Life After Violence: A People's Story of Burundi (African Arguments)

224 Pages·2009·0.99 MB·English

by  Peter Uvin

About the author
Peter Uvin is the Henry J. Leir Professor
of Inter national Humanitarian Studies and
Academic Dean at the Fletcher School, Tufts
University, USA. In recent years, his research
and practice have dealt with the intersection
between development aid, human rights, and
conflict, mostly in the African Great Lakes
region. His previous books include Develop-
ment and Human Rights and Aiding Violence:
The Development Enterprise in Rwanda, which
received the African Studies Association’s
Herskowits award for the most outstanding
book on Africa in 1998. He spends a large
amount of his time working for various agencies
in the Great Lakes region.
African Arguments
African Arguments is a series of short books about Africa today.
Aimed at the growing number of students and general readers who
want to know more about the continent, these books highlight
many of the longer-term strategic as well as immediate political
issues confronting the African continent. They get to the heart of
why Africa is the way it is and how it is changing. The books are
scholarly but engaged, substantive as well as topical.
Series editors
alex de waal, Social Science Research Council
richard dowden, Executive Director, Royal African Society
Editorial board
emmanuel akyeampong, Harvard University
tim allen, London School of Economics and Political Science
akwe amosu, Open Society Institute
breyten breytenbach, Gorée Institute
craig calhoun, Social Science Research Council
peter da costa, journalist and development specialist
william gumede, journalist and author
alcinda honwana, Open University
abdul mohammed, InterAfrica Group
robert molteno, editor and publisher
Titles already published
Tim Allen, Trial Justice: The International Criminal Court and the
Lord’s Resistance Army
Alex de Waal, AIDS and Power: Why There is No Political Crisis – Yet
Raymond W. Copson, The United States in Africa: Bush Policy and
Beyond
Chris Alden, China in Africa
Tom Porteous, Britain in Africa
Julie Flint and Alex de Waal, Darfur: A New History of a Long War,
revised and updated edition
Jonathan Glennie, The Trouble with Aid: Why Less Could Mean More
for Africa
Peter Uvin, Life after Violence: A People’s Story of Burundi
Forthcoming
William Gumede, The Democracy Gap: Africa’s Wasted Years
Camilla Toulmin, Climate Change in Africa
Published by Zed Books and the IAI with the support of
the following organizations:
InterAfrica Group The InterAfrica Group is the regional centre for
dialogue on issues of development, democracy, conflict resolution and
humanitarianism in the Horn of Africa. It was founded in 1988 and
is based in Addis Ababa, with programmes supporting democracy in
Ethiopia and partnership with the African Union and IGAD. <www.sas.
upenn.edu/African_Studies/ Hornet/menu_Intr_Afr.html>
International African Institute The International African Institute’s
principal aim is to promote scholarly understanding of Africa, notably
its changing societies, cultures and languages. Founded in 1926 and
based in London, it supports a range of seminars and publications
including the journal Africa. <www.internationalafricaninstitute.org>
Justice Africa Justice Africa initiates and supports African civil
society activities in support of peace, justice and demo cracy in Africa.
Founded in 1999, it has a range of activities relating to peace in the
Horn of Africa, HIV/AIDS and democracy, and the African Union.
<www. justiceafrica.org>
Royal African Society Now more than a hundred years old, the Royal
African Society today is Britain’s leading organization prom oting
Africa’s cause. Through its journal, African Affairs, and by organi zing
meetings, discussions and other activities, the society strengthens links
between Africa and Britain and encourages understanding of Africa and
its relations with the rest of the world. <www.royalafricansociety.org>
Social Science Research Council The Social Science Research
Council brings much-needed expert knowledge to public issues.
Founded in 1923 and based in New York, it brings together researchers,
prac titioners and policymakers in every continent. <www.ssrc.org>

