TITLE:
Pastoral Production Systems, Institutions, and Community Networks in the Changing Border Dynamics
AUTHORS:
Alfred Katabyama Nuwamanya
KEYWORDS:
Pastoralism, Community Networks, Institutional Production Systems, Border Dynamics
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.13 No.10,
October
20,
2025
ABSTRACT: The cross-border pastoralists at the Uganda-DRC border have, over time, developed a “border cultural context”. This spatially produced cultural context is constructed on societal institutions, practices, networks, and livestock. This border cultural context operates through alliances at the clan, family, and other social networks as the Batuku pastoralists access pastoral resources such as pasture, water, livestock medicine, and other necessities within Uganda and across the DRC. This paper describes the ways in which institutions and practices facilitate the grazing of livestock along and astride the border, as well as how livestock, especially cattle, function as a thread that ties together the operations of these institutions and practices of the Batuku pastoralists. This paper is drawn from an ethnography conducted at the Uganda-DRC border for a period of seven months from January 2024 - August 2024. The paper reveals that the Batuku pastoralists operate a networked system of institutions and practices in their efforts to produce their livelihood necessities. These institutions and practices have been a source of unity, social well-being, and social capital. These institutions and practices serve both the impecunious and the rich. Therefore, with drastic changes taking place in this border region—which have changed the character of the border from a porous border to almost a hard border—the pastoral production systems, institutions, and communal networks can no longer remain intact, and their usefulness and efficiency drastically change.