Exploring the Social System and Indigenous Philosophy of the Bakonzo People in Rwenjori region Uganda; Implications for Gender Relations and Politics

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between indigenous social institutions, gender relations, and local governance among the Bakonzo people of the Rwenzori region of western Uganda. It addresses a gap in scholarship that has tended to examine the Bakonzo primarily through ethnicity, political mobilisation, conflict, and traditional authority, with less attention to how indigenous moral philosophies interact with gendered power and contemporary governance. The study employed a qualitative interpretive design involving 30 purposively selected key informants, four focus group discussions, and six months of participant observation. Data were analysed thematically through an analytical framework combining African feminist theory and neopatrimonialism, while treating indigenous philosophy as a locally grounded normative system rather than as an uncritical cultural ideal. The findings demonstrate that Bakonzo social organisation simultaneously enables collective solidarity and reproduces gendered hierarchies. Clan, kinship, age, traditional authority, and community reciprocity provide important mechanisms of social support, cultural continuity, and collective action, yet access to formal authority remains strongly gendered. Informal relationships and patronage can facilitate access to resources but may also weaken accountability and reinforce male-dominated networks. The study further demonstrates that indigenous philosophy can function as both a resource for inclusive development and a mechanism through which inherited hierarchies are legitimised. The article contributes to African gender and governance scholarship by showing that indigenous philosophy should neither be romanticised nor treated simply as an obstacle to modernisation. Instead, it should be analysed as a contested field through which gender, authority, belonging, and development are continuously negotiated.