UCU Digital Institutional Repository(UCUDIR)
Welcome to the Uganda Christian University Digital Institutional Repositoy (UCUDIR). This is the University's official Institutional Repository. It aims to collect, preserve and showcase the intellectual output of staff and students of UCU. This growing collection of research includes peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, working papers, theses, and more.
- The Repository ingests documents, audio, video, datasets and their corresponding Dublin Core metadata
- The aim is to open up this content to local and global audiences, with have optimized well for Google Scholar so your items here shows up on Google Scholar searches
- we also issue permanent urls and trustworthy identifiers, including optional integrations with handle.net and DataCite DOI
Not Registered? click here to Register or or if already registered: Click To submit your Item ::For more information visit any UCU Library branch
Communities in UCUDIR
Select a community to browse its collections.
- Items in this community present a concise summary of information that can help readers understand, and likely make decisions about, government policies.
- This is a collection of Masters and Doctoral theses and dissertations submitted in electronic format to the Uganda Christian University.
Recent Submissions
Hybrid voices and embodied politics: Gender, performativity, and postcolonial negotiation in Mary Karooro Okurut’s ‘The Invisible Weevil’ and ‘Child of a Delegate’.
(Centre for Democracy, Research and Development, 2026) Alice Jossy Kyobutungi Tumwesigye
This chapter explores gender-based challenges and opportunities in African cultural expression through a comparative analysis of Mary Karooro Okurut’s The Invisible Weevil and Child of a Delegate, drawing on feminist performance theory, postcolonial performativity, and hybridity. Although these texts are prose narratives, they are deeply performative in their narrative strategies, dialogic structures, and representations of embodied social practices such as political spectacle, ritualised speech, and gendered public performance. The chapter deploys mobilizes Homi Bhabha’s notion of hybridity to analyse how Okurut’s narratives operate within liminal postcolonial spaces where traditional gender norms intersect with modern political and social institutions. In The Invisible Weevil, gendered political participation becomes a contested arena where women navigate corruption, patriarchy, and civic agency, while Child of a Delegate foregrounds intergenerational and socio-political performances of power, masculinity, and femininity within postcolonial governance structures. Although music and dance are not foregrounded as theatrical devices, the novels encode performative cultural practices, rituals, political rallies, and communal gatherings that function as narrative performances of identity and power. These narrative performances contribute to African heritage discourses by illustrating how gender is enacted and contested within everyday socio-cultural spectacles. Ultimately, the chapter argues that Okurut’s fiction constructs the postcolonial public sphere as a performative stage where gendered identities are continually negotiated and reimagined. By bridging literary studies with performance and cultural studies, the chapter contributes to interdisciplinary debates on gender, power, and performativity.
Discourse on hybridity, voice, agency and embodied politics: Gender, performativity, and postcolonial negotiation in Mary Karooro Okurut’s ‘The Invisible Weevil’ and ‘Child of a Delegate’
(Journal of Popular Education in Africa, 2026-09) Alice Jossy Kyobutungi Tumwesigye
This article explores gender-based challenges and opportunities in African cultural expression through a comparative analysis of Mary Karooro Okurut’s The Invisible Weevil and Child of a Delegate, drawing on feminist performance theory, postcolonial performativity, and hybridity. Although these texts are prose narratives, they are deeply performative in their narrative strategies, dialogic structures, and representations of embodied social practices such as political spectacle, ritualised speech, and gendered public performance. The article deploys mobilizes Homi Bhabha’s notion of hybridity to analyse how Okurut’s narratives operate within liminal postcolonial spaces where traditional gender norms intersect with modern political and social institutions. In The Invisible Weevil, gendered political participation becomes a contested arena where women navigate corruption, patriarchy, and civic agency, while Child of a Delegate foregrounds intergenerational and socio-political performances of power, masculinity, and femininity within postcolonial governance structures. Although music and dance are not foregrounded as theatrical devices, the novels encode performative cultural practices, rituals, political rallies, and communal gatherings that function as narrative performances of identity and power. These narrative performances contribute to African heritage discourses by illustrating how gender is enacted and contested within everyday socio-cultural spectacles. Ultimately, the article argues that Okurut’s fiction constructs the postcolonial public sphere as a performative stage where gendered identities are continually negotiated and reimagined. By bridging literary studies with performance and cultural studies, the article contributes to interdisciplinary debates on gender, power, and performativity.
Kimenye’s Moses series and implications on pleasure, neglect, and the child reader: A transnational re-reading of Barbara Kimenye’s Moses series
(Centre for Democracy, Research and Development, 2026) Alice Jossy Kyobutungi Tumwesigye; Caroline C. Hunt
The Moses books by Barbara Kimenye, long popular with young readers in Uganda, deserve more exposure outside their country. Published from 1968 to 1998, these 15 novels depict Moses and his friends and their struggles at boarding school. We argue that Kimenye flouted Ugandan expectations of the time—that books for the young should be didactic—and that her position is significant. We also argue that although Kimenye uses the familiar tradition of the school story, she moves beyond that tradition to challenge outdated attitudes and expose some of the corrupt practices of her time.
