Economic opportunities and local governance on an African frontier

The case of the Semliki Basin (Congo-Uganda)

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2182178
AutoresTimothy Raeymaekers (0000-0001-7205-6917), Luca Jourdan (0000-0002-3605-0355, University of Bologna)
Ano2009
Volume3
Fascículo2
Páginas317-332
Data de publicação2009-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Eastern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1753-1055 • E-ISSN: 1753-1063
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17531050902972964
OpenAlexW1988628353
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas7
Referências citadas34

The Semliki Basin historically represents a dynamic borderland between the interlacustrian kingdoms of the African Rift Valley (the Toro and Buganda) and the mountain people of the Western Rwenzori slopes and the Mitumba Mountains, in contemporary DR Congo. Typically an agro-pastoralist area, it has hosted a lively trade between the Toro kingdom, around lake Katwe, and the neighbouring Bakonzo and Banande, living respectively in Kasese and Bundibugyo districts (Uganda) and Beni and Lubero territories (Congo). More recently, since the mid of the twentieth century, the Semliki valley has served as a base for different rebel movements and political guerrillas that fought the Ugandan and Congolese regimes. \nThe prime reflection on African frontier, that has inspired this article, was elaborated by Igor Kopytoff (1989). Building on his argument, this article looks at the various opportunities and obstacles generated in the Semliki area in terms of cross border ‘governable spaces’ (Watts, 2004) focusing on the emerging socialities that use and transform different conventions about identity, labour and rule. The main hypothesis driving this research is that the border is not just a space of “opportunity, of vibrant, desperate inventiveness and unrestrained profiteering” (Comaroff & Comaroff, 2006: 9), but also forms a constitutive element in producing that what is to be governed, i.e. a space where new forms of governance emerge, challenging the ruling conventions about what politics is and where it is to be found (Greenhouse, 2002

Centralisation · Corporate governance · Democracy · Economics · Frontier · Geography · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African Studies and Ethnography · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · French Urban and Social Studies · Law