Paper short abstract:

In the Teso region of eastern Uganda there is a generation of young men and women who are the first in their family to go to school. This paper explores the political entailments of education through looking at the way these young men and women do politics through local institutions.

Paper long abstract:

In the Teso region of eastern Uganda there is a generation of young men and women in their twenties and thirties who are the first in their family to go to school. Many are 'staying home' and making some sort of life for themselves in a provincial place. This paper explores the political changes that this "educated" generation brings to local institutions - school committees, church groups, village courts, burial societies. It is based on long term ethnographic work in a rural sub-parish that is slowly being incorporated into the trading centre of a newly created district capital. Through looking at the changing dynamics within and between families within this sub-parish, the paper examines the political entailments of education. Available research on education in the developing world focuses on its economic impact, or on the spread of modern attitudes, particularly among male urban youth. Less is understood about everyday political culture in rural, provincial places, or about the disruptions taking place with the arrival of educated young men and, more especially, women, in the countryside.