ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the issue of public roads in Bukavu. Roads represent spaces of contestation from relations between authorities as well as between different authorities and citizens. Unlike the other goods in this book, there is a plethora of actors involved in governing roads and movement, as well as construction, partly due to the financial interest in people and goods moving along them. The citizens, including the frequent user of the roads, such as the taxi drivers, are kept under continual surveillance by service providers (both competitive and noncompetitive), relative to the construction, taxation, and safety of roads. The chapter demonstrates how road control in contemporary Bukavu is a system of exclusion or inclusion, depending on one’s individual position in society. It is perhaps one of the most visible displays of authority–citizen negotiations in the city. It also shows the dynamic negotiating arenas for statehood, such as the position of state agencies in the local and international arenas. As such, the nature of Bukavu’s public roads demonstrates the strong hold of the state through the multiple sites of state agencies and service providers.
