Abstract
Starting from the life and operations of the Itorero program and the everyday government of a local neighborhood in Kigali, Sundberg explores the practical workings of state power. A core theme concerns how political emphasis on liberal democratic principles of good governance parallel actual government design with both socialist and colonial features—as well as neoliberal ones. In their roles as Itorero trainees and local residents, Rwandans are subject to top-down mass mobilization practices seeking to influence people’s mindset through political indoctrination and ritual performance, echoing the kind of Marxist–Leninism that once shaped the RPF. At the same time, people are also subject to a bureaucratic and practically oriented form of state rule, oriented around the imihigo performance contract, which encourage individual responsibilization and a performance-based relationship with the state.
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Notes
- 1.
Igitaramo also has a broader meaning, referring, for example, to an event, gathering, or festivity within the family or community.
- 2.
From 1993 onwards, chaka-mchaka trainings were downsized and eventually came to a halt, much due to political pressure from the growing Western foreign aid community. However, after the NRM won the elections in 1996, President Museveni resumed the camps under the banner of promoting social stability. Trainings were especially frequent in Museveni’s home region and acquired an increasingly compulsory character. In 2007, Museveni declared a wish to make chaka-mchaka mandatory for all “able-bodied” Ugandans (Verma 2013, 79–81).
- 3.
- 4.
For example, the members of the district Itorero coordination committees include the mayor (elected), the district executive secretary (appointed), the Itorero coordinator (appointed), and formal district representatives of e.g. “good governance,” “education,” “health,” “sports and youth,” “gender,” the Rwanda Defense Force, the Rwandan National Police, and the National Electoral Commission (NURC 2009, 95–96).
- 5.
The report form also asked for information on the monetary value of the labor undertaken, the number of absentees, and the total value of fines issued.
- 6.
Where I lived (and it seemed to be the case for many neighborhoods in Kigali), this rule was not upheld with much stringency; a more common sanction was the denial of public services.
- 7.
Then as head of the local nyamba kumi (“ten households” in Swahili), which was the smallest administrative unit in Rwanda prior to 2006.
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Sundberg, M. (2016). Model Citizens in the Making: Government as Designed. In: Training for Model Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58422-9_5
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