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ABSTRACT
Since the 1994 genocide, the government’s vigorous pursuit of security, development and poverty alleviation has been translated into its strategy for urban development. With urban population growth rates rocketing in the period following the genocide with the return of both new and old caseload refugees, urban security became a critical focal point for the new government, which takes an active role in the planning and managing its urban trajectory to bring about secure and orderly development. Whereas the growth of Kigali has often been studied as a critical site in the context of post-conflict reconstruction and securitization, the dynamics at play in small towns and urbanizing centers have been less in the picture. This paper focuses on the role of small towns and emerging urban centers in the debate on the politics of urbanization in post-conflict settings. It investigates the significance of rapidly growing small towns for development in the post-conflict context of Rwandan society by analysing two cases of emerging urban centers. Presenting small towns and rural growth centers as strategic spaces of control, the paper argues that the process of rural urbanization in Rwanda can be understood as a potentially contested arena of change.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Here, state building is defined as the “inter-related processes of building political legitimacy, guarantee economic growth and control” Moxham, “State-Making and the Post-Conflict City,” 18; see also the case of South Badiey & Doll in this special issue, see also the case of Kitchanga in Mathys and Büscher in this special issue.
2 Yiftachel, “Planning and Social Control”; Goodfellow and Smith, “Post-Conflict Kigali”; Esser, “Who Governs Kabul”.
3 Brenner, “Production of New State Spaces”.
4 Goodfellow, “Planning and Development Regulation”.
5 Büscher in this special Issue.
6 Devas, Urban Governance; Lindell, “Sites of Urban Governance”.
7 Goodfellow and Smith, “Post-Conflict Kigali”.
8 Satterhwaite and Tacoli, “Urban Part of Rural Development”; Satterhwaite, “Outside the Large Cities”.
9 Beall et al., Cities, Conflict and State Fragility; Goodfellow and Smith, “Post-Conflict Kigali”; Beall and Goodfellow, “Conflict and Post-War Transition”.
10 Möhlman and Gibert, “Leverage Economic Growth,” 6.
11 Büscher, “Conflict, State Failure and Urban Transformation Goma,” 14.
12 Piermay, “Armatures Urbaines”; Satterthwaithe and Tacoli, “Urban Part of Rural Development”.
13 Beall and Fox, Mitigating conflict.
14 Beall and Goodfellow, “Conflict and Post-War Transition”.
15 Beall et al., Cities, Conflict and State Fragility.
16 Brenner, “Production of New State Spaces”; Beall and Fox, Mitigating Conflict.
17 Esser, “Who Governs Kabul”.
18 Watson, “The Planned City”.
19 Beall and Fox, Mitigating conflict; Watson, “The Planned City”; UN-Habitat 2015, “Spatial Planning and Design”.
20 See note 18.
21 Neuman, “Does Planning Need the Plan”.
22 Yiftachel, “Planning and Social Control”; Watson, “The Planned City”.
23 Cottyn in this special issue, Badiey & Doll in this special issue.
24 Purdeková, “Surveillance and State Reach Rwanda”; Strauss and Waldorf, “Introduction”.
25 Lourenço-Lindell, “The Multiple Sights of Urban Governance” Simone, “Principles and Realities”.
26 Goodfellow, “Planning and Development Regulation,” 16.
27 Purdeková, “Surveillance and State Reach Rwanda,” 475.
28 Ibid.,
29 See note 4.
30 World Bank, “Urban Population Growth”.
31 GoR, Vision 2020; GoR, Strategic Plan.
32 Goodfellow, “Rwanda's Political Settlement”.
33 GoR, National Urban Housing; GoR, Urbanization Policy; Newbury, “High Modernism Rwanda”.
34 Berlanda (2012) describes how traditionally the term Umujyi stood for more that rather a specific location, but was also used to refer to the different modes of life that represented the city and the countryside as two opposites. Today the word is used to refer to the city centre, or describe an area where economic activities are concentrated. Berlanda, “Umujyi”; Ansoms, “Rwanda's Post-Genocide Economic Reconstruction”; GoR, National Urban Housing Policy; Newbury, “High Modernism Rwanda”; Möhlman and Gibert, “Leverage Economic Growth”.
