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Genocide and Socio-Political Change: Massacres in two Rwandan Villages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

Timothy Longman
Timothy Longman*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Drake University, DesMoines, Iowa, USA
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Extract

From the comfort of American living rooms, the violence that ravaged Rwanda for four months in mid-1994 seemed almost incomprehensible. The daily newspaper reports and nightly television coverage that presented disturbing images of slaughter and destruction failed to provide the necessary background to make sense of the disaster. For most Americans, little option was left than to view the devastation as an expression of some inherent savagery in the Rwandan population.

In this article, I draw upon the example of two Rwandan communities to help explain the nature of the violence that swept Rwanda after the death of President Juvénal Habyarimana. These two communities bear certain similarities: they lie in neighboring communes in Kibuye Prefecture; both are relatively remote; and each community centers around a parish of the Presbyterian Church.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , 1995 , pp. 18 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1995 

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References

Notes

Data for this article were gathered from observation and interviews conducted in Kirinda and Biguhu during field research in Rwanda in 1992 and 1993. Information regarding events in these communities during 1994 was gathered primarily from personal correspondence. The author wishes to thank the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the General Scholarship Fund of the Board of Higher Education of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for the financial support they provided for the research and Margot Lovett and Bryant Simon for their comments on an earlier draft of this article.

1. I could not independently confirm this smuggling operation, but evidence strongly points to its existence. The formally illegal mining of gold that was evident in area stream beds could only have occurred with the consent of the burgomaster, and the wealth of the pastor and businessman, who each had extensive international ties, could not be explained from spending within the community.

2. For more general information on the political and social transformations that occurred in Rwanda in the 1990s, see Newbury, Catharine, “Rwanda: Recent Debates over Governance and Rural Development,” in Governance and Politics in Africa Hyden, Goran and Bratton, Michael, eds. (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1992)Google Scholar; Longman, Timothy, “Democratization and Disorder: Political Transformation and Social Deterioration in Rwanda,” in Political Transformation in Francophone Africa, Gardinier, David and Clark, John, eds. (Boulder: Westview, forthcoming)Google Scholar; Idem, “Socio-Political Change and the Churches in Rwanda,” in Christianity and Democratisation in Africa, Gifford, Paul, ed. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995)Google Scholar.

3. Donald Crummey’s fascinating edited volume, Banditry, Rebellion and Social Protest in Africa. (London: James Currey, 1986)Google Scholar, discusses the ambiguous line between criminality and political protest. Events in Kirinda clearly demonstrate that for some peasants in Rwanda, criminal action against the rich represented a type of political protest.