There Aren't Any Stop Signs in Bukavu

It didn’t really hit me until I was visiting Rwanda. We were driving down the road and my eyes kept being drawn to the bright red signs that of course read “stop” across them. For some reason they seemed out of place. That was when I realized that there aren’t any stop signs in Bukavu, or traffic lights for that matter.

Although this isn’t terribly surprising given the lack of well paved roads in the country and the inability of the government to maintain effective control over its territory, this somehow seems like an excellent analogy for my time here so far.

My research is challenging. I am working with three local peacebuilding organizations to better understand the ways that they identify, address and represent the needs of their communities in peacebuilding processes while examining the dynamics within and between the organization. The way that I’m considering these factors is by observing the daily activities of each of the organizations and by conducting interviews with their leaders, staff, beneficiaries and international partners. It turns out, that this is quite a lot of work. I spend 1.5 days per week with each of the organizations, sometimes during these periods I’m also interviewing and or participating in meetings, field trips or special events. It becomes even more complicated when I’m invited to special events which don’t fall on the days that I’m supposed to be visiting a specific organization. On top of this I need to find time to write field notes and transcribe interviews. All of this to say that I could probably spend every waking hour working while I’m here but Bukavu is a bit exhausting at times, not to mention all of the work that I’ve done to try to achieve better work life balance. But where do I stop or draw the line? It seems risky to miss out on an opportunity to meet beneficiaries and participate in meetings because I may not have other opportunities to meet with those beneficiaries or observe that project, and if I don’t work on transcribing my interviews I’m going to have many painful months ahead listening to fuzzy French audio recordings.

However, this little analogy of mine extends beyond my own research, indeed, it would seem to apply to the broader context in the DRC. Take sexual and gender based violence as an example. I spoke with a government official here who told me that the number of reported rapes has dropped from 6,000 in 2014 to 3,000 in 2015 in the province of South Kivu, and therefore the rape epidemic was over. First of all this suggests that 8.5 rapes per day in one province of a much larger country is acceptable. Second, it totally ignores the fact that rape is highly stigmatized in the DRC and that many acts go unreported. Civil society organizations of course mount the same complaints against such explanations many of which run programs to help victims of sexual and gender based violence access the support they need. However, I’d also note that in a private conversation, a local employee casually mentioned to me that he feels that rape is simply being used as a tool for local NGOs to get more money and that the problem was not as significant as the broader violence occurring in the country. Although local and international organizations could be taking a somewhat more broadly defined approach that takes in the experiences of both men and women as survivors and perpetrators of sexual and gender based violence as well as other violence, the vulnerability of women is evident. In the first week of my visit here I of course heard from a group of survivors of sexual violence who had been assisted in finding treatment by one of the organizations I’m working with. It became even more clear when I left a hotel restaurant on a weekday in the middle of the day down a well travelled road to discover three men standing over a woman who lay on the ground screaming while one of them straddled her. Where does the victimization of women and men through this and other kinds of violence stop?

Of course it’s hard to stop violence, exploitation of natural resources, land conflict and identity conflict in a place where ineffective governance means that even the police and armed forces are unable or unwilling to enforce territorial armed groups no less protect the land and population from public or private violence or enforce basic traffic laws. Indeed, the lack of an effective government is frequently one of the causes of conflict identified by the organizations that I’m working with. However, how to effectively support statebuilding here remains a complex problem to be resolved.

On a lighter note, I stopped over for a little visit to Rwanda this weekend where I enjoyed lots of food and a long hike to this waterfall! Nothing like a bit of distance to give you some perspective.

Cheers!