Making a living between places: the role of mobility in livelihood practices in rural Rwanda

Abstract

To nuance the image of Africa as one large urban hub, this article focuses on the households that remain in the countryside. We argue that it is necessary to pay attention to rural areas in order to understand current urbanisation and to do justice to the reality of those African households caught between processes of urbanisation and rural transformation. Based on data collected in northwest Rwanda, we analyse the impact that the government’s transformative policies to reconfigure the rural space and economy has had on rural livelihoods and show that in response to these processes of change, more and more rural households are complementing agricultural activities with off-farm activities and multi-locality. We argue that because rural–urban migration is often emphasised as the main response to rural transformation, other forms of mobility, such as temporary and circular migration and commuting, are overlooked. The data show that the dynamics of change do not benefit everyone equally and do not necessarily result in people escaping poverty. While mobility is a significant asset that enables people to benefit from opportunities in different localities by constructing spatially dispersed ties and connections, not everyone has an equal relationship with it.