Resisting resettlement in Rwanda: rethinking dichotomies of “survival”/“resistance” and “dominance”/“subordination”

This article problematizes the dichotomies between “survival” and “resistance,” and between “dominance” and “subordination.” Based on fieldwork in Rwanda among peasants who experienced the country’s large-scale villagization program, the article shows how some poor farmers – motivated by survival needs – negotiate the reform pressures in a way that amounts to “everyday resistance,” while the local reform implementers – as a result of their “in-between position” as leaders and members of the local communities – navigate between resistance and dominance in ambivalent ways. In this way, our empirical data contribute to the field of resistance studies, particularly to explorations of “everyday resistance,” by (1) questioning the conventional focus on the political consciousness (or “class antagonism”) of subalterns, as well as (2) destabilizing the binary class model of dominant superiors and resisting subalterns.