Land for refugees: sharing and exchanging in Northern Uganda

Abstract In Adjumani District, all 19 refugee settlements are located on land offered by local kin groups for an undetermined period of use. The concepts of sharing and exchange illuminate host community explanations about their provision of land. To the extent they were sharing, they originally availed land in solidarity with refugees. To the extent they were exchanging, they provided land as a move in a transaction with the national and local government in return for ‘development’. Increasingly, hosts are entering exchange relations with refugees who want access to more land for farming. Sharing and exchange may overlap, but the analytical distinction sheds light on moral assumptions about obligation and the changing value of land. We argue that refugee settlements contribute to the growing commodification of land. The study is based on interviews with hosts of seven different refugee settlements and selected government officials undertaken between 2018 and 2022.