Economic opportunities and local governance on an African frontier: the case of the Semliki Basin (Congo-Uganda)

The Semliki Basin historically represents a dynamic borderland between the interlacustrine kingdoms of the African Rift Valley (the Toro and Buganda) and the mountain people of the Western Rwenzori slopes and the Mitumba Mountains, in the contemporary Democratic Republic of Congo. Typically an agro-pastoralist area, it has hosted a lively trade between the Toro kingdom, around lake Katwe, and the neighbouring Bakonzo and Banande, living respectively in Kasese and Bundibugyo districts (Uganda) and Beni and Lubero territories (Congo). More recently, since the mid-twentieth century, the Semliki valley has served as a base for rebel movements and political guerrillas fighting against the Ugandan and Congolese regimes. The analysis offered here is inspired by Igor Kopytoff's 1989 work on the African frontier. Building on his argument, this article looks at the opportunities and obstacles generated in the Semliki area in terms of cross border “governable spaces”, focusing on the emerging actors that use and transform conventions about identity, labour and rule. The hypothesis is that the border is not just a space of “opportunity, of vibrant, desperate inventiveness and unrestrained profiteering”, but also forms a constitutive element in producing what is to be governed, i.e. a space where new forms of governance emerge, challenging the ruling conventions about what politics is and where it is to be found.