- Pillars of the Nation: Child Citizens and Ugandan National Development
This fresh, deftly argued ethnography extends scholarship on childhood and children by elucidating how, as highly capable though circumscribed social agents, children actively negotiate their own political identities while shaping an emerging national identity in contemporary Uganda. Combining the venerable variable of social age with the political economy of childhood at local and global levels, Cheney's theoretical framework and rich data illuminate children's key but paradoxical roles in national development [End Page 163] and social change.
The book's historically grounded introduction and first chapter on global rights discourse, national development, and local childhoods illuminates how the current Ugandan government purposefully uses education to mold children into citizens of a unified country grounded on a single national identity rather than into members of diverse ethnic groups. Because education matters to individuals and families as well as to the developing nation, schools and their curricula are central sites of nationalist instruction and venues through which children learn and may internalize an identity free from the memories of past decades of violent interethnic and structural conflict.
Yet incongruities abound among the globalized norms of childhood espoused in international children's rights discourse, Uganda's policies, and children's everyday lives. Though the national youth anthem hails children as "the pillars of tomorrow's Uganda," Cheney shows that children themselves are keenly aware of a range of power relations and structural conditions that exclude them from fully realizing their dreams and potential. Participation as active citizens is still hampered by adult notions of childhood in the international community at large and in Uganda, which limit children's agency and place on them onerous expectations of material and emotional reciprocity. Too often, desire for education is not enough: some children drop out of school due to parental or sibling death or lack of funds for fees or supplies. Others complete school but are not launched into jobs that can enable them to contribute to their families and country as expected.
The rest of the book consists of two parts, each with three chapters, which explore children's experiences, aspirations, identity formation, and political engagement and disempowerment. Cheney conducted fieldwork in Kampala schools, at the National Primary School of Music, Dance, and Drama Festival, and at the World Vision Gulu Children of War Rehabilitation Center. By listening carefully to children's life histories, reading student essays, conducting interviews, and engaging in participant-observation, Cheney was able to craft a rich, nuanced, child-centered ethnography that offers sometimes inspirational, sometimes wrenching perspectives on the complexities and challenges of contemporary Ugandan childhood while also critiquing the centrality of children in hegemonic international rights discourse.
No longer a country of political and social dysfunction, Uganda is now a "shining star" (1) among nation-states in Africa. Development of the child is thus intended to complement development of the country as the Ugandan government focuses on achieving greater acceptance in the international community and propelling the nation toward the future.
The book is clearly, engagingly, and sensitively written, and replete with vignettes and emic insights, all of which makes it an excellent choice for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in education, anthropology, [End Page 164] African studies, and development. Students will relate personally to the subject matter and come to understand youth in modern Africa from new perspectives. For the specialist, Cheney offers valuable ethnographic data for further examination of how children's local experiences are interwoven into the global political economy. [End Page 165]
Hanover, Indiana