Product Description

In the spring of 1994 the tiny African nation of Rwanda exploded onto the international media stage, as internal strife reached genocidal proportions. But the horror that unfolded before our eyes had been building steadily for years before it captured the attention of the world. In , journalist and Africa scholar Gérard Prunier provides a current yet historical perspective that Western readers need to understand how and why the brutal massacres of 800,000 Rwandese came to pass. Prunier shows how the events in Rwanda were part of a deadly logic, a plan that served central political and economic interests, rather than a result of ancient tribal hatreds -a notion often invoked by the media to dramatize the fighting. makes great strides in dispelling the racist cultural myths surrounding the people of Rwanda, views propogated by European colonialists in the nineteenth century and carved into "history" by Western influence. Prunier demonstrates how the struggle for cultural dominance and subjugation among the Hutu and Tutsi -the central players in the recent massacres -was exploited by racially obsessed Europeans. He shows how Western colonialists helped to construct a Tutsi identity as a superior racial type because of their distinctly "non-Negro" features in order to facilitate greater control over the Rwandese. Expertly leading readers on a journey through the troubled history of the country and its surroundings, Prunier moves from the pre-colonial Kingdom of Rwanda, though German and Belgian colonial regimes, to the 1973 coup. The book chronicles the developing refugee crisis in Rwanda and neighboring Uganda in the 1970s and 1980s and offers the most comprehensive account available of the manipulations of popular sentiment that led to the genocide and the events that have followed. In the aftermath of this devastating tragedy, is the first clear-eyed analysis available to American readers. From the massacres to the subsequent cholera epidemic and emerging refugee crisis, Prunier details the horrifying events of recent years and considers propsects for the future of Rwanda.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #299024 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-15
• Released on: 1997-08-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 389 pages

Amazon.com Review
Although it occurred only in 1994, the civil war in the tiny central African nation of Rwanda has already slipped from memory. In that country, writes Belgian historian Gérard Prunier, Tutsi and Hutu fell to slaughtering each other at the end of a long history of Belgian, German, and French colonialism that deliberately played on ethnic tensions. The final "historical product" was the murder of perhaps a million people and the displacement another two million, nearly half of the country's population all told. Prunier traces a course through the complex history of unrest and hatred that washed over Rwanda, and he looks deeply into the question of why this horror could have happened in an era of international peacekeeping. His conclusion is disturbing: "Genocides are a modern phenomenon--they require organization--and they are likely to become more frequent."

From Library Journal
One of the absolute and mystifying horrors of the late 20th century has been the carnage taking place in the small central African nation of Rwanda. It is also probably safe to say that it has been the least understood. The author, a senior researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, has written the first comprehensive account in English that examines the causes and events of this genocidal civil war. Whereas most in the West have been given to believe it was merely a "tribal" conflict (Hutu vs. Tutsi), Prunier points out, correctly, the substantive underlying causes: a colonial legacy that disrupted precolonial ethnic relations, political chaos and repression, economic dislocation, Western bungling and neglect, the role of the church, and overpopulation?to name a few. His well-written and important study belongs in all but the smallest collections dealing with Africa or current events. Another comparable title is Alain Destexhe's Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century (LJ 10/1/95).?Paul H. Thomas, Hoover Inst. Lib., Stanford, Cal.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In spring 1994, in the tiny African nation of Rwanda, 800,000 men, women, and children met their deaths at the hands of government soldiers, neighbors, and friends, at the instigation of a corrupt, fascist government. Fearing retaliation, these murderers fled to massive refugee camps, where they died by the thousands of cholera and other diseases. Journalist and African scholar Prunier endeavors to provide explanations for how and why this horrifying massacre occurred. Dispelling notions of ancient tribal hatred among the Hutu and Tutsi (the two groups involved) as the primary reason for the madness, Prunier believes that this antipathy was exploited by Europeans for political and economic reasons, and that this laid the groundwork for the hatred to explode into genocidal rage. While Prunier has done an excellent job of research, documentation, and interviewing, and he points to several reasons why the genocide may have taken place, we never understand exactly what motivated so many people to kill so many people with whom they had previously been friends or at least acquaintances. And while that is probably not within the scope of this book, it remains a nagging question. Although extensively footnoted, this compelling, important work is never pedantic, and Prunier's chatty writing style contributes to the book's readability. Kathleen Hughes

Customer Reviews

Eclipsed, but important
From an ex-Peace Corps Volunteer, Rwanda.
This book seems to have been eclipsed by Gourevitch's journalistic account. Prunier was there and writing at the time that this happened. This book is basically a compilation of his observations of the genocide in Rwanda as it was occuring. It is, perhaps, less passionate than other accounts, but that only makes it more chilling. It traces the origins of the Rwanda genocide, the horrors of preparation and execution. This is an important book.

