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Questioning territories and identities in the precolonial (nineteenth-century) Lake Kivu region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2021

Gillian Mathys
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Abstract

Throughout Africa, contemporary boundaries are deemed ‘artificial’ because they were external impositions breaking apart supposedly homogeneous ethnic units. This article argues that the problem with the colonial borders was not only that they arbitrarily dissected African societies with European interests in mind, but also that they profoundly changed the way in which territoriality and authority functioned in this region, and therefore they affected identity. The presumption that territories could be constructed in which ‘culture’ and ‘political power’ neatly coincided was influenced by European ideas about space and identity, and privileged the perceptions and territorial claims of those ruling the most powerful centres in the nineteenth century. Thus, this article questions assumptions that continue to influence contemporary views of the Lake Kivu region. It shows that local understandings of the relationship between space and identity differed fundamentally from state-centred perspectives, whether in precolonial centralized states or colonial states.

Résumé

Résumé

Partout en Afrique, les frontières contemporaines sont jugées « artificielles » car imposées de l'extérieur pour séparer des unités ethniques prétendument homogènes. Cet article soutient que le problème avec les frontières coloniales n’était pas seulement qu'elles disséquaient arbitrairement les sociétés africaines dans une optique d'intérêts européens, mais également qu'elles modifiaient profondément le mode de fonctionnement de la territorialité et de l'autorité dans la région, et affectaient par conséquent l'identité. La présomption que l'on pourrait construire des territoires dans lesquels « culture » et « pouvoir politique » coïncideraient facilement était influencée par des idées européennes de l'espace et de l'identité, et privilégiait les perceptions et les revendications territoriales de ceux qui régnaient sur les grands centres puissants au dix-neuvième siècle. Ainsi, cet article remet en cause les hypothèses qui continuent d'influencer les vues contemporaines de la région du lac Kivu. Il montre que les conceptions locales de la relation entre espace et identité étaient fondamentalement différentes des perspectives centrées sur l’État, que ce soit dans les États précoloniaux ou dans les États coloniaux.

Type
Territories and identities in Lake Kivu
Information
Africa , Volume 91 , Issue 3 , May 2021 , pp. 493 - 515
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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