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Rwanda's warring population has a lot to account for, and a lot to reconcile. Can science point the way to understanding? Alice Mukarurinda taught herself to write with her left [...]

The impact of conflict-induced displacement and the policy of villagization on the output of subsistence agricultural households in rural Rwanda after the 1994 genocide is examined. Displacement had a negative effect on the agricultural know-how of the displaced people, while the villagization policy did not have a significant effect on agricultural output.

This article discusses whether hate radio broadcasts instigated and mobilized genocidal violence in Rwanda. It is believed that radio alone did not account for the onset of genocidal violence, but became significant in the context of existing violence.

Though the genocide in Rwanda occurred in 1994, its debilitating effects on the survivors persist, and probably will continue to persist for many years, if not generations. This paper explores the question of why a simple Western tradition may have helped a Rwandan woman to emerge from a 13-year-old state of grief. The key elements involved in her transformation were: resilience, timing, connection, and creativity. Additionally, positive regard and sincere respect can promote healing and can transcend language and culture. Parallels between self-in-relation theory and trauma recovery work are discussed. Social workers must strive to be culturally competent, but should not underestimate the effectiveness of their essential social work training and practical experience. Keywords: genocide; Rwanda; trauma

This article investigates three recent human rights memoirs that chronicle the Rwandan genocide of 1994: Emergency Sex (and other desperate measures): True Stories from a War Zone, Shake Hands with the Devil: the failure of humanity in Rwanda, and The Zanzibar Chest: a memoir of love and war. I use these memoirs to explore the complexities of bearing witness to ethnic violence and war as an autobiographical subject shaped by the memory of historical atrocity--as a besieged self in traumatic occupations of the UN protector (Romeo Dallaire), lawyer (Kenneth Cain), and war correspondent (Aidan Hartley). Finally, I suggest that the authors of these memoirs are secondary witnesses, claimants to ethical truths and writers of atrocity testimony that complicate the burgeoning life-telling compulsion of what is and who can claim to be a genocide victim. 'Your mind with time, in fact, doesn't erase things that are traumas. It makes them clearer. They become digitally clearer and then you are able to sit back and all of a sudden have every individual scene come to you instead of the massive blur of many scenes I saw every day. The accumulation of the spirits that would come to you at night in the form of eyes, thousands of eyes, some mad, some simply there, and others bewildered, innocent children and adults, all that accumulated to the fact that I simply totally broke down'. (Romeo Dallaire) 'What's true is that we didn't understand at the time the full magnitude of what was happening. I was an ant walking over the rough hide of an elephant. I had no idea of the scale of what I was witnessing. And when I did become aware I discovered Rwanda was way beyond my limited talents as a correspondent'. (Aidan Hartley, The Zanzibar Chest) 'I don't know who saved the honor of mankind during my time in the field, but I do know that an ancestral memory of tyranny commands me not to keep silent. There is no ambiguity here. I am a witness. I have a voice. I have to write it down'. (Kenneth Cain, Emergency Sex)

The political scenario in Rwanda, post 1994 when the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) seized power winning the civil war and ending genocide, is discussed. Despite the early drift into authoritarianism, concentration of power and human rights abuse, Rwanda continued to be seen as a country in transition towards democracy.

The social and economic implications of the rapid adoption of mobile telephony in Sub-Saharan Africa, drawing particularly on examples from Rwanda are explored. The technology presents the user a freedom to move through time and space and stay connected to the business, to make decisions for the business, and to run the business according to an ever-changing micro-schedule.

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when nearly one million Tutsi and moderate Hutu were macheted to death, caused the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to round up nearly 120,000 Hutu suspects and pile them into prisons built to hold only 40,000 detainees. To help process an enormous backlog of cases the government announced that it would provisionally release selected suspects who had already confessed to their crimes to the same community where they committed their crimes.

Introduction When Rwandan ethnicities are discussed, one seldom hears of the country's least numerous group, the Twa, who constitute less than 1 percent of the present-day population. Despite this, long […]

Objective: The aims were: (1) to examine the profile of African street children and to assess the link between street children in Africa and political violence; (2) to undertake a systematic examination of causal factors of street children in postgenocide Rwanda; and (3) to situate this analysis in the context of the socio-cultural and political impact of the genocide on Rwandan communities. Method: Observational mapping examined the profile and activities of Rwandan street children. Structured interviews were carded out with 290 children in four regional towns to obtain information on socio-demographic, familial, educational background, causal factors surrounding street life involvement, psychological well-being, and relationship to the street. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews examined the relationship between street children and the broader Rwandan society. Results: Street children in Rwanda were predominantly adolescent boys, almost half of whom were homeless (42%), with a high proportion of orphaned children or children who had lost at least one parent. Two variables predicted homelessness: child's guardian and reason for being in street. Qualitative accounts of children conveyed the impact of death of family members, repatriation, imprisonment of parents, and poverty on their lives. Conclusions: The analysis highlighted the need for community based support for children in alternative guardianship care and for policies to support the reintegration of male youths in postconflict welfare strategies as prevention strategies for street migration. Keywords: Street children; Africa; Political violence; Demographic profile; Rwanda

This article discusses reconciliation efforts in Rwanda since the 1994 genocide. The author examines donor behavior in government and justices, suggesting that ethnic conflict still exists due to lack of understanding and information and can effect donor decisions.

