The continuity of military identity in civilian workplaces: former Ugandan soldiers in Uganda

In this article, we examine how Ugandan ex-soldiers deploy different military practices in civilian workplaces in Uganda and how these practices continue to define them as former military personnel. The civilian workplaces in which these former military men find themselves are quite distinct and devoid of any military tradition. Yet despite this, and even though these ex-soldiers are working with civilians, they continue to carry with them the military practices and identities in which they have been trained and enculturated. The contribution of this article is that disciplinary power can be used to understand the way that ‘hard’ military training is carried in the body long after a veteran has left the military. While this ‘carrying’ of military training is oftentimes understood as ‘negative’, our research demonstrates the ways in which former soldiers have instrumentalised this training within the civilian workplace to their advantage. We draw on the subjective experiences of Ugandan military veterans generated through life stories, which we analyse using Foucault’s concept of ‘disciplinary power’. We argue that the concept helps us understand that shifting from military barracks to civilian workplaces does not change the ways in which these former soldiers think of themselves as people who are distinct from civilians in their work ethic. The transition from military barracks to civilian workplaces is contradictory and never complete, as civilian and military work ethics enhance and/or undermine work relations in civilian workplaces. The article examines the ways in which, among other things, the practices of discipline and the understanding of time are undertaken and practised in a civilian workplace, a legacy that is carried into civilian life by former military personnel.