Overview

How can children simultaneously be the most important and least powerful people in a nation? In her innovative ethnography of Ugandan children—the pillars of tomorrow’s Uganda, according to the national youth anthem—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. Moreover, through her analysis of children’s rights ideology, national government strategy, and children’s everyday concerns, Cheney also shows how these young citizens are vitally linked to the global political economy as they navigate the pitfalls and possibilities for a brighter tomorrow.

Full Product Details

9780226102474

Table of Contents

Reviews

With Pillars of the Nation, Kristen Cheney has admirably succeeded in providing a culturally informed ethnographic study of the predicament of children in contemporary Uganda. Here, she shows how Ugandan children in diverse and often problematic situations seek to establish through their own agency a meaningful life not always in agreement with cultural codes, national social agendas, and ideologies enforced by international agencies and programs to assist them. This is an impressive and original work. - Philip Kilbride, Bryn Mawr College

Author Information

Kristen E. Cheney is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Dayton.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available