peter uvin
Life after violence
A people’s story of Burundi
Zed Books
london | new york
in association with
International African Institute
Royal African Society
Social Science Research Council
Life after violence: A people’s story of Burundi was first published in
association with the International African Institute, the Royal African
Society and the Social Science Research Council in 2009 by Zed Books
Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London n1 9jf, uk and Room 400, 175 Fifth
Avenue, New York, ny 10010, usa
www.zedbooks.co.uk
www.internationalafricaninstitute.org
www.royalafricansociety.org
www.ssrc.org
Copyright © Peter Uvin, 2009
The right of Peter Uvin to be identified as the author of this work has
been asserted by him in accord ance with the Copy right, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988.
Cover designed by Rogue Four Design
Set in OurType Arnhem and Futura Bold by Ewan Smith, London
index: <[email protected]>
Printed and bound in Malta by Gutenberg Press Ltd
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of St Martin’s Press, llc, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data available
isbn 978 1 84813 179 8 hb
isbn 978 1 84813 180 4 pb
isbn 978 1 84813 181 1 eb
Contents
List of tables | viii Foreword | ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
ONE | Background
1 A brief political history of Burundi . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 Methodology and location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
TWO | The view from below
3 Peace and war as read in Burundi . . . . . . . . . . 43
4 ‘If I were in charge here’: Burundians on respect,
corruption, and the state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5 Hard work and prostitution: the capitalist ethos
in crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6 ‘I want to marry a dynamic girl’: changing gender
expectations in Burundi (with Kim Howe) . . . . . .123
7 Justice, silence, and social capital (with Ann Nee) . .145
8 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171
Notes | 190 Bibliography | 195
Index | 205
Tables
1.1 Election results, 2005 | 21
2.1 Rural sample by category | 31
2.2 Urban sample by category | 32
2.3 Sample by age | 33
3.1 Definitions of peace | 45
4.1 Respect and the rule of law | 59
5.1 General trends | 83
5.2 Education per category, in years, by region | 87
5.3 Discussions, and explanations, of men’s marginal
behavior | 101
5.4 Discussions, and explanations, of women’s
marginal behavior | 101
5.5 Answers to the ‘who helps you’ question, by area | 110
6.1 Traditional expectations of young men and young
women | 134
6.2 Expectations of young men and young women:
frequency of responses based on 260 participants | 137
7.1 Attitudes toward entente | 163
viii
Foreword
Burundi was the first country in Africa I set foot in. I still recall my
first impressions, in 1985 – the heat and the humidity; the serious-
ness of the faces and the deep sense of humor of Burundians; the
perfect combination of brochettes, fries, and Primus beer; my first
taste of ndagala (small, salted fried fish) at the Cercle Nautique;
the beauty of the men and women, and the ugly scars poverty in-
flicted on them. Over the years, I went there tens of times, to work
in development projects, to do research, to advise agencies, to
evaluate projects. I saw friends’ children grow up, and heard about
other friends who died, fled, married. The civil war intervened,
and this poor country became poorer still, and sadder, and more
afraid. The smiles disappeared, the scars were more common.
At about the same time, I married, moved continents, and
stopped working for the development business. The genocide
in Rwanda happened, less than a year after the sad reversal of
democracy in Burundi and the outbreak of civil war there, and I
was sick of the inefficiency, the blindness, the self-centeredness of
the development business of which I had been a junior member
until then.
I ended up writing a book, Aiding Violence, which was based on
a detailed study of Rwanda but was equally inspired by my experi-
ences in Burundi. This book came at a propitious time, when
people everywhere were beginning to rethink their ‘normal profes-
sionalism’ of development and humanitarianism. Many changes
have occurred since: rights-based approaches, conflict-sensitive
development, and so on. I became a player in these changes,
consulting about them on the ground, first in Rwanda and then
in Burundi, and writing about them in policy and scholarly docu-
ments. These were heady times, with fascinating mandates, long
discussions, and a feeling that we were building something new.
ix