Conflicting Sovereignties: Competition at Mwesi Refugee Settlement, 1963–1970

Chapter 6 analyzes the history of the Mwesi Rwandan refugee settlement, where refugees came to inhabit conflicting domains of sovereignty. The chapter centers on the self-interested politics of the UNHCR and Tanganyikan Christian Refugee Service (TCRS), as well as the decision by most refugees at Mwesi not to adhere to the Tanzanian Refugee (Control) Act of 1965, which required them to sign refugee permits. Their refusal to sign the permits then became a claims-making project that utilized the few resources available in the layered and unequal sovereignties that sought to govern them. In response, the government imprisoned refugee leaders, and UNHCR officials recommended that they be forced to perform hard labor. The chapter thus reveals the contradictory nature of UNHCR policies, as well as officials' unwillingness to understand refugees as political subjects.