Declaration 2: Publication and Manuscripts
5.4 Why people participate in umuganda
Table 5.8 indicates that there are differences in what has been motivating people to participate in umuganda throughout the historical period. According to those from both Kigali and Western Province, in the pre-colonial era people were motivated by mutual help (74% in Kigali and 83%
in Western Province). Elsewhere it was learnt that those who did not participate isolated themselves from their community (OCM 6-a 19 Dec 2010).
In the colonial period people participated in umuganda only because of the fear of punishment or prosecution, as umuganda was obligatory by law (67%in Kigali and 71% in Western Province). While some respondents from Kigali (39%) indicated that during the post-colonial era, people participated in umuganda for fear of being fined or prosecuted, 29% reported that they attended umuganda only to get information about the government’s plans. 60% from Western Province said that they were motivated to participate in umuganda to get information about government plans.
Other respondents pointed out that in the 1970s and early 1980s, people were being mobilised for umuganda, terming it “to work and build the nation”. These plans apparently included propaganda which helped to promote genocide (Interview: OCM- 14b 22 Dec 2011).
Participants in the focus group, in Kigali sang a song that was used for that sensitisation:
Nzatanga umuganda wo-kubaka uRwanda, bavandimwe, nzatanga umuganda wo kubaka urwanda…
I will offer umuganda to build Rwanda, my brethren, I will offer umuganda to build my nation… (FGD 2-a 20 Dec 2010).
Discussants thought that the term ‘to work or build a nation’ was just a government slogan since no development transpired. In their estimation, the population became poorer as the national economy declined, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.
133 Table 5.8: Motivation to participate in umuganda
Location Pre-
colonial
Colonial Post- colonial
Post- genocide
n % n % n % n % P-value
Kigali Motivation to participate in umuganda
66 87 67 88 73 96 76 100 <0.001
Mutual help 56 74 7 9 4 5 9 12
Meet friends, neighbours and socialize
2 3 5 7 2 3 8 11
Please leaders 1 1 3 4 4 5 1 1
Get information about government's plans
2 3 1 1 22 29 18 24
Fear of fine or prosecution 4 5 51 67 30 39 9 12
All the above assertions are valid 1 1 0 0 11 14 30 39
Other 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Western Province
Motivations to participate in umuganda
62 98 62 98 63 100 63 100
Mutual help 52 83 4 6 4 6 5 8
Meet friends, neighbour and socialise with
1 2 1 2 6 10 10 16
Please leaders 1 2 6 10 8 13 2 3
Get information about government's plans
2 3 2 3 38 60 12 19
Fear of fine or prosecution 2 3 45 71 6 10 13 21
All the above assertions are valid 3 5 4 6 1 2 20 32
Other 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 2
Both in the interviews and in the focus group discussions, respondents highlighted that increasingly throughout 1980s and early 1990s “umuganda became a tool for the ruling party MRND to implant its ideology into the population, even to implement genocide” (OCM 14-b 30 Dec 2010). The implications of this were experienced in the 1994 genocide itself. An interviewee said:
We used to go there, dance and sing songs praising the MRND. It was time-wasting but we had to go otherwise we would be not only punished but be called anti-government and you know what that means!! You will be put in the same box as those who were fighting
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against the government, the (inyenzi) RPF. We had to go for the sake of our safety” (OCM 11-a 20 Dec 2010).
According to Table 5.8, after the genocide people are motivated to participate in umuganda for various reasons: mutual help; meeting friends; neighbours and socialising; pleasing leaders;
getting information about the government’s plans; and because of the fear of punishment or prosecution (39% in Kigali and 32% in Western Province).Another 24% from Kigali indicated that obtaining information about government’s plans is their main motivation. By contrast, 21%
from Western Province were concerned about being fined or prosecuted, whereas 19%
suggested that they attend umuganda just to get information about the government’s plans.
11% in Kigali and 16% in Western Province attend umuganda in order to meet friends, neighbours and socialise. One of the respondents explained:
I go to umuganda to meet people, to get to know new people in my community and to make myself known in the neighbourhood (OCM 14-a 01 Jan 2011).
Interestingly, among the 2% from Western Province who participated in umuganda for different reasons altogether, they said that they are motivated by a feeling of ownership and mutual help. More generally, what emerged was that, “currently the feeling of ownership and mutual help was what drove most pre-colonial umuganda practices but ownership has given way to insecurity, sociality, and the need for belonging (OCM- 29a 16 Dec 2011).
From the post-colonial period until the present, umuganda was used as an avenue for government to communicate with the people. Umuganda provided an assembly-point that government functionaries used and still use to communicate its policies, programs, decrees and demands. People were and are still being forced to attend umuganda.
We have seen that everyone is required to buy an attendance card that people have to keep on themselves, and have it signed as proof of attendance. It was also learned that some people
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attend umuganda merely to have their card signed so as to avoid problems when needing any government service. Moreover, serious complaints of prejudice were heard since, apparently, some people are asked to present their umuganda card and others are not. A young lady wanting to apply to register her marriage civille45, discovered that the executive secretary at the sector office required her first to produce her umuganda card in order to see whether she has performed umuganda. Someone else who happened to be present commented “this is not fair, why didn’t he *executive+ ask the other person a card? Mhuuu! This people look at you, and they know how to respond to your request depending on how you appear to them. It is not every one that they ask to present umuganda card” (OCM 15-a 15 Dec. 2010).
It emerged from the interviews that people also complied with the requirement of umuganda in their anxiety to avoid being seen as suspicious members of the community who could be regarded as a source of insecurity and then become isolated. In other words, the motivation to carryout umuganda is mixed with fear which can be conveyed in questions such as: ‘How can people hear that I have remained home while others are doing umuganda? Would I be regarded as a rebel or a criminal or anti-social?’
Finally on being asked ‘if they would like umuganda to continue’, one of my respondents told me humorously that: “Of course I would like umuganda to continue, what other response you expect from me?” She asked if anyone has spoken against umuganda. On being told that some had, she replied, “mmh no! Whoever said no to the continuation of umuganda is inyanga- Rwanda, dislike Rwanda; he or she is against government” (EL 8-b 02 Jan 2011).
Is there any relationship between participating in umuganda and a sense of nationalism? The need for belonging and the fear of government sanctions have a security dimension which could emanate from the violence, conflict and the legacy of the genocide. However, the question is if umuganda is made entirely voluntary, would people still participate in it as much as they do now.
45 A civil wedding in Rwanda is officiated by the executive secretary of the sector at the local sector office.
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