The Churches and Ethnic Ideology in the Rwandan Crises 1900-1994

The Churches and Ethnic Ideology in the Rwandan Crises 1900-1994 PDF Author: Tharcisse Gatwa
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1597528234
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Get Book

Book Description
To many observers, Rwanda was a colony of the White Fathers. That Roman Catholic religious order, created in Algiers in 1868 by Cardinal Lavigerie, evangelized the country from 1900 onwards, effectively becoming the state church. To maintain its domination, the Roman Catholic Church's hierarchy supported the theory of the so-called hamite supremacy by selecting, educating, and establishing an elite among one of the three Rwandan social groups, the Batutsi, who were given the monopoly of power. Frustrations and recriminations that resulted from this injustice and its accompanying exclusion of other groups from power, led to the bloodshed of the uprisings of the 1959 revolution that preceded independence in 1962. Then, in 1959, the Roman Catholic Church abandoned the Batutsi in favour of the Bahutu majority. From 1973 to 1994, both Catholic and Protestant leaders entered into close political relations with the regime of the MRND (Mouvement RŽvolutionnaire National pour le DŽveloppement), which alienated them from the people of Rwanda when human rights abuses were widespread, culminating in the war in 1990 and the genocide of 1994. If the church's mission remains that of teaching and evidencing love, justice and righteousness (Micah 6:8), there is the need for it to recover its credibility so that it can play its part in the healing and reconciliation of the country, and this can only be done through its confession and repentance of it failures and complicity in the tragedies.

The Churches and Ethnic Ideology in the Rwandan Crises 1900-1994

The Churches and Ethnic Ideology in the Rwandan Crises 1900-1994 PDF Author: Tharcisse Gatwa
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1597528234
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Get Book

Book Description
To many observers, Rwanda was a colony of the White Fathers. That Roman Catholic religious order, created in Algiers in 1868 by Cardinal Lavigerie, evangelized the country from 1900 onwards, effectively becoming the state church. To maintain its domination, the Roman Catholic Church's hierarchy supported the theory of the so-called hamite supremacy by selecting, educating, and establishing an elite among one of the three Rwandan social groups, the Batutsi, who were given the monopoly of power. Frustrations and recriminations that resulted from this injustice and its accompanying exclusion of other groups from power, led to the bloodshed of the uprisings of the 1959 revolution that preceded independence in 1962. Then, in 1959, the Roman Catholic Church abandoned the Batutsi in favour of the Bahutu majority. From 1973 to 1994, both Catholic and Protestant leaders entered into close political relations with the regime of the MRND (Mouvement RŽvolutionnaire National pour le DŽveloppement), which alienated them from the people of Rwanda when human rights abuses were widespread, culminating in the war in 1990 and the genocide of 1994. If the church's mission remains that of teaching and evidencing love, justice and righteousness (Micah 6:8), there is the need for it to recover its credibility so that it can play its part in the healing and reconciliation of the country, and this can only be done through its confession and repentance of it failures and complicity in the tragedies.

When Victims Become Killers

When Victims Become Killers PDF Author: Mahmood Mamdani
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691193835
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 390

Get Book

Book Description
An incisive look at the causes and consequences of the Rwandan genocide "When we captured Kigali, we thought we would face criminals in the state; instead, we faced a criminal population." So a political commissar in the Rwanda Patriotic Front reflected after the 1994 massacre of as many as one million Tutsis in Rwanda. Underlying his statement was the realization that, though ordered by a minority of state functionaries, the slaughter was performed by hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, including judges, doctors, priests, and friends. Rejecting easy explanations of the Rwandan genocide as a mysterious evil force that was bizarrely unleashed, When Victims Become Killers situates the tragedy in its proper context. Mahmood Mamdani coaxes to the surface the historical, geographical, and political forces that made it possible for so many Hutus to turn so brutally on their neighbors. In so doing, Mamdani usefully broadens understandings of citizenship and political identity in postcolonial Africa and provides a direction for preventing similar future tragedies.

The Genocide Against the Tutsi, and the Rwandan Churches

The Genocide Against the Tutsi, and the Rwandan Churches PDF Author: Philippe Denis
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1847012906
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 359

Get Book

Book Description
Pioneering study of the role of the Christian churches in the Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi; a key work for historians, memory studies scholars, religion scholars and Africanists.

Revival and Reconciliation

Revival and Reconciliation PDF Author: Phillip A. Cantrell
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres
ISBN: 0299335100
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book

Book Description
Phillip A. Cantrell II takes a critical look at the Anglican Church's crucial role in many aspects of Rwanda's history, particularly its complicity with the current Rwandan regime. He boldly illuminates the Anglican Church's culpability in the events leading to the genocide, calling attention to the consequences of the church's unwavering support for the Rwandan regime.

Religion and Violence in Western Traditions

Religion and Violence in Western Traditions PDF Author: André Gagné
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000409066
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Get Book

Book Description
This book examines the connection between religion and violence in the Western traditions of the three Abrahamic faiths, from ancient to modern times. It addresses a gap in the scholarly debate on the nature of religious violence by bringing scholars that specialize in pre-modern religions and scriptural traditions into the same sphere of discussion as those specializing in contemporary manifestations of religious violence. Moving beyond the question of the “authenticity” of religious violence, this book brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines. Contributors explore the central role that religious texts have played in encouraging, as well as confronting, violence. The interdisciplinary conversation that takes place challenges assumptions that religious violence is a modern problem that can be fully understood without reference to religious scriptures, beliefs, or history. Each chapter focuses its analysis on a particular case study from a distinct historical period. Taken as a whole, these chapters attest to the persistent relationship between religion and violence that links the ancient and contemporary worlds. This is a dynamic collection of explorations into how religion and violence intersect. As such, it will be a key resource for any scholar of Religious Studies, Theology and Religion and Violence, as well as Christian, Jewish, and Islamic Studies.

