The paradox of Idjwi Island

In Idjwi, the land is formally owned by the Congolese state, but in practice it is administered according to the Bahavu customary system, under which the Bami of the two chiefdoms (Rubenga and Ntambuka) act as its custodians and distributors through the kalinzi mechanism. Land insecurity on the island presents a distinct picture from that of the rest of South Kivu: It is less a matter of violent dispossession by armed actors than of a “silent saturation”—demographic, commercial, and legal. The commodification of the kalinzi, the fragmentation of plots, inequalities in distribution, and migratory pressure are creating conditions of growing vulnerability, which local peasant resilience and emigration have so far contained, without resolving them. Idjwi represents a “silent dispossession,” whereas the rest of Kivu often illustrates “dispossession under duress or violence.” The future of land tenure in Idjwi depends on the fulfillment of three conditions, all of which are uncertain: that the land law of December 2025 is effectively accompanied by implementing regulations; that peace returns to allow for stable land governance; and that genuine political will addresses the redistribution of large colonial and ecclesiastical concessions that capture a disproportionate share of the best land. In the absence of any one of these conditions, the current land saturation can only worsen.