This Uganda-focused chapter explores the use of islands and desolate places in colonial Uganda as places for isolation and exclusion. Individuals who were considered political, health, moral, cultural, and spiritual “threats” to society in historical Uganda were isolated and forcefully sent to designated places as a “public safety” measure. Focused on the leper “camps” of Bwama island in Lake Bunyonyi in the Kigezi region; and on the isolated area of Buluba in the Busoga region of modern-day Uganda, the chapter highlights how the historical segregation of Ugandan leprosy patients connects with larger contemporary discourses about exclusion of people considered a “danger” to society. The study used an archival-oral historic approach; and applied in the analysis Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben’s concepts of sovereign authority, the state of exception, and bio-politics. The chapter warns about the potential danger of abuse in granting the state or the “sovereign” uncontrolled powers to define and exclude some sections of society as “threats” to the larger society.
BT - Islands of Extreme Exclusion DO - 10.1163/9789004688520_002 LA - Eng M3 - Chapter N2 -This Uganda-focused chapter explores the use of islands and desolate places in colonial Uganda as places for isolation and exclusion. Individuals who were considered political, health, moral, cultural, and spiritual “threats” to society in historical Uganda were isolated and forcefully sent to designated places as a “public safety” measure. Focused on the leper “camps” of Bwama island in Lake Bunyonyi in the Kigezi region; and on the isolated area of Buluba in the Busoga region of modern-day Uganda, the chapter highlights how the historical segregation of Ugandan leprosy patients connects with larger contemporary discourses about exclusion of people considered a “danger” to society. The study used an archival-oral historic approach; and applied in the analysis Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben’s concepts of sovereign authority, the state of exception, and bio-politics. The chapter warns about the potential danger of abuse in granting the state or the “sovereign” uncontrolled powers to define and exclude some sections of society as “threats” to the larger society.
PB - BRILL PY - 2023 SE - 1 SN - 9789004688520 SP - 27 EP - 43 T2 - Islands of Extreme Exclusion TI - Colonial Medicine and Leprosy in Uganda TT - Interrogating the Creation of Bwama Island and Buluba Leprosy “Camps” ER -