ABSTRACT
Bweyale is a small village located in the Masindi district of Western Uganda. Literacy is a resource that is used differently in different places of this rural community’s members’ lives. These include places of livelihood, education, religion, bureaucracy and family. In these places, texts and other signifying practices are used by members of the community, many of whom would be classified as nonliterate according to standards imposed by formal education. The primary purpose of this chapter is therefore to show the variability of literacy as a place-specific resource in African rural people’s everyday lives. Accordingly, the analysis, interpretation and discussion of the findings on literacy as a resource in different places in rural community lives in Bweyale is discussed. Particular attention will be paid to places of livelihood, education, community organisation and leisure.
