When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism and the Genocide in Rwanda - Softcover

Mamdani, Mahmood

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9780852558591: When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism and the Genocide in Rwanda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0852558597 ISBN 13: 9780852558591

Publisher: James Currey, 2001

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This work studies genocide with particular reference to the civil war in Rwanda and the violence between the Hutu and the Tutsi. Michael Ignatieff says: 'It's a very impressive piece of work, a scholar's attempt to move beyond the cliches of horror towards a genuine understanding of the social dynamics which made horror possible. It's a good example of relevant, committed and passionate scholarship.' North America: Princeton U Press

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Review:

Daring, knowledgeable, and wise, Mahmood Mamdani places the terrible massacres of 1994 in historical, regional, theoretical, and moral perspective. His analysis of Hutu and Tutsi as historically-grounded and incessantly changing political identities not only clarifies struggles in the 1990s in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and Congo but also helps identify ways of preventing future bloodshed. - Charles Tilly, Sociology, Columbia University The strengths of the book are clear and admirable... his understanding of the Social Revolution and of Rwanda in the 1980s and 1990s commands attention as an important and provocative reinterpretation of the country's recent history. Anyone from now on who writes on identity in Central Africa - and there will be many - will have to wrestle with the case that Mamdani has made. - Jeffrey Herbst in FOREIGN AFFAIRS The historical context is crucial to any understanding of what happened and why. Few are better qualified to explain the tensions of post-colonial Africa than Mahmood Mamdani, a Ugandan political scientist with a sharp perspective on the colonially inspired differences between subject races. His Rwandan case-study provides powerful evidence that the Tutsis came to be crushed between colonist and native, in much the same way as the Asians were in Uganda. - Richard Synge in THE INDEPENDENT ... his analysis of Rwandese society, in particular the role of the church in the genocide, is fascinating, and explains much about recent genocide trials of priests and nuns. - Victoria Brittain in THE GUARDIAN

From the Back Cover:

"This well written and strongly argued book qualifies Mahmood Mamdani as one of the most articulate, original, and stimulating African social scientists. His interpretation of the Rwandan genocide crisis will cause considerable controversy and will prove a fresh turning point in the process of 'de-inventing' Africa."--Mamadou Diouf

"This is a very impressive piece of work--a scholar's attempt to move beyond the clich�s of horror towards a genuine understanding of the social dynamics which made horror possible. It's a good example of relevant, committed, and passionate scholarship."--Michael Ignatieff

"Daring, knowledgeable, and wise, Mahmood Mamdani places the terrible massacres of 1994 in historical, regional, theoretical, and moral perspective. His analysis of Hutu and Tutsi as historically grounded and incessantly changing political identities not only clarifies struggles of the 1990s in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and Congo but also helps identify ways of preventing future bloodshed."--Charles Tilly

"Mamdani's central argument is coherent, consistent, and compelling, and his account of the Rwandan crisis is riveting from beginning to end. It is also rendered with eloquence, generosity of spirit, and political shrewdness. His uncanny ability to use scholarly methods to cast light on public life is admirable and a model for the rest of us."--Carlos Forment

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