What Do We Now Know About the Rwandan Genocide Twenty Years On?
In 1994 I was in graduate school, trying hard to juggle teaching, getting started on my dissertation and having something of a real life.\n\nThe real life part suffered most of all. \xa0But every once in a while, the world around me would startle me out of my cave and remind me that life was proceeding without me.\n\nThe genocide in Rwanda was one of these events. Along with the ongoing ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, it made me question whether academics was a meaningful career choice and what I could and should do right then, in the midst of massive violence against innocents.\n\nAnd then, by the time I had actually started thinking hard about it, the genocide in Rwanda was over. \xa0As most people now know, something like 800,000 people were killed in about a hundred days.\n\nJuly was the 20th anniversary of the end of the genocide. \xa0To mark that occasion, we\u2019re going to depart from the usual format of the show. \xa0Instead of interviewing an author about his or her book, we\u2019re going to spend an hour or so thinking more broadly about events in Rwanda and how we now understand them. \xa0Three experts on the Rwandan genocide will help us do so: \xa0Lee Ann Fujii, Scott Straus and Lars Waldorf. \xa0During the discussion we\u2019ll move from the motivations of the killers to the ways in which the genocide has been remembered (or not) to what movies and books they would recommend for people who want to learn more.\n\nThe podcast is, however, to some degree inspired by a single book, Alison des Forges remarkable Leave None to Tell the Story, published in 1999. \xa0The book is a tour de force of careful research and analysis and set the direction for research on Rwanda. \xa0Nevertheless, it is fifteen years old. \xa0Since then, we\u2019ve had hundreds of studies examining the genocide and its aftermath.\n\nSo today w\u2019re going to spend a few minutes assessing that new research, using the broad question of \u201cWhat do we know about Rwanda 20 years after the genocide?\u201d \xa0I hope you enjoy the discussion.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies