Genocide in Rwanda: A Collective Memory [Paperback]

John A. Berry (Editor), Carol Pott Berry (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 201 pages
• Publisher: Howard Univ Pr (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 088258202X
• ISBN-13: 978-0882582023
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,145,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable addition to literature on the Rwandan genocide, August 25, 2000

By 

hugh riminton - See all my reviews

This review is from: Genocide in Rwanda: A Collective Memory (Paperback)

For anyone with an already-primed interest in the terrible events of 1994 in Rwanda, this book is tremendously valuable.

It seeks to filter as little as possible the views of Rwandans. There are, in this book, some deeply disturbing survivor's accounts of the genocide, transcribed, unvarnished, from their own testimony. It is all the more powerful for the directness of its expression.

Most valuable to me was the material explaining the colonial origins of the division between Tutsis and Hutus. It is extraordinary to me that when Rwanda and Burundi were "assigned" to Germany in the 1880s, no European had even set foot in those lands. When they came, their pursuit of control caused divisions where previously - on this evidence - none had existed. Blame for the genocide must be seated in the Belgian colonial rulers in general (they took over after 1916), and the missionary churches in particular. This book explains why.

Rwanda, more than any other event since WW2, makes us consider the question put eloquently here by one of the witnesses: what is humanity? Who is included? Who is left out? For the world not to have acted effectively to have prevented the Rwandan cataclysm stands to its shame. Kofi Annan has admitted as much, but the real fault lies with everyone and we should all be ashamed.

The compilers of this book have acted bravely in including an apologia from the authors of the genocide. We hear their voices. We must be sickened by them. We must acknowledge that we were warned; the voices existed long before the worst of the genocide began.

Knowing what we know about the world, would we prevent it next time? Be honest now; would we?

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vital Perspective, August 20, 2003

By 

Charles Dambach "Chic Dambach" (Crownsville, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Genocide in Rwanda: A Collective Memory (Paperback)

This is the story of the genocide in Rwanda in all its power and horror expressed by the people who experienced it - Rwandans themselves. Therefore, it is the most important of all of the books on the subject. The others are also important and some may be more eloquent as literature, but none match Genocide in Rwanda for sheer unvarnished and unfiltered honesty and integrity. The book also provides an invaluable chronology of Rwanda that illuminates a vital perspective on the political and tribal conditions that precipitated the killing.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An account of the Rwandan genocide by Rwandans., October 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Genocide in Rwanda: A Collective Memory (Paperback)

This interesting historic document allows the often ignored voice of the Rwandan people to be heard. Witness testimony is horrifyingly poignant when the victim is made known so clearly to the reader. It is as if I could see their faces and feel their fears. I have read many reference works on the genocide in Rwanda but none so accurately put me in the shoes of the victims. The killers are also represented, as are the international community and their failures, the actions of the church, the former government, the current government and members of the Rwandan Patriotic Army. This book really made me feel for the writers, the Rwandans themselves who have suffered so much through the failings of the international community.