Browsing by Author "Kisitu, Gyaviira"

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The politics of knowledge on Covid-19 indigenous medicine in Uganda
(The Palgrave Handbook of Religion, Health and Development in Africa,https://link.springer.com/, 2025-04-22) Isiko, Alexander Paul; Kisitu, Gyaviira
Covid-19 was a health risk that threatened the health and well-being of people. The scale of Covid-19 demanded innovative solutions. In Africa, indigenous health solutions such as spiritual and indigenous herbal therapies were central to combating Covid-19. In Uganda, indigenous medicine captured the imagination of a nation struggling to secure vaccines and clinical treatments for Covid-19. This experienced contestations over the determination of the nature and type, ownership and protocols of indigenous medicine acceptable for Covid-19. Among the protocols was the subjection of Covid-19 indigenous medicine to formal approval by the National Drug Authority (NDA). This was contested as costly, un-African, and a deliberate move to undermine the power, authenticity, and efficacy of indigenous medicine. As such, Covid-19 indigenous medicine became a center of power of knowledge conflict. The question of whose knowledge matters in solving local health issues was evident. This chapter exposes the nature and implication of the politics of knowledge on Covid-19 indigenous medicine to the health and well-being of Ugandans. The chapter argues that persistent conflicts of knowledge on the power, authenticity, and efficacy of indigenous medicine in dealing with Covid-19 promoted health and well-being risks.
Ubuntu and unsustainable environmental practices in Uganda: the case of sand mining and rice farming
(Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2025-03-01) Ssebunya, Margaret; Kisitu, Gyaviira ; Isiko, Alexander Paul
Self-destruction in pursuit of economic development through reckless exploitation of nature and failure to address environmental contaminants is overly evident within Uganda. Even though the Ugandan context would traditionally subscribe to the Ubuntu ethic of existential bond, interrelatedness, interdependence, and interconnectedness between people and the environment, this remains challenged amid the country's increasing pursuit of economic development. While the sand mining and rice farming investments are key to the national economic development of Uganda, their tendency to employ unsustainable environmental practices compromises the health and sustenance of people in Uganda and leads to environmental deterioration. In this chapter, we explore sand mining and rice farming practices in the Lwera wetland that have altered the physical appearance and hydrology of the land, resulting in massive flooding, which in turn leads to the destruction of people’s property, public road infrastructure, and displacement of people. We argue that these practices in their present state lead to an ongoing ecological scandal that runs parallel to the ethics of interdependence of individuals and the environment. Unavoidably, they have increasingly impaired the interconnectedness between humanity and nature and have also brought about pseudo-development, which is incompatible with human dignity. The ecological scandal faced by the country is a prompt to get back to the core principle of Ubuntu, noting that the wellbeing of Ugandan society is indispensable from its dependence on and interdependence with the natural environment. The key question that we seek to answer is: How can the African ethic of Ubuntu be used to influence the values and behavioral change of the sand mining and rice farming investors in Uganda to positively contribute to the country's economic development without ruining the environment?