Filip Reyntjens

Post-1994 Politics in Rwanda: problematising ‘liberation’ and ‘democratisation’

Abstract When the Rwanda Patriotic Front (rpf) seized power in July 1994, winning the civil war and ending the genocide, this was seen by many as the succession of a bloody dictatorship by a decent government. Despite the early drift into authoritarianism, concentration of power and human rights abuse, Rwanda continued to be seen as a country in transition towards democracy. However, political transitions do not automatically lead from dictatorship to democracy, and Rwanda is but one of the illustrations of the weaknesses of the transition paradigm. Rather than liberation, inclusiveness and democracy, the rpf has brought oppression, exclusion and dictatorship. Peoples widespread and deep-rooted feelings of frustration, anger and despair are a fertile breeding ground for structural violence, and they are likely to again lead to acute violence.

The privatisation and criminalisation of public space in the geopolitics of the Great Lakes region

The Great Lakes region has been in profound turmoil for the past 15 years. Through the game of shifting alliances, and because of geographic proximity in an area with porous borders, conflicts have tended to merge, thus giving rise to a huge zone of instability. Conflicts have been compounded by the export of war to neighbouring countries, and the extreme weakness of the Congolese state has led to the ‘satellisation’ of large parts of its territory. This has in turn led to the privatisation and criminalisation of public space, to the advantage of both neighbouring countries and local, regional and international ‘entrepreneurs of insecurity’. From political, ideological, ethnic or security-induced, violence has become predominantly predatory, with loyalties and alliances essentially based on the search for personal or factional enrichment. In human terms, the damage caused by the occupation and plunder of eastern DRC has been colossal.

(Re-)imagining a reluctant post-genocide society: the Rwandan Patriotic Front's ideology and practice

ABSTRACT The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has developed an elaborate ideology that it articulates widely and skilfully. While some themes have been the subject of research, an overall approach is lacking. This article brings together analyses of four major themes in the RPFs ideology. Two are closely related: history is the backward-looking basis for the RPFs societal policies, while national unity and reconciliation are the present and forward-looking ones. The two other themes addressed are nationalism/self-reliance and high modernism. For each of these themes, this article presents their emergence and substance, followed by an assessment of their practice and implementation. Two major flaws in the RPFs ideology are addressed: its at times shaky factual and historical foundation, and its use to legitimize policies that have little popular support. The gap between the public and hidden transcripts is particularly problematic with regard to the issues of history and unity/reconciliation, on which there is no common reading. The fact that strong underground narratives on these themes contrast with the RPFs ideology suggests that Rwanda is not heading towards long-term peace and stability.

Alison Des Forges and Rwanda: from engaged scholarship to informed activism

Abstract Alison Des Forges, a renowned scholar and human rights activist of Central Africa, died in an airplane crash in 2009. Her life is a model of the conjunction of human rights activism and scholarship; it therefore illuminates the relations between these two forms of participation in African Studies. This article commemorates her work, showing how her scholarship enriched her human rights work, and how, in turn, her scholarship was driven by her sense of social justice. The article analyses five domains of her work: her 1972 dissertation; her participation in human rights reporting; a series of Human Rights Watch reports which she wrote or edited; her magisterial work on the genocide of 1994; and her continued scholarly publications after the genocide. From this, it argues that Des Forgess life work exemplified the mutually reinforcing nature of these two forms of commitment - scholarship and work towards human rights and social justice.

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.

Understanding Rwandan politics through the longue durée: from the precolonial to the post-genocide era

ABSTRACT The transition from precolonial to colonial rule at the end of the nineteenth century, the 1959–61 revolution followed by independence in 1962, and the 1994 genocide followed by the RPF’s military victory are defining moments of modern Rwandan history. Each of these periods was a major break with the previous one. However, there are also striking continuities throughout the entire history spanning the precolonial to the post-genocide eras. Continuities include the concentration of power, intra-regime conflict, the salience of ethnicity, and the nature of the state. Discontinuities can be seen mainly in the role of the army as an institution and a source of values, and the role played by and the use made of ethnicity. A very distinctive feature is the re-emergence of militarisation in 1994 after a century-long break, thus reconnecting with the precolonial period. This longue durée view allows us to better understand the defining features of governance in present-day Rwanda.