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Citizenship at a Crossroads: Transitions and Elites in Congo and Rwanda c.1950-1962

par Fierens, Marie ;Rovetta, Ornella
Référence Empire, Labour, Citizenship. Around Frederick Cooper (19 November 2015: Brussels)
Publication Non publié, 2015-11-19

Communication à un colloque

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Résumé :

This paper offers a reflection on the transitional process that took place in the 1950s in two former Belgian colonies in Central Africa, Congo and Rwanda. Both countries experienced deep social and political changes during this decade. A few years later, they gained independence; in 1960 for Congo and in 1962 for Rwanda. The paper discusses the shifts that took place during the 1950s and explores the specific features of political and “ethnic” African identities (Chrétien, 2003). It specifically looks at the connections between the colonial educational system, the elites it produced, and the formation of a new national political consciousness. Indeed, during the years preceding the independence, educated African actors asked for more rights and, in this way, contributed to change the political path of the future nations. In both countries, the so-called “ethnical” affiliations rapidly served as an argument in the campaign ahead of the first elections that were held at local and national level between the early 1950s and the 1960s. But beyond these similarities, the process and the reasons that led the two countries towards the independence were radically different. Through a case study approach, our presentation seeks to illustrate the fact that decolonization was neither a “story with one plot line” (Cooper, 2002: 32), nor a uniform shift. This perspective also allows us to question the persisting impact of the structural transformations that occurred at the edge of the colonial and postcolonial era and the way in which citizenship has been reshaped in this particular context. Our proposal builds on two PhD dissertations, in journalism and history, based on primary sources and interviews. While these dissertations deal with very different subjects – the shaping of journalism in Congo and the history of international justice in the aftermath of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda – both analyse the conditions of the emergence of (post)colonial elites and their influence on the development of a national consciousness.