Digging into the past: critical reflections on Rwanda's pursuit for a domestic mineral economy

Since 2009, mineral development and trade strategies in the Great Lakes region of central Africa have been tied more closely to security rather than to economic development agendas. This shift has resulted largely from the emergence in 2009 of a ‘conflict minerals’ label coined by Western advocacy organizations, aimed at limiting armed groups access to mineral resources. The ‘conflict minerals’ debate perpetuates a dual single-story narrative to do with mining, namely: firstly, the single story of the region – one in which minerals, particularly those from artisanal and small-scale mining, are a source of capital for armed conflict and outside state building; and secondly, the single story of Rwanda – one in which the country compensates for its lack of significant mineral wealth by sourcing from neighbouring countries. This paper looks at Rwandan mining history prior to the genocide, and reforms since 2000, challenging the dual single-story narrative, and showing how a focus on the security imperative to delink mining from conflict poses severe limitations to the long-term growth of the these economies.