The wide variety of literature series has come into greater focus in the half-century since Cawelty, Radner, and others drew long-overdue critical attention to popular fiction. The importance of series fiction for young readers is now well accepted, starting from the Stratemeyer Syndicate and moving toward (but not ending with) modern-day television, film, and online series. Outside of the United States and Great Britain, however, literature series seems to have received less attention than it deserves from scholars of children’s and Young Adult literature. One series that deserves a closer look is the Moses books, by Barbara Kimenye, whose popular Moses series offers much to readers across the globe.
Begun in the tumultuous post-independence period and continuing for over thirty years, these books drew many young readers into reading for pleasure—a goal that may seem obvious from a twenty-first-century Western point of view but that was, we suggest, not always the accepted attitude among Ugandan educators and scholars. We also argue for the importance of Kimenye’s careful selection of topics in the Moses books—quite different from many of her other works, even those for children. Gender stereotypes and pervasive corruption are two such topics that we explore.
Resource mobilization modalities and their influence on the viability of academic programs in private universities in Fort portal city
(Uganda Christian University, 2026-09-14) Agonzibwa, Stephen
This study investigated Resource Mobilization Modalities and Their Influence on the Viability of Academic Programs in Private Universities in Fort Portal City. The study was guided by three objectives: (1) to evaluate how private universities in Fort Portal City engage with various stakeholders to mobilize resources for academic program viability; (2) to investigate the effectiveness of partnerships and collaborations in resource mobilization; and (3) to examine the effectiveness of existing resource allocation practices and their contribution to academic program viability. A mixed-methods research design was employed, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches to provide a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon. The study was conducted at two private universities in Fort Portal City, Uganda. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and structured questionnaires targeting 80 purposively selected participants including Vice Chancellors, Deputy Vice Chancellors for Academic Affairs, Academic Registrars, University Secretaries, Finance Directors, Faculty Deans, and Heads of Departments. Ethical approval was granted by the Uganda Christian University Research Ethics Committee (UCUREC) and the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), followed by administrative clearance from the participating institutions. Key findings revealed that stakeholder engagement— especially involving alumni, NGOs, and government agencies—significantly enhances resource inflow and institutional legitimacy. Effective partnerships and collaborations emerged as critical drivers of academic sustainability, particularly when strategically aligned and mutually accountable. Moreover, financial mobilization practices were found to be over-reliant on tuition, posing risks to long-term viability in low-resource contexts. The study concludes that inclusive governance, transparent resource allocation, and strategic partnership management are essential for sustaining academic programs in private universities. Recommendations include diversifying income streams, institutionalizing participatory budgeting, and enhancing internal capacity to coordinate stakeholder relations. These findings contribute to the theoretical and practical understanding of sustainable university governance through the lenses of Stakeholder Theory, 15 Resource Dependence Theory, Resource Governance Theory, and the Institutional Capacity Model.
Linking educational resources to competence-based curriculum implementation in Uganda’s lower secondary education: The role of instructional adaptability in Wakiso district
(Uganda Christian University, 2026-09-28) Muzaale, Tonny
This study examined the influence of educational resources on competency-based curriculum implementation in Uganda’s Lower Secondary Education. It also investigated the mediating effects of school change receptivity, instructional expertise, and instructional efficacy on the relationship between resource adequacy and curriculum implementation fidelity. The study sought to establish how teacher competence, infrastructural conditions, and access to digital and printed teaching resources collectively shape learner-centered practices under CBC reforms. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was adopted, integrating quantitative survey data from 972NCDC Staff, teachers and school administrators across public and private schools in Wakiso District with qualitative data from 71 in-depth interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 25 through descriptive and inferential statistics correlations and regression analysis while mediators were analyzed using AMOS and qualitative data were thematically analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s framework to identify recurring insights related to implementation experiences. Findings revealed that human resources significantly influenced CBC implementation. Schools with adequately trained teachers demonstrated higher fidelity in learner-centered instruction. However, the majority of the teachers reported inadequate refresher training and mentorship. Qualitative evidence indicated that continuous professional development and supportive supervision enhanced instructional expertise and teacher confidence. Physical infrastructural adequacy had a mediator positive relationship with CBC success, with teachers in well-furnished classrooms reporting higher learner engagement. Some schools faced severe furniture shortages and lacked functional laboratories. Digital and printed resource access also correlated positively with instructional efficacy; however, the majority of the schools lacked reliable digital content or ICT infrastructure. The combined CFA and SEM results revealed that educational resources-human (strongest), physical (moderate), and digital (low)are the strongest and most consistent predictors of curriculum implementation, confirming that well-developed resource capacity significantly enhances implementation outcomes. Conversely, instructional adaptability demonstrated a negligible or negative influence across both models, indicating that adaptability mechanisms, while present, are not yet effectively translating resource investments into improved curriculum performance. The study concludes that CBC implementation success depends on an integrated system of adequately trained teachers, functional learning environments, and equitable access to instructional materials. It recommends institutionalized professional development, improved infrastructure investment, enhanced ICT integration, and strengthened school-level change management to sustain high instructional efficacy and curriculum fidelity.