Policing men: militarised masculinity, youth livelihoods, and security in conflict‐affected northern Uganda

Moral Spaces and Sexual Transgression: Understanding Rape in War and Post Conflict

“…Also since I didn't know the person, I couldn't do anything. A commonly stated wartime concern (particularly by men) in the camps was the exploitation of women and girls by soldiers — not just in terms of possible sexual violence but also sex outside the social sanctioning and structures of customary payments. Men's provision for women is widely considered integral to Acholi notions of masculinity and of ways of showing affection (Porter, , ; Tapscott, ). Camp life undermined this dramatically and men were unable to fulfil masculine norms in relationships, particularly when compared to wage‐earning soldiers (Dolan, ).…”

Navigating vulnerabilities and masculinities: How gendered contexts shape the agency of male sexual violence survivors

“…Within this context of systemic and strategic military operations, government soldiers also committed widespread sexual violence against men (Schulz, 2018b). The vast majority of survivors in Northern Uganda are therefore civilian Acholi men, victimized by government soldiers and aspiring to a hegemonic notion of Acholi masculinity that in many ways is subordinate to the government soldiers’ militarized masculinity (Tapscott, 2018) – a different context from the Croatian one examined below.…”

“…The different local sociopolitical and gendered conditions across the two case sites discussed in this article function as opportunity structures that profoundly shape the choices for exercising agency available to male survivors in each case. In Northern Uganda, civilian Acholi men arguably embody a subordinated masculinity in comparison to the militarized masculinity of the Ugandan soldiers who perpetrated these crimes (Tapscott, 2018) and in comparison to the Croatian survivors, who are mostly ex-combatants. The Croatian sociopolitical sphere also offers more avenues for accessing assistance and support, such as reparations measures, which remain virtually absent in Uganda.…”

“…These dynamics unfold in part because of the numerous benefits associated with being in the groups, such as peer support and collective economic activities (Schulz, 2019). Because of the groups’ income-generating activities, for instance, several survivors are re-enabled to work and to contribute to the provision of their families, in accordance with the social expectations made of them as men and the dominant model of masculinity (Tapscott, 2018). The groups thereby re-enable the male survivors to live up to hegemonic masculinity constructions in ways in which individual men were unable to in this sociopolitical context.…”

Male Survivors of Wartime Sexual Violence

“…Among a variety of factors, the recent LRA conflict (and related postconflict dynamics) in northern Uganda contributed toward manifesting this hegemonic model, preventing alternative forms of masculinities to emerge. In this capacity, Acholi hegemonic masculinity constructions also constitute a political construct and weapon at the disposal of national political forces (Tapscott 2018), the state, the military, and churches in Uganda. As argued by Dolan, "The Ugandan state severely aggravated the collapse of potential multiple masculinities through its simultaneous practices of militarization and forcible internal displacement" (2009: 128).…”