Public Ubuntu for Welfare, Private Ubuntu for Intimacy: A Reflexive Feminist Anthropological Framework on Body Politics, Class, and Survival in Uganda

Résumé fourni par la source

ABSTRACT This working paper establishes an original theoretical framework within African feminist anthropology: Public Ubuntu for Welfare and Private Ubuntu for Intimacy. Grounded in a 28-year longitudinal ethnographic archive in Uganda (2003–2026), it provides a materialist diagnostic of East African body politics and class formation. Moving beyond political activism and foreign NGO agendas, the study demonstrates that Ubuntu operates as a class-conditioned safety net in the absence of state welfare. Working-class Ugandans navigate dual external pressures, balancing foreign evangelical campaigns against Western donor demands via a tactical "Dual Strategy". By adhering to Public Ubuntu (lineage, savings groups, faith-based respectability) for economic survival while cultivating Private Ubuntu (discreet care networks, digital spaces) away from surveillance, local actors exercise enduring agency. Ultimately, this manuscript links contemporary LGBTQ+ dynamics to the region's history of women's rights, illustrating the value of situated, longue durée analysis. Institutional History & Teaching Context:The core theoretical frameworks and empirical material presented in this working paper—including the formulation of Public and Private Ubuntu and the Dual Strategy—were first conceptualized and delivered as an advanced module for the graduate course "Gender, Culture, and Development: From Uganda to Africa." This was taught as a Visiting Professor within the ERASMUS MUNDUS GEMMA Master’s in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Granada (Spain) during the October–November terms of 2025.

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