Thèse géogr. Bordeaux III : 1983. / "Cet ouvrage reprend le texte d'une thèse de Doctorat d'Etat en géographie soutenue à l'Université de Bordeaux III le 2 septembre 1983.

This is the history of a turbulent borderland in a time of transition. Colonialism redefined the meaning of borders in Burundi, and in the traumatic shift from colonial rule to Independence it became dangerous to live on the frontier. Responding to Newbury’s plea to ‘bring the peasant back in’ to the written history of the Great Lakes region, the thesis takes a micro-history approach, viewing the tumultuous events of the 1960s and 1970s from the perspective of the hills and the homestead. The border with Rwanda, as experienced in the two communes of Kabarore and Busiga, is tested as the point of encounter between society and state in this crucial time. It reveals the function and dysfunction of political linkage, and the tensions of being a citizen and a subject in the margins of a political community ruled by suspicion and paranoia. The themes - dissent, collaboration, elimination, repression - link this local history to the flow of national politics and the making of a new African state. Taking as its scope the pivotal period from decolonisation to the military state’s ‘selective genocide’, enacted against its Hutu population, the thesis identifies ‘vigilance’ as the most productive concept by which to study concepts of governance, political community and political linkage in the Great Lakes at the vital point of transformation. A communicative act that blends the stance of the citizen and the subject to shape a means of cautious cooperation and mutual recognition between people and state, vigilance also proved the destructive weapon that violently distilled the population into a subjugated peasantry beneath a bloodied state. The interaction on the border reveals these vital issues in acute contrast, opening the door to their examination elsewhere. This thesis studies the border; its conclusions may be chased far beyond it.

La pacification de l’Afrique des Grands Lacs mise à feu et à sang au cours de ces deux dernières décennies est le but ultime de cette thèse. Face au revers qu’ont connu plusieurs initiatives visant à mettre fin aux violences dans cette région, notre préoccupation a été de chercher dans le kantisme une nouvelle raison d’espérer. Ainsi, ce travail tente de montrer comment l’héritage philosophique de Kant peut contribuer au rétablissement de la paix et au développement au Rwanda, au Burundi et en République Démocratique du Congo, trois pays de cette région, meurtris par des guerres. Notre démarche a été d’examiner la pensée morale et politique de Kant dans laquelle nous avons trouvé les fondements de son modèle, élaboré dans un contexte de guerres en Europe. La discussion sur sa réception et la montée du nationalisme stigmatisant le cosmopolitisme kantien, nous a conduit à établir un lien entre la promotion, par le régime nazi, de la race aryenne supposée être supérieure à d’autres et considérée comme modèle d’organisation sociale, et la propagation des préjugés similaires par l’administration coloniale en Afrique des Grands Lacs postulant la suprématie des Tutsi « faits pour régner » sur les Hutu et les Twa, simples nègres voués à la servitude. Instrumentalisé par les politiques soucieux de conquérir le pouvoir, ce « jugement raciste », sans fondement, sera une des causes de l’hécatombe génocidaire dans laquelle seront engouffrés le Rwanda et le Burundi avant d’étendre ses effets sur le Congo où les conflits prendront une dimension économique et impliqueront plusieurs pays africains et d’autres acteurs non africains. Cependant, capitalisant la réémergence du cosmopolitisme reprise par les fondateurs de la SDN et ceux de l’ONU, nous avons souligné la pertinence de la coopération et l’articulation des différences comme préalable à une paix durable. Avec Ricœur et Arendt, deux post-kantiens, nous avons lancé les jalons de réconciliation dans les trois pays, en nous référant à l’expérience franco-allemande et sud-africaine. Nous avons souligné l’importance de la réforme des institutions onusiennes et celles des États de la région pour qu’à travers le républicanisme naisse l’état de droit. L’hospitalité exprimée par le cosmopolitisme et le commerce international dans la pensée kantienne, se traduirait par la coopération interétatique et la fusion des organisations régionales en une union économique et monétaire qui poserait les bases d’une fédération d’États africains et garantirait une paix durable sur le continent et dans la région des Grands Lacs. / The pacification of the African Great Lakes plagued by violence during these last two decades is the ultimate goal of this thesis. After the failure of several initiatives to end violence in the region, our concern was to look in the Kantism a new reason to hope. Thus, this work attempts to show how the philosophical legacy of Kant can contribute to peace and development in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, three countries of the region ravaged by wars. Our approach has been to consider the moral and political thought of Kant in which we found the foundations of this theory of peace developed in the context of wars in Europe. The discussion of its receipt and the rise of nationalism stigmatizing the Kantian cosmopolitanism, has led us to establish a connection between the promotion by the Nazi regime of the aryan race supposed to be superior than others and considered as a model of the social organization, with the spread of similar prejudices by the colonial administration in the African Great Lakes applicant Tutsi supremacy "created to rule " the Hutu and Twa, simple doomed to slavery negroes. Exploited by politicians anxious to gain power, this "racist judgment," unfounded, will be one of the causes of the genocidal massacre in which will be engulfed Rwanda and Burundi before extending its effects on the Congo, where conflicts will take an economic dimension and involve a number of African countries and other non-African actors. However, capitalizing the reemergence of cosmopolitanism recovery by the founders of the League of Nations and those of the UN, we have stressed the relevance of cooperation and articulation of differences as a precondition for lasting peace. With Ricœur and Arendt, two post-Kantians, we launched the foundation for reconciliation in the three countries, referring to the Franco-German and South African experience. We stressed the importance of the reform of the UN institutions and states of the region so that through the republicanism the state of law should be promoted. The hospitality expressed by cosmopolitanism and international trade in the kantian thought, would result states’ cooperation and the gathering of regional organizations in an economic and monetary union which would lay the foundation of a federation of African states and ensure a lasting peace on the continent and in the Great Lakes region.

The thesis focuses on analysis of causes of armed conflicts within security complex of the African Great Lakes region. Explored period is situated between 1990 and present. The major part of text is devoted concrete analysis of causes of conflicts according to sector approach. The thesis attempts to describe main causal frameworks of conflicts within researched area eventually to find some their common features.