War, Displacement and Rural–Urban Transformation: Kivu’s Boomtowns, Eastern D.R. Congo

Büscher, Karen; Mathys, Gillian

doi:10.1057/s41287-018-0181-0

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…One of the official parameters by which towns like Rubaya, Minembwe and Fungurume are selected to become a commune rurale is their rapid demographic and geographic expansion. One characteristic of such expansion is a demographic shift in terms of ethnic composition (Büscher & Mathys, 2019) within a territorial entity. In many of these boomtowns, 'autochthonous' ethnic communities, represented by customary authorities, have become minorities in their territories given the strong influx of newcomers.…”

Section: 'Making' Public Authority: Mobilising Resources and Repertoiresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contested ‘commune rurales’: Decentralisation and the (violent) struggle for public authority in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Büscher,

Perazzone,

Cuvelier

et al. 2024

Global Policy

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This article explores how decentralisation policy and specifically the establishment of communes rurales in DR Congo turned into a profoundly destabilising juncture, shaking existing governance arrangements. In particular, we examine how this has led to a reshuffle of power and a renegotiation of public authoritiy. By analysing the impact of decentralisation on the construction of and competition over public authority in three Congolese towns – Rubaya, Minembwe and Fungurume – we demonstrate how decentralisation is deeply politicised, with conflicting governance actors mobilising their power in an attempt to secure their claim to public authority. We argue that the establishment of communes rurales in eastern and southeastern DRC should be therefore understood as a strongly destabilising moment, changing the access of governance actors to resources and repertoires from which they build and legitimise their public authority. Depending on the specific context of the local political arena and its entanglements with larger struggles for power and control, this destabilising moment bears the potential for (violent) conflict. As such, we conclude that decentralisation has failed to live up to its promises of stability and peace while generating new sets of political fault lines and a re‐activation of (violent) conflict.

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Section: 'Making' Public Authority: Mobilising Resources and Repertoiresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contested ‘commune rurales’: Decentralisation and the (violent) struggle for public authority in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Büscher,

Perazzone,

Cuvelier

et al. 2024

Global Policy

Self Cite

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“…The real-time tracking of the shallow dyke at Nyiragongo demonstrates the feasibility of following magma movements using adequate monitoring techniques even in an environment as challenging as the Kivu region, which is recurrently affected by armed conflicts and related rural-urban population migrations 43,44 . However, the 2021 crisis highlighted the urgent need to prepare for additional hazards.…”

Section: Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

Precursor-free eruption triggered by edifice rupture at Nyiragongo volcano

Smittarello

Smets

Barrière

et al. 2022

Nature

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Classical mechanisms of volcanic eruptions mostly involve pressure buildup and magma ascent towards the surface1. Such processes produce geophysical and geochemical signals that may be detected and interpreted as eruption precursors1–3. On 22 May 2021, Mount Nyiragongo (Democratic Republic of the Congo), an open-vent volcano with a persistent lava lake perched within its summit crater, shook up this interpretation by producing an approximately six-hour-long flank eruption without apparent precursors, followed—rather than preceded—by lateral magma motion into the crust. Here we show that this reversed sequence was most likely initiated by a rupture of the edifice, producing deadly lava flows and triggering a voluminous 25-km-long dyke intrusion. The dyke propagated southwards at very shallow depth (less than 500 m) underneath the cities of Goma (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Gisenyi (Rwanda), as well as Lake Kivu. This volcanic crisis raises new questions about the mechanisms controlling such eruptions and the possibility of facing substantially more hazardous events, such as effusions within densely urbanized areas, phreato-magmatism or a limnic eruption from the gas-rich Lake Kivu. It also more generally highlights the challenges faced with open-vent volcanoes for monitoring, early detection and risk management when a significant volume of magma is stored close to the surface.

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“…In some areas, the availability of land, farming and employment provide commercial and/or livelihood expectations and opportunities for both individuals and households [51]. However, changes in the farming economy, e.g., in relation to plantation crops, smallholder schemes, new commercial crops [28,44], mining [19], investments in land [52][53][54], resettlement as part of land reforms [24], immigration and settlement into farming in response to policies promoting sedentary farming [55], and settlement in secure places during periods of political instability [56,57] are different examples of how migration-to-settlement pathways develop and contribute to significant settlement in rural regions. Often, these processes of moving and settling are registered as rural-to-rural migration, not least because the bureaucratic definitions of places overlook the 'more-than-rural' in larger villages.…”

Section: Small-town Urbanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between Village and Town: Small-Town Urbanism in Sub-Saharan Africa

2021

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In the next twenty years, urban populations in Africa are expected to double, while urban land cover could triple. An often-overlooked dimension of this urban transformation is the growth of small towns and medium-sized cities. In this paper, we explore the ways in which small towns are straddling rural and urban life, and consider how insights into this in-betweenness can contribute to our understanding of Africa’s urban transformation. In particular, we examine the ways in which urbanism is produced and expressed in places where urban living is emerging but the administrative label for such locations is still ‘village’. For this purpose, we draw on case-study material from two small towns in Tanzania, comprising both qualitative and quantitative data, including analyses of photographs and maps collected in 2010–2018. First, we explore the dwindling role of agriculture and the importance of farming, businesses and services for the diversification of livelihoods. However, income diversification varies substantially among population groups, depending on economic and migrant status, gender, and age. Second, we show the ways in which institutions, buildings, and transport infrastructure display the material dimensions of urbanism, and how urbanism is planned and aspired to. Third, we describe how well-established middle-aged households, independent women (some of whom are mothers), and young people, mostly living in single-person households, explain their visions and values of the ways in which urbanism is expressed in small towns. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of this urban life-in-becoming of small towns for urban planning, emphasizing the importance of the development of inclusive local governance. Ultimately, we argue that our study establishes an important starting point for further explorations of the role of the simultaneous production and expression of urbanism in small town urbanization.

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War, Displacement and Rural–Urban Transformation: Kivu’s Boomtowns, Eastern D.R. Congo

Cited by 11 publications

References 35 publications

Contested ‘commune rurales’: Decentralisation and the (violent) struggle for public authority in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Contested ‘commune rurales’: Decentralisation and the (violent) struggle for public authority in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Precursor-free eruption triggered by edifice rupture at Nyiragongo volcano

Between Village and Town: Small-Town Urbanism in Sub-Saharan Africa

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