http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4415-8806
![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This article presents the historical and political trajectory of Kitchanga town in North Kivu, to demonstrate how current processes of urbanization in a context of civil war in Eastern Congo are strongly intertwined with regional politics of refuge. Kitchanga, an urban agglomeration that emerged from the gradual urbanization of IDP and refugee concentrations, has occupied very different positions through different episodes of the wars, ranging from a safe haven of refuge, to a rebel headquarter, to a violent battleground. On the basis of a historical account of Kitchanga's development, the paper argues for a spatial reading of broader geographies of war, displacement and ethnic mobilization in North Kivu. It shows that these urban agglomerations as ‘places’ and their urbanization as ‘processes’ are crucial to better understand the spatial politics of refuge in North Kivu. The article builds on original empirical data.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Mathijs Van Leeuwen, Gemma van der Haar, and Lotje Devries for their indispensable help and input during the research, and to the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. The authors wish to explicitly thank L.N, O.N, J.A.N, and one anonymous researcher for their indispensable help during the collection of data. They can however not be held accountable for the analysis made in this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Gillian Mathys http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4415-8806
Notes
1 See http://www.radiookapi.net/actualite/2010/03/05/kitshanga-des-gens-ont-marche-pour-reclamer-le-statut-d%25e2%2580%2599une-ville (accessed 5 December 2017).
2 See http://www.mediacongo.net/article-actualite-15932.html (accessed 5 December 2017). We think this number is more truthful to the actual number of inhabitants than the official figures indicated below. Some estimate its population at 120,000. See http://www.irinnews.org/fr/node/253267 (accessed 5 December 2017).
3 These reforms were launched in 2006 (see: Loi organique n° 08/016 du 07 octobre 2008). While on paper they aim to improve accountability, undermine corruption, and bring government closer to the people, Englebert and Mungongo have argued that ‘decentralization had instead increased the degree to which the state extracts the resources and incomes of its citizens’. Englebert and Mungongo, “Misguided and Misdiagnosed,” 1.
4 In line with the work of for example Darling (‘Forced Migration’) and Sanyal (‘Urbanizing Refuge’), ‘refuge’ is used here referring to spatial configurations of war-time displacement and migration.
5 Agier “Between War and City.”
6 Jansen “The Accidental City”; Murray and Malan, “Johannesburg Fortified”; Powel, “The Accidental City”.
7 Campbell, “Urban Refugees”; Bernstein and Okello, “To Be or Not to Be”; Dryden-Peterson, “I Find Myself”; Walraet, “Displacement”; Adam Branch, “Gulu in War”; Sommers, “Fear in Bongoland.”
8 Around an estimated number of 75%, for September 2015 (UNOCHA (DRC), ‘Internally Displaced Persons and Returnees’, ‘White’, ‘Now What?’). Self-settled IDPs often rely on family or friendship relations to find a host, but these can also be just strangers. The level of solidarity towards IDPs may not be underestimated; yet, just like the term IDP, ‘host’ is a term introduced by a humanitarian discourse and is marked by particular power relationships (Brun, “Hospitality”). The relationships between IDP's and ‘hosts’ is an often fragile and complex relationship.
9 Norwegian Refugee Council, “Living Conditions”; Branch, “Gulu in War”; Focus group with IDPs, Goma, December 2009.
10 Beall, Goodfellow, and Rodgers, “Cities, Conflict and State Fragility”; Branch, “Gulu in War.”
11 Markus, “Humanitarian Response.”
12 Raeymaekers, “Not Going Home.”
13 NRC, “Living Conditions.”
14 Verhoeve, “Conflict and the Urban Space”; Büscher, “Conflict and Social Transformation.”
15 Agier, “Between War and City”; Jansen, “The Accidental City.”
16 Sanyal, “Urbanizing Refuge”; Bulley, “Inside the Tent”; Ramadan, “Spatialising the Refugee Camps.”
17 Agier, “Between War and City.” Camp-city and city-camp are both used in the literature, referring to the same process.
18 de Montclos and Mwangi Kagwanja, “Refugee Camps or Cities”; Jansen, “The Accidental City.”
