Search results

In the unfolding drama between Uganda and Rwanda, this article looks at the role played by two factors: refugee movements and the border. The role played by each of them is relevant because the presence of Rwandans in Uganda (as refugees and migrants) has influenced the trajectory of both states, and still remains an unresolved issue. Refugee movements take centre-stage whenever a humanitarian crisis is unfolding, and are regarded with pity or with distrust, depending on the moment and the actors involved. More germane to this article, however, is the fact that they also expose political issues. The issue debated here is the political outcomes that long-standing refugee communities contribute to, and their impact on the border. This article therefore argues that the relationship between communities and the central state shapes the border as much as diplomatic agreements, as the relations between borderlands and both capitals across the border are as important as those between capitals (states) themselves.

La storia degli ultimi vent'anni dell'Africa centro-orientale, e del Congo in particolare, è stata caratterizzata da una lunga serie di conflitti. La regione del Kivu, la parte più orientale della Repubblica Democratica del Congo (RDC)2, è stata quella maggiormente coinvolta e da cui tutte le guerre hanno avuto origine (Prunier, 2009). Il presente lavoro intende, pertanto, contribuire allo studio della storia del RDC e mettere in luce l'importanza del Kivu nella sua evoluzione, per la storia dei conflitti che l'hanno visto coinvolto, sconvolgendone gli ultimi venti anni di vita. Il confine orientale del Congo è stato il fulcro della geopolitica regionale per le sue relazioni con i Paesi vicini (soprattutto Rwanda e Uganda) (Doevenspeck, 2011), ma anche per la sua storia interna. La vastità del tema (e del confine) ci ha indotto a concentrare l'analisi sulla porzione di confine fra l'odierna Repubblica Democratica del Congo e la Repubblica del Rwanda, di fondamentale importanza per il ruolo acquisito nel caratterizzare la regione del Kivu e, di conseguenza, della RDC. Il confine tra RDC e Rwanda, infatti, a lungo considerato marginale per il Congo come per la Regione dei Grandi Laghi3 in generale, è, invece, balzato agli onori della cronaca e della storiografia ponendosi al centro della Storia del Congo indipendente dai primi anni Novanta del Novecento.

Across Africa, One-Stop Border Posts are being rolled out as part of a continental/ regional integration agenda that seeks to facilitate the movement of people and goods. This article focuses on four OSBPs in East Africa and addresses the question, firstly, of how far they make a break with entrenched operational patterns within government bureaucracies, and secondly whether they represent a distinct type of border management regime? The article finds that while there has been progress on data sharing in Customs, the construction and management of OSBPs reflects the persistence of distinct institutional cultures within each country. Moreover, working practices involve practical workarounds which belie notions of a paperless border. Secondly, the article finds that OSBPs are unlike other border crossings and share some features with airports and seaports in that they have been designed to handle both cargo and people. But they differ in that they are not heavily securitized and represent co-produced spaces of interaction in which transporters and members of the surrounding community have helped to shape the organizational patterns. The outcomes fuse an official ideology of service, everyday bureaucratic practice and local understandings of ownership.