Before the First Drop

Speaking and developing analyses from the vantage of point of directly affected persons in western Uganda, this book is focused on that small window between confirmed economic potential and actual extraction. That is, before the pipes begin to flow with oil. This window has been long for Uganda, with multiple pauses – often includes exploration, preparation, displacement, resettlement, compensation, waiting, speculation, anxiety, violence, and several often, non-voiced traumas. The researchers – who did fieldwork in teams – explore key livelihood questions around food, land, compensation and resettlement. They also focus education as schools were knocked down without building new ones, gender questions as only men signed the compensation cheques; the environment as rivers dry up. Focused on violence and the traumas of development, this book questions the extent of state involvement in the lives of ordinary folks, who tend to be "the first ‘extractives’ from the earth," but are simply unwanted disposable.