The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Mass Atrocity, and Genocide

The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Mass Atrocity, and Genocide PDF Author: Sara E. Brown
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100047187X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 506

Get Book

Book Description
The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Mass Atrocity, and Genocide explores the many and sometimes complicated ways in which religion, faith, doctrine, and practice intersect in societies where mass atrocity and genocide occur. This volume is intended as an entry point to questions about mass atrocity and genocide that are asked by and of people of faith and is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, historical events, and heated debates in this subject area. The 39 contributions to the handbook, by a team of international contributors, span five continents and cover four millennia. Each explores the intersection of religion, faith, and mainly state-sponsored mass atrocity and genocide, and draws from a variety of disciplines. This volume is divided into six core sections: Genocide in Antiquity and Holy Wars The Genocide of Indigenous Peoples Religion and the State The Role of Religion during Genocide Post Genocide Considerations Memory Culture Within these sections central issues, historical events, debates, and problems are examined, including the Crusades; Jihad and ISIS, colonialism, the Holocaust, desecration of ritual objects, politics of religion, Shinto nationalism, attacks on Rohingya Muslims; the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, responses to genocide; gender-based atrocities, ritualcide in Cambodia, burial sites and mass graves, transitional justice, forgiveness, documenting genocide, survivor memory narratives, post-conflict healing and memorialization. The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Genocide is essential reading for students and researchers with an interest in religion and genocide, religion and violence, and religion and politics. It will be of great interest to students of theology, philosophy, genocide studies, narrative studies, history, and international relations and those in related fields, such as cultural studies, area studies, sociology, and anthropology.

Rwanda Before the Genocide

Rwanda Before the Genocide PDF Author: J. J. Carney
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190612371
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Get Book

Book Description
Winner of the Bethwell A. Ogot Book Prize of the African Studies Association Between 1920 and 1994, the Catholic Church was Rwanda's most dominant social and religious institution. In recent years, the church has been critiqued for its perceived complicity in the ethnic discourse and political corruption that culminated with the 1994 genocide. In analyzing the contested legacy of Catholicism in Rwanda, Rwanda Before the Genocide focuses on a critical decade, from 1952 to 1962, when Hutu and Tutsi identities became politicized, essentialized, and associated with political violence. This study--the first English-language church history on Rwanda in over 30 years--examines the reactions of Catholic leaders such as the Swiss White Father André Perraudin and Aloys Bigirumwami, Rwanda's first indigenous bishop. It evaluates Catholic leaders' controversial responses to ethnic violence during the revolutionary changes of 1959-62 and after Rwanda's ethnic massacres in 1963-64, 1973, and the early 1990s. In seeking to provide deeper insight into the many-threaded roots of the Rwandan genocide, Rwanda Before the Genocide offers constructive lessons for Christian ecclesiology and social ethics in Africa and beyond.

On the Path to Genocide

On the Path to Genocide PDF Author: Deborah Mayersen
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1782382852
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book

Book Description
Why did the Armenian genocide erupt in Turkey in 1915, only seven years after the Armenian minority achieved civil equality for the first time in the history of the Ottoman Empire? How can we explain the Rwandan genocide occurring in 1994, after decades of relative peace and even cooperation between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority? Addressing the question of how the risk of genocide develops over time, On the Path to Genocide contributes to a better understand why genocide occurs when it does. It provides a comprehensive and comparative historical analysis of the factors that led to the 1915 Armenian genocide and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, using fresh sources and perspectives that yield new insights into the history of the Armenian and Rwandan peoples. Finally, it also presents new research into constraints that inhibit genocide, and how they can be utilized to attempt the prevention of genocide in the future.

Lutheran Identity and Political Theology

Lutheran Identity and Political Theology PDF Author: Carl-Henric Grenholm
Publisher: James Clarke & Company
ISBN: 0227904508
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Get Book

Book Description
Lutheran tradition has in various ways influenced attitudes to work, the economy, the state, education, and health care. One reason that Lutheran theology has been interpreted in various ways is that it is always influenced by surrounding social andcultural contexts. In a society where the church has lost a great deal of its cultural impact and authority, and where there is a plurality of religious convictions, the question of Lutheran identity has never been more urgent. However, this question is also raised in the Global South where Lutheran churches need to find their identity in a relationship with several other religions. Here this relationship is developed from a minority perspective. Is it possible to develop a Lutheran political theology that gives adequate contributions to issues concerning social and economic justice? What is the role of women in church and society around the world? Is it possible to interpret Lutheran theology in such a way that it includes liberating perspectives? These are some of the questions and issues discussed in this book.

Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa PDF Author: Kenneth R. Ross
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 147441205X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 538

Get Book

Book Description
This comprehensive reference volume covers every country in Sub-Saharan Africa, offering reliable demographic information and original interpretative essays by indigenous scholars and practitioners. It maps patterns of growth and decline, assesses major traditions and movements, analyses key themes and examines current trends.