4 - Ukuri n’ubutungane

Summary

This chapter presents three exemplary stories of local bourgmestres on the border. One was a key member of a pro-Hutu opposition party, but attempted to cooperate with the Uprona government by displaying hostility towards Rwanda, while the second tactically changed parties at independence. The third was an Uprona hero from the start. In the turmoil of decolonisation, all three were trapped by political manoeuvring between their local constituents and the upper state: an alliance conducted through petitions and inquiries brought the bourgmestres’ local rivals into collaboration with their hostile superiors. By 1967, all three bourgmestres were eliminated in the same way, by different regimes. While ethnicity and Rwandan treason appeared frequently in the terms of denunciation, they were mostly subordinated in significance to local political circumstances, personal rivalries and the possibilities contained within the terms of official truth. The chapter uses these stories to show the potential for local action in invoking official truth to advance private interests, constituting a mode of citizenship that melded dependency and authority in the manipulation of state obsessions.