SOBRE LA NOTIFICACIÓN DE ENFERMEDADES ANIMALES Y AGENTES PATÓGENOS París, 29 de junio – 1 de julio de 2010

These four examples only represent a small section of the many faces of public writing comprising the linguistic landscape of Gulu. On their own they represent different aspects of the complex social, ethnic and linguistic composition of the town and region. They show elements of the past, images of the present and visions of the future. They represent the differences between the various areas of the town and even between different streets in the same area. They belong to buildings with different functions, having different histories and meanings to individuals as well as within the socio-political und socio-cultural discourses in Gulu. However, they are also highly connected with each other. They have similarities just like they have differences; and at times in unsuspected manners. On two occasions we found wall paintings made by foreign artists, on two occasions we find Acholi proverbs, on two occasions we only see English and on two occasions Acholi and English stand together. On two occasions we are dealing with private businesses and on two occasions they are public buildings. Altogether they exemplify the plurality of the local and the trans-local, the regional and the national, of the traditional and the modern; of Acholi and English. All these elements are not in oppositions to each other but tied together in a complex continuum that includes both languages in various spots and combinations. This ecology is also not restricted to only these two languages, but also includes Kiswahili, Luganda, Arabic and many other languages or codes that find their visual representation in Gulu. The present language ideologies assign them different roles and meanings, like in the given examples, where proverbs in Acholi were used to create a connection between buildings and businesses to local traditions and values, and English was used to present an image of modernity. The examples also show the state as an important actor. All images show the address of the building or the contact information written in English and in the cases of the public buildings there were additional official sign posts written in the official language. Due to the relatively large number of public buildings or places with an official function, be it schools, military posts, hospitals or the local administration, this policy has a great effect on Gulu.

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Through these sign posts, but also the policy on how to indicate an address, the state heavily influences the shape of the linguistic landscape, not only in towns like Gulu, but across the country. Blommaert (2005) notes that the directives and policy of the state not only determine and influences the choices of language in official writings, but by facilitating a system that through “an education system, media and culture industries” (p. 219) promotes the role and status of certain languages also in other forms of writing. In this context, the choice of English to represent the dentist office can equally be interpreted as an outcome of official language policy by the state. However, global discourses that include issues of language find their imprint into the local language ecology even without the state. Viewing English as the language of education and business is a global phenomenon that reaches not only beyond the limits of individual governments or political constructs, but also beyond the power dynamics of colonialism and imperialism. The global spread of capitalism and capitalist iconography becomes visible in the sign of the dentist office, carrying an advertisement slogan that can equally be seen in the USA or other places. As such they symbolise the membership of Gulu in the global economic machinery that reaches even to former peripheral parts of Uganda. The place that was once deemed too unattractive to enforce the full power of the British colonial apparatus is now fully engrained in the global networks of trade and finance.

On the other hand, the two wall paintings show Gulu’s entanglement with global discourses of art, showing images that are part of a global iconographic repertoire while incorporating local elements and symbols. They are also representations of the engagement and presence of development and non-governmental organisations in Gulu during and following the civil war. These organisations and people that have come and, in some cases, still are there had a visible impact on the shape, the visuals and the linguistic landscape of the town. This development is a direct outcome of the history of conflicts that shaped not only present-day social life in Gulu but its physical appearance as well, as the city grew dramatically in size during that time. Thus, we can draw a direct line between the presence of the two murals discussed and the violence that preceded their creation. They are signifiers of the attempts to overcome the resulting trauma within the political sphere and through social projects. At the same time, they demonstrate that these attempts did not always originate locally but were largely directed by outside forces which were present in the political peace process and in the development and social programs that followed, raising the question of ownership over these spaces.

In the sense of Blommaert (2013), all four signs and their composition function as forms of demarcations that identify the spaces they are attached to for any person or group being confronted with them. These demarcations are bound to questions of ethnic belonging, socio-

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economic status, education or normative and ideological factors, as they signify who these spaces are open to, or are possibly not open to. This complex environment of multiple languages in various roles being connected to different spatial spheres and ideas about cultural and social belonging is exemplary for the difficulty to understand the effects of globalisation on the experience of space and environment on the local level, but also the impact of local discourses concerned with identity, power and ownership and their intrinsic connection to social semiotics and iconography.