19 Branch, “Gulu from War.” We prefer his non-normative use of the concept of the camp-city.
20 Jansen, “The Accidental City”; Agier “Between War and City.”The urbanization process in itself is seen as in conflict with the humanitarian politics of ‘temporariness’, trying to prevent these spaces to become permanent settlements.
21 Darling, “Forced Migration”; Sanyal, “Urbanizing Refuge”. See also Herz, “From Camp to City.”
22 Darling, “Forced Migration.”
23 Bøås and Dunn, “Peeling the Onion”; Mathys, “Bringing History”; Murison, “Politics of Refugees.”
24 Agier, “Between War and City”; De Montclos and Mwangi Kagwanja, “Refugee Camps or Cities.”
25 Ibid.
26 Jansen, “Digging Aid.”
27 Figures for November 2015. CCM, “Statistiques sites de déplacement du Nord-Kivu.”
28 See note 2.
29 More precisely, a locality can become a commune if it has at least 20,000 inhabitants. For the status of a ville it needs at least 100,000 inhabitants and it needs to dispose of certain social and economic infrastructures. See: Loi organique n° 08/016 du 07 octobre 2008.
30 Kahe in January 2008 and Mungote in February 2009.
31 Ongoing research by Mathys.
32 IDPs are not a homogenous group. However, here, we do not focus on how diversity within the group of IDPs has an influence on displacement patterns and local integration. Markus’ study (‘Humanitarian Response’) provides many examples of how age and gender influence the experiences of IDPs with these issues in urban contexts such as Kitchanga.
33 RDC, Ministère de l’Agriculture, “Résultats préliminaires.”
34 Several interviews IDPs, March and April 2015.
35 Jansen, “The accidental city”; de Montclos and Mwangi Kagwanja, “Refugee Camps or Cities.”
36 Interview IDP Kahe, interview IDP Mungote, March 2015.
37 Interview IDP Mungote camp, March 2015.
38 Verhoeve, “Conflict and the Urban Space”; Büscher, “Urban Governance.”
39 Jansen, “The Accidental City.”
40 Interview member of “customary” authorities, Kitchanga, February 2015.
41 The terms Kinyarwanda-speaker and Rwandophone we use in this article are elusive. Many targeted in these discourses do not have Kinyarwanda as a mother-tongue – nor is the ability to speak Kinyarwanda limited to those contained in this group. The term ‘Congolese Banyarwanda’ is also problematic because it implies a continuing link to Rwanda.
42 Interview IDP Mungote camp, April 2015. Similar sentiments are expressed by IDPs elsewhere, see Markus, “Humanitarian Response,” 24.
43 UNOCHA, “Rapport Zone de Kitchanga.”
44 Interview IDP Mungote camp, March 2015.
45 Kiswahili: ‘king, “customary” chief’.
46 UNOCHA, “Rapport Zone de Kitchanga.”
47 Fieldwork observations and informal conversations Kitchanga, March 2015 and May 2016.
48 Interview with Hunde member of civil society, Kitchanga, February 2015.
49 Branch, “Gulu in War”; Beall et al., “Cities, Conflict.”
50 For more see Tegera, “Les Banyarwanda”; Mararo, “Land, Power.”
51 Literally meaning ‘people from Rwanda’.
52 In the current chefferie Bashali-Kaembe. The Gishari chieftaincy was de facto and de jure independent from Hunde customary authorities.
53 See for example the annual reports for Masisi for the 1940s and 1950s, African Archives Brussels (AAB), RA/AIMO 142–143.
54 AAB, RWA 355, Directeur de l'AIMO Delcourt, 'Note pour monsieur le chef du service du contentieux. Emigration des Banyarwanda au Kivu, 1953’. Between 1959 and 1963 and in 1973 Tutsi who fled political violence and persecution in Rwanda also settled in North and South Kivu.
55 For detailed discussions on the citizenship-issue: Huening, “Making Use”; Jackson, “Of ‘doubtful Nationality’”; Jackson, “Regional Conflict”; Malengana, Nationalité.
56 They are not the only Kinyarwanda-speakers in North Kivu. In the adjoining Rutshuru territory they are the majority, and there they were present since long before the colonial demarcation of the political border.
57 Mathys, “Bringing History,” 477.
58 Mararo, “Land, Power,” 513, fn. 49.
59 Although the guerre des Kanyarwanda is widely referenced by scholars, remarkably little empirical research is available. For more: Mararo, “Land, Power,” 519–25; Lemarchand, Rwanda and Burundi, 68–70.
