ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a preliminary venture into this field of inquiry, drawing on newly accessible Uganda archives, UNHCR records and oral histories. It demonstrates how, during the first decade of national independence, shifting legal and documentary regimes opened up multiple forms of political and social belonging for displaced people. The chapter provides a review of the literature on encampment and self-settlement, followed by a brief history of the Rwandan Revolution and the resultant diaspora. It examines the emergence of late colonial Ugandas so-called refugee problem in political and historical context, highlighting the political and administrative considerations that factored into the transitioning governments decision to recognize the Banyarwanda exiles as refugees, rather than as migrants. The chapter explores the everyday work of defining and managing a refugee population, giving careful attention to the substantial gatekeeping power wielded by local chiefs. It traces the central administrations halting steps towards mandatory refugee settlement and the consequences of this hesitation for self-settled refugees.
