Using life histories to explore gendered experiences of conflict in Gulu District, northern Uganda: Implications for post-conflict health reconstruction
Open Access
- 2 January 2016
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Informa UK Limited in South African Review of Sociology
- Vol. 47 (1), 81-98
- https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2015.1132634
Abstract
The dearth of knowledge about what life was like for different women and men, communities and institutions during conflict has caused many post-conflict developers to undertake reconstruction using standardised models that may not always reflect the realities of the affected populations. There is a need to engage with and understand the life experiences, transformations and social concerns of people affected by conflict before, during and after the conflict in order to develop appropriate and context embedded post-conflict reconstruction strategies. This article discusses how life histories were deployed to explore how the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda transformed people's lives. It presents how 47 men and women lived, experienced and remembered the war in northern Uganda, and the implications for health care reconstruction. By focusing on what the respondents considered major life events in their narratives of war experiences, the article shows how through using life histories, the respondents were empowered to narrate in their own voices their experiences of war; how gender and power(lessness) shaped their experiences and their ‘situatedness’ within the conflict and thereafter; and the implications this has for post-conflict health reconstruction. The life history method enabled the researchers to surmount the subjective nature of narratives of war and its after effects, permitting the researchers to construct a picture of how experiences and challenges to well-being, health and health care seeking changed through time and what needs to be done to ensure post-conflict development prioritises the multiple health care needs of those most impoverished by the war.Keywords
This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit:
- Restorative Justice and the South African Truth and Reconciliation ProcessSouth African Journal of Philosophy, 2013
- Transformative Mixed MethodsAmerican Behavioral Scientist, 2012
- Conflict and gender: the implications of the Burundian conflict on HIV/AIDS risksConflict, Security & Development, 2011
- Life history analysis of HIV/AIDS-affected households in rice and cassava-based farming communities in Northern MalawiAIDS Care, 2010
- Rebuilding health systems to improve health and promote statebuilding in post-conflict countries: A theoretical framework and research agendaSocial Science & Medicine, 2010
- Life after violencePublished by Bloomsbury Academic ,2009
- Life Histories, Reproductive Histories: Rural South African Women's Narratives of Fertility, Reproductive Health and IllnessJournal of Southern African Studies, 2001
- Self, Silence and Invisibility as a Beginning Teacher: a life history of lesbian experienceBritish Journal of Sociology of Education, 1994
- Patients and Healers in the Context of CulturePublished by University of California Press ,1980