Chapter 6 shifts its attention to the southern extremities of the lake and illustrates historical connections tying the lake together from another thematical angle: commercial flows. It examines the broader regional trade networks around Lake Kivu, emphasizing the interconnectedness of Goma and Bukavu in Congo with Gisenyi and Cyangugu in Rwanda. It introduces the concept of a “transboundary space,” shaped not only by colonial border impositions but also by preexisting social, political, and ecological asymmetries. The asymmetries created an “arbitrage economy,” enabling Africans, particularly those close to the border, to exploit differences across regions.

The chapter further considers cattle trade between the center of Rwanda and the westerns shores of Lake Kivu. This cattle trade connected different cultural and ecological zones, fostering commercial interactions long before colonial intervention. The chapter argues that the border accentuated existing disparities, emphasizing differences in the distribution and societal meanings of cattle. Despite colonial attempts to regulate the cattle trade, African traders managed to capitalize on their “liminality” – the ability to inhabit different spheres simultaneously. The chapter further underscores the significance of this “liminality” as it facilitated the negotiation of oppressive colonial structures. At times this “liminality” was embedded in formalized bonds of friendship, sometimes formalized through bloodpacts. Highlighting the everyday impact of borders demonstrates how they could be used to circumvent colonial policies, even though they could never undo the consequences of colonialism.

This book started with two diametrically opposed stories about the relationship between Rwanda and Congo and the population astride them, and two incompatible conceptions of borders. The Vangu report, written in the midst of political turmoil in then-Zaïre, referenced hard and absolute borders between the countries. It portrayed the massive influx of Rwandan refugees after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi as an “invasion,” as “conquest.” Kilalo’s words, on the other hand, spoke of cross-border connections and friendship, revealing a much more flexible and permeable perception of borders. These two ostensibly contradictory stories are vital to understanding social and political processes in the Lake Kivu region, now and in the past.

This chapter “deprovincializes” the histories of Lake Kivu’s societies in the “frontier”, (present-day Rwanda and Congo), during the second half of the nineteenth century. It challenges the dominant narrative of the “greater Rwanda” thesis, which argues that colonial border-making “amputated” Rwanda from a significant portion of its territory. The chapter shifts the attention to the societies Rwanda claimed were part of Rwanda since centuries. The chapter shows that while the Nyiginya kingdom – Rwanda’s antecedent – indeed increasingly sought to exert control over and integrate some of these societies, especially under mwami [s. King] Rwabugiri, their control was incomplete, at times impermanent, and often contested. Such complexities are overlooked when considered from a state-centric, often ideological perspective premised on the stability of a centralized authority. The histories and memories of local communities within the region defy these narratives and provide critical alternatives to what has been largely accepted as mere prologue. These questions are not merely a matter of historical debate, they remain crucial for understanding contemporary debates. While the geographical complexity of this chapter makes it a challenging read, it is foundational for understanding the historical continuities and contradictions throughout the book.

This chapter examines the crystallization of sociopolitical processes in Rwanda and Kivu during the 1950s, which would undergird political processes into the 1990s and later. Against the backdrop of post-Second World War developments, it is the second chapter of the book to focus on the scheme for “transplanting” Rwandan labor, with the foundation of the Mission d’Immigration des Banyarwanda (MIB) in 1948. Rather than focusing on migrants motivations, it shifts attention to the repercussions of this scheme for the local Hunde community in what was then the Belgian Congo.

After the Second World War, the colonial administration grew increasingly uneasy about the implications of the mass immigration to Kivu. Three key factors drove their concern: intensified land pressure due to colonial policies, elite conflicts exacerbated by these policies, and concerns about the legal status of Rwandan immigrants. These three key factors still define much of the contemporary conflicts in North Kivu and are intimately tied to vernacular “autochthony” discourses.

While the chapter challenges the notions of exclusively antagonistic interactions between “migrants” and “host communities”, it emphasizes that colonial interventions often came with devastating consequences, as Hunde saw themselves being turned into minorities on their own land. Belgian interventions contributed to the politicization of identity and belonging in the struggle for land access and authority. However, the precursors of current-day conflicts were not only the result of this immigration but also of a colonial system of land management that was never fundamentally challenged in the postcolonial period.

To demonstrate the complexities and contradictions laid out in the previous chapter, Chapter 5 zooms in on a colonial scheme to “transplant” – colonial lingo – Rwandans to Masisi (nowadays in North Kivu) to provide labor for the colonial plantations there. Commonly known as “le MIB” (Mission d’Immigration des Banyarwanda), a name that it only started to carry in the second phase, this chapter focuses on the first phase of this scheme between 1937 and 1948. This scheme is often seen as one of the origins of North Kivu’s endemic conflicts, but many details remain shrouded in vagueness. In the first chapter of this book focusing on this scheme, the motivations and experiences of Rwandan immigrants within the broader context of historical mobility and court politics are analyzed. In doing so the chapter argues that many migrants, especially those from the northern extremities of Lake Kivu, were “willing migrants,” exploiting colonial policies for personal interests. It demonstrates that at least for a considerable part of these migrants, labor mobility was not solely a result of colonial initiatives or coercion but also rooted in nineteenth-century patterns of mobility, and often based on previous connections. In doing so, it adds nuance to simplistic narratives of longstanding antagonisms between “autochthons” and newcomers.