New edition. An anthropology of Alur society adopting the ideas of Max Weber to show that religion and ritual could be the basis of political action. Southall's theory of the segmentary state was adopted by political anthropologists throughout the subject and also by political scientists, being applied not just to Africa but also to India and other parts of the world. First published in 1956. Includes a new introduction by David Parkin and b/w illustrations. Index, bib, app, xviii, 397pp, GERMANY. LIT VERLAG.

A study arguing that the music and dance of the Baganda people are not simply reflective of culture. The author shows how baakisimba participates in the construction of social relations and helps determine how these relations shape the performing arts. 272pp, UK. ROUTLEDGE.

A study of local effects of the collapse of authority in the immediate post-independence period in Uganda, where fears of physical violence, witchcraft and theft among the Gisu led to the formation of vigilante groups. Index, map, ta-bles, b/w illus, notes, gloss, bib, 310pp, UK. JAMES CURREY PUBLISHERS.

Overview of the current state of Ugandan society, where largely rural ethnic groups are experiencing the pull of urban centres, while the changes brought about by Western influences bear on practically every aspect of people's lives. Examples from the main ethnic groups are used to explain traditional culture and adaptations to modern life in religion, gender roles, courtship and marriage, work, education, family life, ceremonies, the arts, media, and more. Maps, b/w photos, 224pp, USA. GREENWOOD.

This book presents data on Ugandan khat within the context of international debates on the drug, and the proposed ban in 2009. By telling of the story of khat, the book will serve as a vehicle for the analysis of social change, development priorities and shifting ethnic identities in Uganda over the last 80 years. 222pp, UK. PALGRAVE.

On 17 March 2000 several hundred members of the Pentecostal-type Christian sect, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (MRTC) burnt to death in the groups headquarters in the Southwest Ugandan village of Kanungu. Days later the Ugandan police discovered a series of mass graves containing over 400 bodies on various other properties belonging to the sect. Was this mass suicide or mass murder? The question of whether Kanungu is best understood as mass suicide or multiple murder is more than just an intriguing detective story, but instead goes to the heart of how the event should be perceived and understood. This is the first scholarly treatment of the Kanungu incident and provides a comprehensive account of the MRTC and the events leading up to the inferno. 256pp, UK. JAMES CURREY PUBLISHERS.

A satirical look at modern Ugandan society, illustrated with b/w drawings. 74pp, UGANDA. FOUNTAIN PUBLISHERS.

A look at ritual and the initiation ritual of the Bamasaba in particular, examining its seven phases, ritual symbolism, themes of identity and power, and related cultural practice. Index, bib, notes, 260pp, GERMANY. BAYREUTH A S.

A combined archaeological and ethnographic study of traditional salt-extraction practices on the Ugandan shore of Lake Albert, where salt has been an important economic resource for centuries and is mined mainly by women using original techniques. B/w illus, 246pp, UK. BRITISH INSTITUTE IN EASTERN AFRICA.

How can children simultaneously be the most important and least powerful people in a nation? In this innovative ethnography of Ugandan children Kristen E. Cheney answers this question by exploring the daily contradictions children face as they try to find their places amid the country's rapidly changing social conditions. Drawing on the detailed life histories of several children, Cheney shows that children and childhood are being redefined by the desires of a young country struggling to position itself in the international community. She moves between urban schools, music festivals, and war zones to reveal how Ugandans are constructing childhood as an empowering identity for the development of the nation. Index, bib, notes, 299pp, USA. CHICAGO U P.

This book explores cannibalism, food, eating and being eaten in its many variations. It deals with people who feel threatened by cannibals, churches who combat cannibals and anthropologists who find themselves suspected of being cannibals. It describes how different African and European images of the cannibal intersected and influenced each other in Tooro, Western Uganda, where the figure of the resurrecting cannibal draws on both pre-Christian ideas and church dogma of the bodily resurrection and the ritual of Holy Communion. In Tooro cannibals are witches: they bewitch people so that they die only to be resurrected and eaten. This is how they were perceived in the 1990s when a lay movement of the Catholic Church, the Uganda Martyrs Guild NETQUOTEVAR:UMG organized witch-hunts to cleanse the country. The UMG was responding to an extended crisis: growing poverty, the retreat and corruption of the local government, a guerrilla war, a high death rate through AIDS, accompanied by an upsurge of occult forces in the form of cannibal witches. By trying to deal, explain and heal the situation of internal terror, the UMG reinforced the perception of the reality of witches and cannibals while at the same time containing violence and regaining power for the Catholic Church in competition for lost souls with other Pentecostal churches and movements. Includes a DVD of a film by Armin Linke and Heike Behrend showing a crusade to identify and cleanse witches and cannibals organized by the UMG in the rural area of Kyamiaga in 2002. With a heightened awareness and reflective use of the medium, UMG members created a domesticated version of their crusade for Western (and local) consumption as part of a shared ethnography. 222pp, UK. JAMES CURREY.

Guide to the key aspects of social cultural practices in Uganda aimed at visitors to the country. Covers: local languages, Ugandan English, travel, shopping, the African concept of time, male-female relationships and social behaviour, safety tips and non-verbal communication. Shirley Cathy Byakutaaga is a linguist, who conducts cross-cultural orientation sessions for development workers in Africa coming from the Northern countries and has researched the interplay between Ugandan, European and American cultures. 79pp,

UGANDA. FOUNTAIN.

The author was the first white man to live amongst the Bakonzo, people who were to rule the inner parts of the Mountains of the Moon for over 20 years, defying both Uganda and the Congo. His story narrates these years, and as guerilla war began. Illustrated with b/w photographs. Index, gloss, maps, xi, 557pp, UK. STACEY INTERNATIONAL.

Selection of 111 columns from his regular by-lines in SUNDAY VISION and SUNDAY MONITOR providing a panoramic snapshot of Uganda and its society and covering topics such as: sexual orientation, sex and love, bazungu (foreigners) and aid, the environment, religion, language, sport, music, education, media, poverty and inequality, health, tobacco, and a pot pouri of thirteen other columns. Cartoons by Moses Balagadde. 262pp, UGANDA. FOUNTAIN PUBLISHERS.

An account of the religion and culture of Karamojong, looking at themes of modernisation, colonialism and missions. The author also assesses the impact of famine and the state. Index, bib, 349pp, UK. ASHGATE PUBLISHERS.