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“Mundane Sights” of Power: The History of Social Monitoring and Its Subversion in Rwanda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2016

Andrea Purdeková
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Abstract:

By tracing the Rwandan state’s “mundane sights”—everyday forms of presence and monitoring—the article sheds light on the historical development and striking continuities in “interactive surveillance” across a century of turbulent political change. It considers three emblematic surveillance technologies—the institution of nyumbakumi, the identity card, and umuganda works (and public activities more broadly)—which, despite their implication in genocide, were retained, reworked, and even bolstered after the conflict ended. The article investigates what drives the observed continuity and “layering” of social monitoring over time, highlighting the key role played by ambiguity and ambivalence in this process. The research expands the concept of political surveillance, moving away from the unidirectional notion of “forms of watching,” and questions any easy distinctions between visibility and invisibility in the exercise of power or its subversion.

Résumé:

En retraçant les moments de “visibilité quotidienne” du pouvoir de l’état rwandais—formes courantes de présence et de surveillance—cet article met en évidence l’évolution historique et la continuités étonnantes de la “surveillance interactive” à travers un siècle de changement politique turbulent. Il considère trois méthodes de surveillance typique à savoir: la mise en place du nyumbakumi, de la carte d’identité et du umuganda (ainsi que des activités publiques plus généralement)—qui, en dépit de leur implication dans le génocide, ont été retenus, retravaillés et même renforcés après la fin du conflit. L’article examine ce qui motive la continuité observée et la “stratification” de contrôle social au fil du temps, mettant en évidence le rôle clé joué par l’ambiguïté et l’ambivalence dans ce processus. Cette recherche développe le concept de surveillance politique, s’éloignant de la notion unidirectionnelle des “formes d’observation” et questionne toutes distinctions faciles entre la visibilité et l’invisibilité dans l’exercice du pouvoir ou de sa subversion.

Keywords

Surveillancesocial monitoringAfrican stateRwanda
Type
ASR FORUM ON SURVEILLANCE IN AFRICA: POLITICS, HISTORIES, TECHNIQUES
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , September 2016 , pp. 59 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2016 

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