African Affairs Advance Access originally published online on February 3, 2009
African Affairs 2009 108(431):289-309; doi:10.1093/afraf/adp001
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Re-Engineering Rural Society: The Visions and Ambitions of the Rwandan Elite
An Ansoms (an.ansoms{at}ua.ac.be) is an assistant at the Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Antwerp. She recently completed a PhD thesis in economics, Faces of Rural Poverty in Contemporary Rwanda. The author thanks Catharine Newbury, Filip Reyntjens, Bert Ingelaere, Alison Des Forges, Rita Abrahamsen and two anonymous referees for valuable comments and suggestions on the ideas and contents of this article.
This article analyses the Rwandan elite's visions and ambitions for a wide-ranging re-engineering of rural society. The post-1994 political elite has few links to rural society and the peasant way of life, and sees little room for small-scale peasant agriculture in Rwanda's economic future. The article shows how current Rwandan policy makers aim to realize three social engineering ambitions: first, to transform the agricultural sector into a professionalized motor for economic growth, centred on competitive and commercial farm units; second, to artificially upgrade rural life by inserting ‘modern’ techniques and strategies into local realities, while hiding true poverty and inequality; and, finally, to transform Rwanda into a target-driven society from the highest to the lowest level. The article points to the (potential) dangers, flaws, and shortcomings of this rural re-engineering mission, and illustrates how the state as the engineer ‘hovers’ above the local without consulting those affected. It concludes that contemporary polices are unlikely to be conducive to poverty reduction.