Andrea Purdeková

Even if I am not here, there are so many eyes: surveillance and state reach in Rwanda

Based on seven months of fieldwork research, the present article explores the nature and ‘reach’ of the state in post-genocide Rwanda, and its effects on decentralisation, participation and assertion of voice at the local level. Rwanda as a case of a ‘strong’ African state is explored through a number of lenses: the vertical structure (administrative and information apparatuses of the state); the lateral structure (multiple responsibilities, imihigo , indirect control); the spectrum of state-led ‘local’ activities; and, last but not least, the ‘counterweights’ to the state. The article suggests an increasing penetration of state in terms of surveillance as well as exactions (couched in terms of umusanzu or contribution) and control over voice at local level. Decentralisation amounts to mere ‘dispatching of control’, making central power more, not less, effective.

Civic Education and Social Transformation in Post-Genocide Rwanda: Forging the Perfect Development Subjects

In my study of Rwanda’s post-genocide process of kubaka ubumwe (unity-building) and its activities of unity and reconciliation (principally the ingando camps), I found that these cannot be easily extracted from wider frameworks of power and the tightly knit state apparatus (Purdekova, 2011a).1 Similarly, they are part of a broader transformation effort of the Rwandan government. In what follows, I argue that the dense state apparatus is used today to achieve the elusive and ambiguous beacon of development through varied systems and processes of social transformation, and that unity and reconciliation activities are merely additional platforms through which progress is to be pursued. In an expeditious manner, the official discourse describes unity and reconciliation as both by-products of development and necessary for its achievement.

Mundane Sights of Power: The History of Social Monitoring and Its Subversion in Rwanda

Abstract: By tracing the Rwandan state’s “mundane sights”—everyday forms of presence and monitoring—the article sheds light on the historical development and striking continuities in “interactive surveillance” across a century of turbulent political change. It considers three emblematic surveillance technologies—the institution of nyumbakumi, the identity card, and umuganda works (and public activities more broadly)—which, despite their implication in genocide, were retained, reworked, and even bolstered after the conflict ended. The article investigates what drives the observed continuity and “layering” of social monitoring over time, highlighting the key role played by ambiguity and ambivalence in this process. The research expands the concept of political surveillance, moving away from the unidirectional notion of “forms of watching,” and questions any easy distinctions between visibility and invisibility in the exercise of power or its subversion. Résumé: En retraçant les moments de “visibilité quotidienne” du pouvoir de l’état rwandais—formes courantes de présence et de surveillance—cet article met en évidence l’évolution historique et la continuités étonnantes de la “surveillance interactive” à travers un siècle de changement politique turbulent. Il considère trois méthodes de surveillance typique à savoir: la mise en place du nyumbakumi, de la carte d’identité et du umuganda (ainsi que des activités publiques plus généralement)—qui, en dépit de leur implication dans le génocide, ont été retenus, retravaillés et même renforcés après la fin du conflit. L’article examine ce qui motive la continuité observée et la “stratification” de contrôle social au fil du temps, mettant en évidence le rôle clé joué par l’ambiguïté et l’ambivalence dans ce processus. Cette recherche développe le concept de surveillance politique, s’éloignant de la notion unidirectionnelle des “formes d’observation” et questionne toutes distinctions faciles entre la visibilité et l’invisibilité dans l’exercice du pouvoir ou de sa subversion.

Militarisation of governance after conflict: beyond the rebel-to-ruler frame – the case of Rwanda

Abstract In this article, we develop and expand the rebel-to-ruler literature to go beyond ‘rebel transformations’, in order to examine the transformation and militarisation of the entire post-genocide society in Rwanda. Through a historical and socio-political analysis of the military’s influence in post-genocide Rwanda, we argue that the adoption of military norms and ethos, drawn from an idealised and reconstructed pre-colonial history rather than simply an insurgent past, motivates the military’s centrality and penetration of all society’s sectors, economically, politically and socially, with the ultimate aim of retaining power in the hands of the rebels turned rulers. As such, the case demonstrates the need for an expansion of the rebel-to-ruler literature (1) beyond its concern with parties and regime type to a broader palette of governance effects and (2) beyond its singular focus on insurgent past and towards a longue-durée understanding of complementary causes.