Making Ubumwe ─ Power, State and Camps in Rwanda's Unity-Building Project

Since the end of the Rwandan genocide, the new political elite has been challenged with building a unified nation. Reaching beyond the better-studied topics of post-conflict justice and memory, the book investigates the project of civic education, the upsurge of state-led neo-traditional institutions and activities, and the use of camps and retreats shape the "ideal" Rwandan citizen. Rwanda's ingando camps offer unique insights into the uses of dislocation and liminality in an attempt to anchor identities and desired political roles, to practically orient and symbolically place individuals in the new Rwandan order, and, ultimately, to create additional platforms for the reproduction of political power itself.

Andrea Purdekova is Senior Lecturer in Conflict and Security at the University of Bath. Prior to this she held a Departmental Lectureship in African Politics at the African Studies Centre, School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, University of Oxford and a Junior Research Fellowship at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford.