Burundi

Burundi PDF Author: Nigel Watt
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Little known in the English-speaking world, Burundi is Rwanda's twin, a small Central African country with a complex history of ethnic tension between its Hutu and Tutsi populations that has itself experienced traumatic events, including mass killings of over 200,000 people. The country remained in a state of simmering civil war until 2004, after which Julius Nyerere and Nelson Mandela took turns as mediators in a lengthy, and eventually successful, peace process which has endowed Burundi with new institutions, including a new constitution, that led to the election of a majority Hutu government in 2005. But there are many problems still to solve apart from ethnic tensions, above all the entrenched poverty of most Burundians, which has seen it designated by NGOs as one of the most deprived countries on earth.Nigel Watt's book discusses the troubled political fortunes of this beautiful yet disturbed country in the heart of Central Africa. He traces the origins of its political crises, sheds light on Burundi's recent history by means of interviews with leading participants and those whose lives have been affected by horrific events, and helps demystify the country's ethnic divisions.

Burundi

Burundi PDF Author: Nigel Watt
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Little known in the English-speaking world, Burundi is Rwanda's twin, a small Central African country with a complex history of ethnic tension between its Hutu and Tutsi populations that has itself experienced traumatic events, including mass killings of over 200,000 people. The country remained in a state of simmering civil war until 2004, after which Julius Nyerere and Nelson Mandela took turns as mediators in a lengthy, and eventually successful, peace process which has endowed Burundi with new institutions, including a new constitution, that led to the election of a majority Hutu government in 2005. But there are many problems still to solve apart from ethnic tensions, above all the entrenched poverty of most Burundians, which has seen it designated by NGOs as one of the most deprived countries on earth.Nigel Watt's book discusses the troubled political fortunes of this beautiful yet disturbed country in the heart of Central Africa. He traces the origins of its political crises, sheds light on Burundi's recent history by means of interviews with leading participants and those whose lives have been affected by horrific events, and helps demystify the country's ethnic divisions.

Rwanda and Burundi

Rwanda and Burundi PDF Author: René Lemarchand
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 592

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Book Description


Genocide

Genocide PDF Author: Edward L. Nyankanzi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
3. The Congo Rebellion

Life after Violence

Life after Violence PDF Author: Peter Uvin
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848137249
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
Burundi has recently emerged from twelve years of devastating civil war. Its economy has been destroyed and hundreds and thousands of people have been killed. In this book, the voices of ordinary Burundians are heard for the first time. Farmers, artisans, traders, mothers, soldiers and students talk about the past and the future, war and peace, their hopes for a better life and their relationships with each other and the state. Young men, in particular, often seen as the cause of violence and war, talk about the difficulties of living up to standards of masculinity in an impoverished and war-torn society. Weaving a rich tapestry, Peter Uvin pitches the ideas and aspirations of people on the ground against the theory and assumptions often made by the international development and peace-building agencies and organisations. In doing this, he illuminates both shared goals and misunderstandings. This groundbreaking book on conflict and society in Africa will have profound repercussions for development across the world.

Identity Politics and Ethnic Conflicts in Rwanda and Burundi

Identity Politics and Ethnic Conflicts in Rwanda and Burundi PDF Author: Godfrey Mwakikagile
Publisher: New Africa Press
ISBN: 9987160298
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
This work looks at conflicts between the Hutu and the Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi. The conflicts between the two groups have sometimes been characterised as ethnic, although neither group has fundamental attributes of ethnicity or ethnic identity which separate one from the other. They have the same culture. They speak the same language. And they have had a common history during the past 400 years. They have intermingled and have intermarried for so long since the Tutsi arrived in the region about 400 years ago that whatever differences existed between them in the past in terms of culture, identity, and biology have been erased. Yet they do exist as distinct social groups. They maintain separate group identities, as Hutus and as Tutsis, mainly because of the asymmetrical relationship between them. Inequity of power has solidified those identities. Historically, the Tutsi minority have been the rulers. Their status as the dominant group was enhanced during colonial rule when the Belgians favoured and recognised them as the traditional rulers, superior to the Hutu, thus legitimising inequalities between the two groups. The differences between them were even given official sanction. And the subordinate status of the Hutu majority was used by the Belgians to justify discrimination against them in terms of employment and educational opportunities while favouring the Tutsi. The conflict between the two groups is rooted in inequity of power, fuelled by stereotypes against the Hutu majority. Domination of the Hutu majority by the Tutsi minority, which started before the advent of colonial rule, has also solidified ethnic identities of the two groups through the years. A shared consciousness among the members of each group and their distinctiveness - each seeing themselves as different from the other - have also played a major role in the evolution and consolidation of these separate identities.

