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This chapter shares its author’s experience in Uganda, where the drama group at the Mbarara chapter of The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) sing, dance, and act out a message of hope in the face of the AIDS epidemic. The Drama Group in Mbarara includes members who are HIV-positive, singing choral songs and rousing the audience to fight AIDS, to get tested for HIV, and to remember that everyone—including priests, doctors, and school headmasters—is susceptible to the disease. Their case highlights the valuable role played by music in helping communities negotiate the often contradictory messages they are hearing about AIDS. Aside from being a crucial factor in disseminating information about HIV/AIDS, music also helps Ugandans provide information about AIDS research and treatments available in a culturally robust context.

This chapter presents the lyrics of two apparent variants of the same song, recorded roughly three years apart from each other in different regions of Uganda. The first is “Namirembe Post-Test Club” (2001) and the second is “TASO Mbarara Drama Group” (2004); both are about AIDS and begin with the lyrics “Let’s get together/Care for each other, Sisters and brothers/Make this world a happy place”.

This chapter examines refugee economies in the context of two long-standing refugee settlements in south-west Uganda: Nakivale and Kyangwali. It begins by describing the structure of the settlements, their history, and the lives of their inhabitants, and then explains their governance structure. These refugees face a distinctive institutional and regulatory environment compared to host nationals, which creates both opportunities and constraints. While the majority are farmers and rarely leave the settlements, there is also often neglected diversity in terms of refugees’ economic lives. A small but significant number engage in innovation and entrepreneurship, creating opportunities for themselves and others, and even contributing public goods. For the Somali community, which shuns all agricultural work, entrepreneurship is a way of life. Crucially, far from being isolated, the settlements are connected to nearby cities (Mbarara and Hoima) as well as Kampala, through refugee and Ugandan brokers. The chapter investigates variation in these outcomes.

This chapter presents an account of the drama group at the Mbarara chapter of The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) in Uganda, with particular emphasis on the complex terrains of access that membership involves. It shows how, in a setting where new health resources often come at a premium, performative forms of HIV/AIDS advocacy can offer members important opportunities for access to medical treatment, receiving international aid, high-profile exposure, attention from foreigners, travel possibilities, and increased self-worth. It argues that any of these benefits could potentially lead to prolonged life, but they also involve negotiating a broad series of religious, moral, social, and cultural norms, each of which brings with it its own competitive resources and pressures. It also highlights the potential of music to help bring doctors more intimately into the cultures and lives of the people they so much want to help.