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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Reorientation in Rwanda |
Author: | Baker, Randall |
Year: | 1970 |
Periodical: | African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society |
Volume: | 69 |
Issue: | 275 |
Period: | April |
Pages: | 141-154 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Rwanda |
Subjects: | political conditions Politics and Government international relations Economics and Trade |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/719877 |
Abstract: | Largely as a result of Rwanda's cautious attitude, a proposed union between Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo was abandoned for the time being in December 1969. Since the independence of the former Belgian Congo there has been a considerable economic and political reorientation of Rwanda towards the independent states of East Africa so that the question arises whether Rwanda is logically suited to membership of the projected grouping with Burundi and the Congo, of the East African Community, or of both. This review places the reserve and indecision of Rwanda in some form of historical and geographical perspective. Before the Belgian rule, the pre-colonial and even early colonial history closely relates to eastern Africa rather than to the Congo Basin. Had it not been for an accident of history the area of Rwanda might never have been drawn within the orbit of the Congo Basin at all. Part 1 describes this development during the colonial period; part 2 from independence to 1969, after which the future is exposed. Map, tables. |