35 Webster, “Peri-Urbanization”.
36 Bauer and Roux, Rurbanisation ou la ville eparpillé; Delgado-Campos and Naxhelli, “Rurbanization Mexico”.
37 Seto, Parnell and Elmqvist. “Outlook on Urbanization”.
38 Njoh, “Urban Planning as Tool”.
39 District of Musanze, Plan d’amenagement Byangabo.
40 GISTECH, Local Urban Development Plan Bugesera. The sector is a politico-administrative entity in Rwanda, the country is divided into Provinces, Districts, Sectors and Cells.
41 See Büscher in this special issue.
42 Yiftachel, “Planning and Social Control”.
43 Durand-Lasserve, “Market-Driven Eviction”.
44 Huggins and Musahara, “Land Reform, Land Scarcity,” 273.
45 An emphyteutic lease is a type of real estate contract specifying that the lessee must improve the property with construction. These sorts of leases are usually associated with government properties.
46 GoR, Governing Land in Rwanda.
47 GoR, Expropriation in the Public Interest.
48 Ikirezi, Masengo and Knox, Expropriation Law in Rwanda.
49 See note 40.
50 Coordinator overviewing the administrative level of the cell, Interview by author, March 2015.
51 Umuganda in traditional Rwandan culture was the term to call upon family or friends to help out with a difficult task. Today it is mandatory community service which takes place every last Saturday of the month..
52 Mann and Berry, “Understanding Political Motivations,”10.
53 GoR, Building Regulations.
54 24 million Rwandan francs equals around 28,500 euros under a current exchange rate of 1/840.
55 Focus group discussion in Gahanga, May, 2014.
56 Interview with respondent, February, 2015. To protect their anonymity, in this text pseudonyms or codenames are used for all respondents.
57 Interview in Byangabo, April 2014.
58 Purdeková, “Surveillance and State Reach Rwanda”; Ingelaere, “Accountability and Representation Rwanda”; Goodfellow and Smith, “Post-Conflict Kigali”; Mann and Berry, “Understanding Political Motivations”.
59 Purdeková, “Surveillance and State Reach Rwanda”.
60 Interview with respondent, April 2014.
61 Focus group discussion in Gahanga, May 2014.
62 Interview with respondent, March, 2015.
63 Durand-Lasserve, “Market-driven Eviction”.
64 Local land officer, interview by author, April 2015.
65 Respondent, interview by author, April 2014.
66 Goodfellow, “Rwanda's Political Settlement,” 314.
67 Sikor and Lund, “Access and Property,” 1.
68 See also Mathys and Büscher in this special issue.
69 See note 35.
70 See also Mathys and Büscher in this special issue.
71 Rwanda Revenue Authority, Taxation.
72 Nyamata Tax Officer, interview by author, March 2015.
73 The Agaciro Development Fund (AgDF) is set up by the GoR as a solidarity fund to which Rwandan citizens are urged to make donations, aimed at raising domestic resources to help national economic development (www.agaciro.org).
74 Interviews with different respondents in Byangabo, March – June 2014; Focus Group Discussion Gahanga, May, 2014.
75 A patente is a trading licence that needs to be paid annually by every company. A patente is bought at the sector level, the cost of which depends on the type of business and the annual turnover.
76 Interview with respondent, April 2015.
77 Mann and Berry, “Understanding Political Motivations”.
78 Goodfellow, “Planning and Development Regulation”.
79 Ros-Tonen, Pouw and Bavinck, “Governing Beyond Cities”.
80 Ansoms, “Re-Engineering Rural Society”, 308.
81 Newbury, “High Modernism Rwanda”; Strauss and Waldorf, “Introduction”; Möhlman and Gibert, “Leverage Economic Growth”.
82 Mann and Berry, “Understanding Political Motivations”, Yiftachel, “Social Control Israel”.
83 Yiftachel, “Planning and Social Control”; Njoh, “Urban Planning as Tool”.