A horrifying report on how we humans behave
This book has plenty of information about Rwanda and the 1994 genocide there. Yes, the book may appear anti-Hutu. But that is because so many of the Hutus were guilty of genocide. The fact that not all Tutsis have always been angels does not change that.

Rwanda is a country of a little over 10,000 square miles, with several million people. At the beginning of 1994, about ten percent of its people were Tutsis and almost all of the rest were Hutus. There were about 900,000 Tutsis. In the space of a few weeks, 800,000 of the Tutsis were brutally murdered, many of them by their neighbors, who generally used machetes to slaughter them. This was a carefully planned extermination. There was a long period of incitement. And even the word "inyenzi" (literally, "cockroaches") used by Hutu extremists to describe Tutsis started as a reference to violent armed men who tended to move at night. It was not merely a term of derision, but also one which helped produce a reaction of fear that encouraged the massacres.

The author explains that had it not been for the success of a Tutsi army in eventually (but too late) taking the capital city, the leaders of the genocide probably would have gotten away with it completely. There might have been a brief and partial UN boycott, with France discreetly violating it, followed by a restoration of international ties with the government.

The differences between Tutsis and Hutus had made a big impression on European colonialists a century earlier. The Tutsis were usually considerably taller and thinner than the Hutus. The Tutsis typically had narrower noses and lighter skins as well. Europeans had put Tutsis in control of the land in spite of the fact that the Hutus were a big majority. However, when Rwanda obtained independence, the Hutus gained control and the Tutsis were almost entirely unrepresented in the government or military leadership.

Although most of the Tutsis in Rwanda were killed, several hundred thousand Tutsis who lived outside Rwanda moved into that country when the Tutsi army gained control of it. And well over a million Hutus fled Rwanda.

Prunier makes many interesting points. One is that although many people claimed that the Tutsis were much richer than the Hutus, the average incomes of Tutsis and Hutus were about the same. Another is about the role of France in supporting the Hutus. There is a revealing quote of a French minister who was asked about this and gave a very unconvincing denial: "Me! Accuse me of having got people to train death squads! Let's be serious! In all these crises some people always find a way to attack France."

When some French troops finally showed up in the area, the Hutus applauded them in a big way. Radio announcements told Hutu girls to "wash yourselves and put on a good dress for our French allies. The Tutsi girls are all dead so you have your chance."

These sorts of things, along with some amazing official French comments about the Hutus and Tutsis killing each other, as though there were simply victims and no criminals, make it appear that France was a big part of the problem. The United Nations forces, with their instructions not to stop any of the atrocities, were worse than useless.

I learned quite a bit from this book. It is a sobering look at our species.

The Only Sensible Deconstruction I've Read
This book--dull as a doornail--is the only sensible deconstruction of the Rwandan genocide out there, and believe me, I've read them all. I wept at the calculated coldness that Prunier dissects; I wept at the pieces, and the smooth, hot coals I cradled in my palm. This book gave me blisters.

Toss those easy, primitive theories on Rwandese tribal factions or the wide-eyed machete-wielding Protestant Hutu crying "demon possession, mea culpa": Prunier goes deeper, putting his own horror on the shelf for clear-eyed clarity. He plumbs the history of Rwanda, top to bottom. There's not a nook or cranny of evidence I've heard of that he doesn't explore. He mainly points to the colonialist Europeans who manipulated and separated and created Hutu and Tutsi tribes. Holistic, honest, brilliant, he separates facts and theories from each other with a humble incision. Yet with or without this careful separation it's apparent: his theories hold water AND blood.