The author met with four Rwanda refugees in Montreal in June 2000 and relates their sad story of war and violence. They are angry now and want to start a [...]

In this paper I explore the notion of collective moral responsibility as it pertains both to nation-states contemplating humanitarian armed intervention in international social conflicts, and as it pertains to social groups perpetrating human rights violations in such conflicts. I take the Rwandan genocide as illustrative of such conflicts and make use of it accordingly. I offer an individualist account of collective moral responsibility, according to which collective moral responsibility is a species of joint responsibility.

Genocide can be best understood by examining contributing factors such as ethnicity, outside influences, gender, and ecology. Genocide should not be regarded as a remote or exotic occurrence, but should be considered instead as a result of conditions that are prevalent throughout the world. The history of genocide in Rwanda is discussed in relation to these broader contributing factors.

Political will is the crucial factor in reintegrating the Hutu into Rwandan society. The Hutu refugees return as a vanquished group charged with the crime of genocide. Legal mechanisms that could promote social reconstruction are considered. The case has broader implications for the process of group identity formation and the role played by social memory, place and power.

The 1972 genocide of Hutu by Tutsi in Burundi, now almost forgotten, provides background to the subsequent developments in the Great Lakes region, including the 1994 killings of Tutsi and Hutu by Hutu in Rwanda and the 1996-97 genocide of Hutu by Tutsi in Congo. Each group has its own mythology of the conflict, concerning who are the victims and who the perpetrators. In addition, facts are distorted by the notion of collective guilt as a substitute for individual responsibility.

The appropriateness of humanitarian involvement in Rwanda is debated. Topics include the ability for ethical tenets to operate successfully in an environment of desperation and fear, and whether intellect and conscience are sufficient for implementation.

By the time I arrived in Rwanda in early October 1994 as a UN human rights monitor, genocide had become a mundane element of daily life. The evidence was strewn [...]

This study compares US news magazine coverage of conflict occurring in Bosnia and Rwanda. Bosnia's violence was characterized as an aberration for Europeans, while Rwanda's violence was presented as typical of Africans Coverage suggests that in Bosnia, participants made a logical, albeit evil, decision to commit violence in an attempt to seek revenge for past grievances. In contrast, Rwanda's violence is depicted as having no logical explanation and is portrayed as irrational and so alien from Western understanding as to defy explanation. Keywords/Bosnia/ethnic conflict/frame analysis/international news coverage/Rwanda

The genocidal campaign in Rwanda has had a disastrous impact on children. More than 100,000 were orphaned or separated from their parents. Survivors are deeply traumatized from the violence they suffered or witnessed and from grief. Children have also suffered the most from malnutrition and diarrheal illnesses in refugee camps. Organizations are trying to match children with missing relatives, but the task is Herculean. Orphanages have been set up, but crowding and lack of individual attention also pose risks to physical and psychological health. Rwanda desperately needs assistance from the international community.

An African American woman narrates her experiences in Rwanda and Uganda, which she visited as part of a USAID project on library automation in 1991. Rwanda has many brave people committed to the preservation of their culture, but also presents contrasts between poverty and wealth. The abundance of natural resources enables the people of Uganda to maintain a higher level of living. The devastation of Uganda began with the war that was started by Idi Amin during the 1960s and the 1970s. In both countries, war, poverty and political problems have caused books to become endangered species.

Three prominent themes in fertility research the old-age security hypothesis, the social-mobility hypothesis, and wealth-flows theory are based on the notion that parents in Third-World settings often maintain a high level of childbearing in order to improve their own social and economic well-being. Using data from 1,019 farm households in Rwanda, we provide an empirical test of this 'anthropological assumption' as it pertains to the contributions that departed children make to their parental households. Analysis confirms that children are, in fact, of considerable economic value for their parents, but also shows that such intergenerational support is conditioned by other variables, such as the number of children still living within the household, the distance between households, and individual characteristics of parents and their children., The hypothesis that Third World countries have a high level of childbearing to improve their social and economic conditions was tested in a survey of 1,019 farm households in Rwanda. Results showed that parents consider their children of high economic value. However, intergenerational support was also influenced by the individual characteristics of the parents and their children, the number of children within the household and the distance between the households.

While condoms are readily available in the urban centers of Rwanda, where the AIDS epidemic has raged most intensely, researchers report that women are reluctant to have their partners use them. When asked to explain their reluctance, these women express the fear (along with other misgivings) that the condom might remain lodged in the vagina after intercourse. This behavior flies in the face of the biomedical assessment of risk. Rwandans, however, perceive risk in a manner which is consistent with their views concerning the social construction of the moral person. Of prime importance in this process is the body's perceived aptitude to engage in meaningful exchange and fertile sexuality. Moreover, these notions take root within a coherent cosmological matrix which emphasizes the socially ordered flow of fertility fluids. Only when these issues are considered in light of the concept of the 'fractal person' does the meaning of risk--as it relates to sexual behavior and AIDS in Rwanda--become clear.