Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-19T13:21:30.424Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Circuits of Compassion: The Affective Labor of Uganda’s Christian Orphan Choirs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2020

Abstract:

Uganda’s touring orphan choirs engage in a form of charity that is dependent on the mobility not only of money, but also of people and sentiments. Boyd considers the moral economies that underlie this ongoing project of compassionate “circulation.” If a key finding of the work on humanitarian affect has been how such “affective surpluses” mask inequalities between donors and recipients, this article considers how participants in charitable relationships conceive of dependency and indebtedness differently. These differences compel us to understand how moral and religious sentiments give shape to the inequalities inherent in dominant forms of global humanitarian “care.”

Résumé:

Résumé:

La chorale des orphelins en tournée en Ouganda s’engage dans un type de charité qui dépend de la mobilité non seulement de l’argent, mais aussi des personnes et des sentiments. Boyd considère les économies morales qui sous-tendent ce projet de « circulation compatissante. » Si l’une des principales conclusions du travail sur l’effet humanitaire a été la façon dont ces « excédents affectifs » masquent les inégalités entre les bienfaiteurs et les bénéficiaires, cet article examine comment les participants en relations de bienfaisance conçoivent différemment la dépendance et l’endettement. Ces différences pressent à comprendre comment les sentiments moraux et religieux donnent forme aux inégalités inhérentes aux formes dominantes d’aide humanitaires mondiales.

Resumo:

Resumo:

No Uganda, os coros itinerantes de órfãos dedicam-se a um tipo de caridade que depende da mobilidade não só de dinheiro, mas também de pessoas e de sentimentos. No presente artigo, Boyd analisa as economias morais que subjazem a este projeto de “circulação” solidária, presentemente em curso. Uma das principais conclusões da investigação acerca da afetividade humanitária foi a de que os “excedentes afetivos” escondem as desigualdades entre os doadores e os beneficiários, e Boyd analisa os modos diferenciados segundo os quais os intervenientes em relações de caridade concebem a dependência e o endividamento. Estas diferenças levam-nos a compreender que os sentimentos religiosos e morais dão origem a desigualdades intrínsecas às formas predominantes de “prestação de cuidados” humanitários a nível mundial.

Type
Article
Copyright
© African Studies Association, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Vincanne. 2013. Markets of Sorrow, Labors of Faith: New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Askew, Kelly. 2002. Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Boyd, Lydia. 2015. Preaching Prevention: Born-Again Christianity and the Moral Politics of AIDS in Uganda . Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Boyd, Lydia 2018. “The Gospel of Self-Help: Born-Again Musicians and the Moral Problem of Dependency in Uganda.” American Ethnologist 45 (2): 241252.10.1111/amet.12635CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheney, Kristen. 2017. Crying for Our Elders: African Orphanhood in the Age of HIV and AIDS. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226437682.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, Simon. 2004. “The Charismatic Gift.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 10 (2): 421442.10.1111/j.1467-9655.2004.00196.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, Peter. 1996. “Music in a Ugandan Court.” Early Music 24 (Spring): 291343.10.1093/em/24.3.439CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cruikshank, Barbara. 1999. The Will to Empower: Democratic Citizens and Other Subjects. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.10.7591/9781501733918CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eggertson, Laura. 2010. “Caring for HIV/AIDS Orphans in Uganda.” Canadian Medical Association Journal 182 (15): E707–8.10.1503/cmaj.109-3670CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elisha, Omri. 2011. Moral Ambitions: Mobilization and Social Outreach in Evangelical Megachurches . Berkeley: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520950542CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, James. 2013. “Declarations of Dependence: Labour, Personhood, and Welfare in Southern Africa.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 19: 223–42.10.1111/1467-9655.12023CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geschiere, Peter. 2003. “Witchcraft as the Darkside of Kinship: Dilemmas of Social Security in New Contexts.” Etnofoor 16 (1): 4361.Google Scholar
Geschiere, Peter, and Nyamnjoh, Francis. 1998. “Witchcraft as an Issue in the “Politics of Belonging”: Democratization and Urban Migrants’ Involvement with the Home Village.” African Studies Review 41 (3): 6991.10.2307/525354CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanson, Holly. 2003. Landed Obligation: The Practice of Power in Buganda. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Harding, Susan Friend. 2000. The Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9780691190464CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karlström, Mikael. 2003. “On the Aesthetics and Dialogics of Power in the Postcolony.” Africa 73 (1): 5776.10.3366/afr.2003.73.1.57CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klaits, Frederick. 2011. “Asking as Giving: Apostolic Prayers and the Aesthetics of Well-Being in Botswana.” Journal of Religion in Africa 41 (2): 206–26.10.1163/157006611X569229CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAlister, Melani. 2008. “What is Your Heart For? Affect and Internationalism in the Evangelical Public Sphere.” American Literary History. 20 (4): 870–95.10.1093/alh/ajn049CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAlister, Melani. 2018. The Kingdom of God Has No Boundaries: A Global History of American Evangelicals. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Muehlebach, Andrea. 2012. The Moral Neoliberal: Welfare and Citizenship in Italy . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226545417.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muehlebach, Andrea. 2013. “The Catholicization of Neoliberalism: On Love and Welfare in Lombardy, ItalyAmerican Anthropologist 115 (3): 452–65.10.1111/aman.12028CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ndaliko, Cherie Rivers. 2016. Necessary Noise: Music, Film, and Charitable Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190499570.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pier, David. 2015. Ugandan Music in the Marketing Era: The Branded Arena. New York: Palgrave.10.1057/9781137546975CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richey, Lisa Ann. 2016. Celebrity Humanitarianism and North-South Relations: Politics, Place and Power. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Scherz, China. 2014. Having People, Having Heart: Charity, Sustainability, Development and the Problems of Dependence in Uganda. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226119700.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinervo, Aviva, and Cheney, Kristen. 2019. “NGO Economies of Affect: Humanitarianism and Childhood in Contemporary and Historical Perspective.” In Disadvantaged Childhoods and Humanitarian Intervention: Processes of Affective Commodification and Objectification. Cheney, Kristen and Sinervo, Aviva, eds. 135. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
United States PEPFAR Program. 2017. Uganda Country Operational Plan: Strategic Direction Summary (PEPFAR). https://www.pepfar.gov/documents/organization/273638.pdfGoogle Scholar