Across the Red River

Across the Red River PDF Author: Christian Jennings
Publisher: Trafalgar Square
ISBN: 9780575400283
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
A devastating account of the Central African Rwandan nightmare.

Entanglements of Modernity, Colonialism and Genocide

Entanglements of Modernity, Colonialism and Genocide PDF Author: Jack Palmer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351347241
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
This book offers a novel sociological examination of the historical trajectories of Burundi and Rwanda. It challenges both the Eurocentric assumptions which have underpinned many sociological theorisations of modernity, and the notion that the processes of modernisation move gradually, if precariously, towards more peaceable forms of cohabitation within and between societies. Addressing these themes at critical historical junctures – precolonial, colonial and postcolonial – the book argues that the recent experiences of extremely violent social conflict in Burundi and Rwanda cannot be seen as an ‘object apart’ from the concerns of sociologists, as it is commonly presented. Instead, these experiences are situated within a specific route to and through modernity, one ‘entangled’ with Western modernity. A contribution to an emerging global historical sociology, Entanglements of Modernity, Colonialism and Genocide will appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory with interests in postcolonialism, historical sociology, multiple modernities and genocide.

The Comfort of Strangers

The Comfort of Strangers PDF Author: Folajinmi Olabode Adisa
Publisher: Unchs (Habitat)
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 118

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Book Description
The Comfort of Strangers gives detailed information on the background to the Rwandan refugee problem and a vivid portrayal of the effects of the mass exodus of Rwandans into Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Zaire. The global community has, over the past eighty years, put in place an international refugee regime to regularize the status and provide for the control of stateless people ail over the world. Although host communities may initially open their doors to large numbers of people fleeing from their homelands, the long-term impact on the host countries is usually devastating and not often taken into account. This includes environmental dégradation, diminishing food security, dépréciation of the infrastructural base, pressure on the social and health sectors 3nd security risks. These Iead to sympathy fatigue and resentment. This book embodies an in-depth report made for UNCHS (Habitat) on the Rwandan refugee crisis and makes recommendations for its resolution, including compensation for host communites to enable them restore basic infrastructures and increase administrative capacity. Dr. Adisa also calls for a more efficient and humane treatment of the refugees and for their assisted resettlement.

Small Country

Small Country PDF Author: Gaël Faye
Publisher: Hogarth
ISBN: 1524759899
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Book Description
Already an international sensation and prize-winning bestseller in France, an evocative coming-of-age story of a young boy, a lost childhood and a shattered homeland. SHORTLISTED FOR THE ALBERTINE PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE • LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION • LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE Burundi, 1992. For ten-year-old Gabriel, life in his comfortable expatriate neighborhood of Bujumbura with his French father, Rwandan mother and little sister Ana, is something close to paradise. These are carefree days of laughter and adventure – sneaking Supermatch cigarettes and gorging on stolen mangoes – as he and his mischievous gang of friends transform their tiny cul-de-sac into their kingdom. But dark clouds are gathering over this small country, and soon their peaceful existence will shatter when Burundi, and neighboring Rwanda, are brutally hit by civil war and genocide. A novel of extraordinary power and beauty, Small Country describes an end of innocence as seen through the eyes of a child caught in the maelstrom of history. Shot through with shadows and light, tragedy and humor, it is a stirring tribute not only to a dark chapter in Africa’s past, but also to the bright days that preceded it.

The Dynamics of Violence in Central Africa

The Dynamics of Violence in Central Africa PDF Author: Rene Lemarchand
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812202597
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Endowed with natural resources, majestic bodies of fresh water, and a relatively mild climate, the Great Lakes region of Central Africa has also been the site of some of the world's bloodiest atrocities. In Rwanda, Burundi, and the Congo-Kinshasa, decades of colonial subjugation—most infamously under Belgium's Leopold II—were followed by decades of civil warfare that spilled into neighboring countries. When these conflicts lead to horrors such as the 1994 Rwandan genocide, ethnic difference and postcolonial legacies are commonly blamed, but, with so much at stake, such simple explanations cannot take the place of detailed, dispassionate analysis. The Dynamics of Violence in Central Africa provides a thorough exploration of the contemporary crises in the region. By focusing on the historical and social forces behind the cycles of bloodshed in Rwanda, Burundi, and the Congo-Kinshasa, René Lemarchand challenges much of the conventional wisdom about the roots of civil strife in former Belgian Africa. He offers telling insights into the appalling cycle of genocidal violence, ethnic strife, and civil war that has made the Great Lakes region of Central Africa the most violent on the continent, and he sheds new light on the dynamics of conflict in the region. Building on a full career of scholarship and fieldwork, Lemarchand's analysis breaks new ground in our understanding of the complex historical forces that continue to shape the destinies of one of Africa's most important regions.