challenges
• 4 “We Come Up with Solutions”: (In)Visibility of Refugees’ Formalized Self-Organization in Uganda’s Refugee Regime
• 5 “We Live in a Group”: Individuals, Social Support, and Everyday Self-Organization
• 6 “We Work Together”: Self-Organization, Socio-Economic Strategies, and Prevailing Difficulties
• 7 Concluding Thoughts on the Relevance of and Risks for Refugees’ Self-Organization
• References
• Index