60 Interview local business man, Kitchanga, May 2016.
61 Interview chef de quartier, Kitchanga, February 2015.
62 Interview local business man, Kitchanga, May 2016.
63 Also in Rutshuru, Walikale, and parts of Kalehe. For more, see Mararo, “Land, Power” Vlassenroot and Huggins, “Land, Migration”; Mathieu et al., “Compétition foncière.”
64 Mararo, “Land, Power,” 530–2.
65 Vlassenroot and Huggins, “Land, Migration,” 146; Mathieu et al., “Compétition foncière,” 133.
66 OHCHR, “Mapping Exercise,” 59.
67 Prunier, Africa's World War, 25.
68 Vlassenroot and Huggins, “Land, Migration,” 147.
69 The best overview of this is probably Longman and Fleischman, Zaire: Forced to Flee.
70 UN, Department of Humanitarian Affairs, “Masisi Report.”
71 AI, “Anarchie et Insécurité,” 20.
72 UN, Department of Humanitarian Affairs, “Masisi Report.”
73 Stearns, PARECO, 16.
74 Scott, Laurent Nkunda, 81.
75 OHCHR, “Mapping Exercise,” 62.
76 For more details, see Turner, “The Congo Wars.”
77 Vlassenroot and Van Acker, “War as Exit,” 52.
78 Hoffmann, and Vlassenroot, “Armed groups.”
79 CODHO, “RDCongo/Province du Nord Kivu: tortures.”
80 Pole Institut, “Le retour.” On the use of force, see e.g.: US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, “The Forced Repatriation.”
81 Transcript from Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple, “Le Pèlerinage de la Réconciliation,” DVD, July 2006.
82 According to Scott, Nkunda used his stay in Kitchanga to recruit people for the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). See: Scott, Laurent Nkunda, 76.
83 Barouski, “Laurent Nkundabatware,” 208.
84 Pole Institut, “Le retour.”
85 An analysis of CNDP's taxation and other income-generating strategies has been documented by UN GoE, 2009, especially p. 7–10.
86 Stearns, “CNDP Tighten Control”; Stearns, “CNDP and the Logic”; Faul, “Emerging Congo Mini-States”; Interview local observer Pole Institute, Goma, May 2016.
87 Interview local business man, Kitchanga May 2016; Interview official of state agency, Kitchanga, May 2016.
88 For more details, see: UN Group of Experts, “UN GoE Report 2011.”
89 Stearns, “Causality and Conflict.”
90 Stearns, “Causality and Conflict,” 164. See also, Stearns, North Kivu, 27–34.
91 UN Group of Experts, “Un GoE Report 2013,” 27. For example, the demobilized APCLS were housed in host families.
92 The narrative of these events is based on: Ibid., 27–8; “Rapport synthèse.”
93 Informal conversations Kitchanga, May 2016.
94 Darling, “Forced Migration in the City.”
95 Loi organique n° 08/016 du 07 octobre 2008.
96 Agier, “Between War and City.”
97 Büscher, Cuvelier, and Mushobekwa, “La dimension politique,” 2014.
98 Interview member of Provincial Parliament, Goma, June 2016.
99 Loi organique n° 08/016 du 07 octobre 2008.
100 The 2008 decentralization law does not stipulate how the chef-lieu of a chieftaincy is determined. The ‘Loi stipulant le statut des chefs coutumiers’, art. 4 from August 2015 however states that “Depending on the case, the customary chief resides, in the chef-lieu of his chieftaincy, of the groupement, or in his village.”
101 Interview with member of local customary authorities, Kitchanga, March 2015.
102 Englebert and Mungongo, “Misguided and Misdiagnosed.”
103 Interview Fonctionnaire Delegué, Kitchanga, May 2015.
104 Several interviews in March 2015 and Focus group with members of the Hunde community in April 2015.
105 Interview member of local customary authorities, Kitchanga, March 2015.
106 Interview member of Hunde civil society, Kitchanga, March 2015.
107 Interview with Rwandophone member of civil society, April 2015.
108 ACP, “Suspension du délégué.”
109 Several interviews and informal conversations Kitchanga, May 2016.