Vol. 34 No. 4 (2025): Nordic Journal of African Studies
General articles

Filling the Humanitarian Gap and a Plural Perspective on Humanitarianism: Communitarian Socio-Cultural Support Practices Among South Sudanese Refugees in Uganda

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Emmanuel Viga
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Bio
Eria Serwajja
Makerere University
Bio

Published 2025-12-18

Keywords

  • African communitarian care,
  • socio-cultural support practices,
  • South Sudanese refugees,
  • Ubuntu philosophy,
  • plural humanitarianism

Copyright (c) 2025 Emmanuel Viga, Eria Serwajja

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Filling the Humanitarian Gap and a Plural Perspective on Humanitarianism: Communitarian Socio-Cultural Support Practices Among South Sudanese Refugees in Uganda. (2025). Nordic Journal of African Studies, 34(4), 277–301. https://doi.org/10.53228/wb45z669

Abstract

Communitarian socio-cultural practices ‘from below’ that involve the sharing of material and non-material items play a vital role in the lives of refugees. However, these support practices are rarely discussed, documented, or acknowledged for their contribution to refugees’ protection, livelihoods, and well-being. This article examines communitarian socio-cultural support practices among South Sudanese refugees in Uganda. The article is based on fieldwork conducted between 2021 and 2023 in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement and Uganda’s capital city, Kampala. The objectives of this article are threefold. First, to document the practices that remain invisible in humanitarian discourses but are deemed valuable by refugees to get by in their everyday lives. Second, to examine how communitarian socio-cultural support practices change in contexts of displacement. Third, to discuss the lessons that can be learned from the ethical and philosophical principles informing communitarian socio-cultural support practices in the pursuit of more contextually oriented and inclusive humanitarian practices that recognize, support, and build on the existing capacities of refugees themselves. By documenting the multiple and intricate socio-cultural support practices, we conclude that these practices have the potential to fill gaps in humanitarian practice, such as drawing on resources among refugees to save lives and alleviate suffering, and that the theoretical foundations that inform these practices, such as togetherness, industry, solidarity, hospitality, and ethical and philosophical principles such as responsibility, reciprocity, honesty, humanity, empathy, and so on, can contribute towards expanding the ethical register of humanitarianism. This has the potential to inform debates and discussions on a broadened and more pluralist humanitarian understanding and practice.

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