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KRISTEN E. CHENEY, Pillars of the Nation: child citizens and Ugandan national development. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press (pb $21 - 0226102483). 2007, 320 pp.
This book confronts the rhetoric and realities of childhood in contemporary Uganda. A rich ethnographic portrait, it should be of welcomed not only by those interested in Uganda, but also by readers engaging with its broader themes of education, identity, culture, democratization and globalization. Cheney ties together these areas by examining 'childhood' as a discourse from multiple perspectives: its universalization in international human rights regimes, its deployment in the service of Ugandan post-colonial nation building, and its use as a local imaginary of future prosperity, cultural cohesion and generational continuity. What lies beneath these discourses is the day-today lives of children who struggle to meet the dreams of their elders while forced to make their own way in a rapidly changing social and economic landscape.
Drawing on the life histories of children in many parts of Uganda, Cheney reminds us that, despite these challenges, young people assert their own agency in creative ways. To make this point, the book is organized into two parts totalling seven chapters. An introductory section places Cheney's central characters, a diverse group of young...