Universität zu Köln

Treidl, Johanna (2024). Marshland Development in Rwanda - Agrarian Change, Gender Disparities and State Power. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

Rwanda is a remarkable country in many respects. Over the past decades, the country’s reputation has changed: once best known for the Rwandan genocide, it is now a seemingly best-practice example of successful reconciliation and development politics. Despite a growing body of critical literature and increasing concerns regarding the government’s authoritarian tendencies, Rwanda is largely considered a peaceful, well-organised, and safe place. Among other, it is internationally praised for its ambitious reforms and laws, especially its progressive gender politics. While in the country’s public discourse, all these achievements wonderfully intersect to portray a great story of success, the lived realities of rural smallholders presented in this dissertation convey a more nuanced image. The transformation into a “New Rwanda” has produced several frictions, which are analysed by looking at Rwanda’s marshland politics. According to the government, the marshlands hold great potential for Rwanda’s post-genocide development. Over the past years, the marshlands have thus gradually been put under the state control, regulated and shaped by different policy measures and laws. This dissertation explores the question of how rural Rwandans and female smallholders in particular deal with this new situation in the marshlands. It combines historical analysis with oral history and empirical findings based on twelve months of in-depth fieldwork in rural Rwanda between 2014 and 2016. On a theoretical level, it connects contemporary debates from critical agrarian studies, feminist theory and the anthropology of law and governance. The offered case studies illustrate that the lived realities of rural smallholders do not smoothly align with the optimistic trends presented in most government and donor statistics. They rather point to the complex dynamics that emerge when high-modernist and post-colonial statebuilding is combined with a global, neoliberal agenda.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Treidl, Johanna UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-726873
Date:	2024
Place of Publication:	Köln
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Fächergruppe 4: Außereuropäische Sprachen, Kulturen und Gesellschaften > Institut für Ethnologie
Subjects:	Social sciences Political science Customs, etiquette, folklore Agriculture Civic and landscape art Geography and history
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language gender English wetlands English Rwanda English agrarian change English legal anthropology English state English marshlands English Ruanda German Sumpf German Landwirtschaft German
Date of oral exam:	23 April 2021
Referee:	Name Academic Title Greiner, Clemens Privatdozent Dr.
Funders:	BMBF
Projects:	Wetlans in East Africa
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/72687