Whispering Truth to Power: Everyday Resistance to Reconciliation in Postgenocide Rwanda (Africa and the Diaspora)

Whispering Truth to Power: Everyday Resistance to Reconciliation in Postgenocide Rwanda (Africa and the Diaspora)
Susan Thomson (Author)

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Human Rights

For 100 days in 1994, genocide engulfed Rwanda. Since then, many in the international community have praised the country's postgenocide government for its efforts to foster national unity and reconciliation by downplaying ethnic differences and promoting "one Rwanda for all Rwandans." Examining how ordinary rural Rwandans experience and view these policies, Whispering Truth to Power challenges the conventional wisdom on postgenocide Rwanda.            Susan Thomson finds that many of Rwanda's poorest citizens distrust the local officials charged with implementing the state program and believe that it ignores the deepest problems of the countryside: lack of land, jobs, and a voice in policies that affect lives and livelihoods. Based on interviews with dozens of Rwandan peasants and government officials, this book reveals how the nation's disenfranchised poor have been engaging in everyday resistance, cautiously and carefully—"whispering" their truth to the powers that be. This quiet opposition, Thomson argues, suggests that some of the nation's most celebrated postgenocide policies have failed to garner the grassroots support needed to sustain peace.

• Rank: #179186 in Books
• Published on: 2013-11-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, .90 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

The Democratic Republic of Congo: Between Hope and Despair (African Arguments)

The Democratic Republic of Congo: Between Hope and Despair (African Arguments)
Michael Deibert (Author)

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Human Rights

Over the past two decades, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been at the centre of the deadliest series of conflicts since the Second World War, and now hosts the largest United Nations peacekeeping mission in the world. In this compelling book, acclaimed journalist Michael Deibert paints a picture of a nation in flux, inching towards peace but at the same time solidifying into another era of authoritarian rule under its enigmatic president, Joseph Kabila.

Featuring a wealth of first-hand interviews and secondary sources, the narrative travels from war-torn villages in the country's east to the chaotic, pulsing capital of Kinshasa in order to bring us the voices of the Congolese - from impoverished gold prospectors and market women to government officials - as it explores the complicated political, ethnic and economic geography of this tattered land. A must-read for anyone interested in contemporary Africa, The Democratic Republic of Congo: Between, Hope and Despair sheds new light on this sprawling and often misunderstood country that has become iconic both for its great potential and dashed hopes.

• Rank: #190114 in Books
• Published on: 2013-10-08
• Released on: 2013-10-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, .0 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
Romeo Dallaire (Author), Samantha Power (Foreword)
(101)

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Human Rights

For the first time in the United States comes the tragic and profoundly important story of the legendary Canadian general who "watched as the devil took control of paradise on earth and fed on the blood of the people we were supposed to protect." When Roméo Dallaire was called on to serve as force commander of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda, he believed that his assignment was to help two warring parties achieve the peace they both wanted. Instead, he was exposed to the most barbarous and chaotic display of civil war and genocide in the past decade, observing in just one hundred days the killings of more than eight hundred thousand Rwandans. With only a few troops, his own ingenuity and courage to direct his efforts, Dallaire rescued thousands, but his call for more support from the world body fell on deaf ears. In Shake Hands with the Devil, General Dallaire recreates the awful history the world community chose to ignore. He also chronicles his own progression from confident Cold Warrior to devastated UN commander, and finally to retired general struggling painfully, and publicly, to overcome posttraumatic stress disorder—the highest-ranking officer ever to share such experiences with readers.

• Rank: #11562 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.02" h x 1.65" w x 6.02" l, 1.54 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

• Biography Current Affairs Rwanda

Gender and Decolonization in the Congo: The Legacy of Patrice Lumumba

Gender and Decolonization in the Congo: The Legacy of Patrice Lumumba
Karen Bouwer (Author)

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Human Rights

Patrice Lumumba’s legacy continues to fire the imagination of politicians, activists, and artists. But women have been missing from accounts of the Congo’s decolonization. What new ideals of masculinity and femininity were generated in this struggle? Were masculinist biases re-inscribed in later depictions of the martyred nationalist? Through analysis of Lumumba’s writings and speeches, the life stories of women activists, and literary and cinematic works, Gender and Decolonization in the Congo: The Legacy of Patrice Lumumba challenges male-centered interpretations of Congolese nationalism and illustrates how generic conventions both reinforced and undercut gender bias in representations of Lumumba and his female contemporaries.

• Rank: #136753 in Books
• Published on: 2013-06-06
• Released on: 2013-06-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, .0 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages