ABSTRACT
Despite decades of post-conflict nation-building and some apparently progressive policies on gender, Uganda experiences push-back against egalitarian policies and ideas, demonising and criminalising sexual and other minorities. In order to better understand the backlash against gender equality and inclusive justice and its connections to masculinities, conflict and peacebuilding, the chapter argues that a holistic analysis is required. In spatial terms, we situate Uganda within the global context of anti-gender mobilisations. It recalls how colonial histories have shaped the gender order and how struggles for independence, conflicts and efforts at peacebuilding have continued to be co-shaped with neo-colonial influences. Deconstructing the sites of the ‘body’, ‘family’ and ‘nation’ in Uganda, the chapter highlights related binary, hierarchical and categorical traps embedded in divisive conflictual narratives. It draws attention to how vulnerabilities and diversity amongst men have been occluded by patriarchal reductive constructs and to how conflicts, backlash politics and statecraft take on highly masculine modes of performance. Concluding with some reflections on what might mitigate backlash and toxic patriarchal evolution with relevance for peacebuilding, the authors call for more inclusive negotiated transformations.
