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Of related interest
State Building and Human Rights after Mass Violence
Edited by
C
RITICAL
H
UMAN
R
IGHTS
“This rich array of careful scholarship provides a valuable, multifaceted view of a country still
struggling with the aftereffects of genocide and civil war. It offers an important corrective to
the naively rosy picture of Rwanda that too often prevails in the American media.”
—Adam Hochschild, author of
King Leopold’s Ghost
Published April 2011
LC: 2010038912 DT 403 pp. 6 x 9 3 tables, 3 charts, 2 maps
ISBN 978-0-299-28264-6 Paper $26.95 s ISBN 978-0-299-28263-9 e-book $16.95 s
Women, Memory, and Silence in Rwanda
“A profoundly empathetic and comprehensive narrative
that goes to the bottom of Rwandans’ everyday struggles
triggered by a contextual and inevitable urge to face their
own violent past.”
—Aloys Habimana, Rwandan human rights lawyer
In the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, Rwandan women faced the
impossible—resurrecting their lives amidst unthinkable devastation.
Haunted by memories of lost loved ones and of their own experiences
of violence, women rebuilt their lives from “less than nothing.”
Neither passive victims nor innate peacemakers, they traversed
dangerous emotional and political terrain to emerge as leaders in
Rwanda today. This clear and engaging ethnography of survival
tackles three interrelated phenomena—memory, silence, and justice—
and probes the contradictory roles women played in postgenocide
reconciliation.
Based on more than a decade of intensive fieldwork,
Genocide
Lives in Us
provides a unique grassroots perspective on a postconflict
society. Anthropologist Jennie E. Burnet relates with sensitivity the
heart-wrenching survival stories of ordinary Rwandan women and un-
covers political and historical themes in their personal narratives. She
shows that women’s leading role in Rwanda’s renaissance resulted from
several factors: the dire postgenocide situation that forced women into
new roles; advocacy by the Rwandan women’s movement; and the
inclusion of women in the postgenocide government.
is assistant professor of
anthropology at the University of Louisville.
Her research focuses on women’s roles in
peace-building and democratization and on
the long-term consequences of gender-based
violence in conflict.
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS
• SPRING 2012 •
African Studies / Anthropology / Human Rights / Women’s Studies
August 2012
LC: 2011045391 DT
304 pp. 6 x 9 11 b/w figures, 3 tables
Paper $29.95 s
ISBN 978-0-299-28644-6
e-book $19.95 s
ISBN 978-0-299-28643-9
31
W
OMEN IN
A
FRICA AND THE
D
IASPORA
Stanlie James and Aili Mari Tripp, Series Editors
“The stories of life in postgenocide Rwanda
presented in this book are deeply touching
and challenge the dominant discourse that
portrays Rwanda as a simple story of success-
ful postconflict rebuilding. This book is
essential reading for anyone with interest in
Rwanda and in the legacies of violence,
gender, society, memory, and transitional
justice.”
—Timothy Longman, Boston University
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