5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rwanda and Kagame - the full story, December 2, 2004
This review is from: Paul Kagame and Rwanda: Power, Genocide and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (Paperback)
....what the Rwandans need (and I am certain that they also wanted) is an objective approach to events of which most westerners do not have the slightest understanding. I hope now that all along the line they will, like me, agree that this book fills a vital gap in our understanding of events - and the people who shaped them during these turbulent times in Rwanda's history.
By focussing on President Kagame himself, and the RPF and its nascent evolution the book adds much more than many other writers have so far been able to do. It complements well the books of Melvern, Gourevitch, Dallaire and Hochschild - among others.
First, it is extremely readable and captures the changing times and the various moods, I feel, very accurately. It also tells it 'as it was - warts and all' It has given all the events the vital contexts - political, geographical, historic and human behavioral that are ESSENTIAL for a fuller understanding of not only the past but the future possibilities. I learned a great deal myself!
Waugh has done his research well, and thoroughly - and this comes through clearly. It will be MOST interesting to see what the 'detractors' will make of it - and of the author! It will certainly start a great debate.
Anyway, I feel that it should be compulsory reading for all Heads of State (Past and present), Political Advisors in all governments, students in all disciplines - especially leadership and governance - and all UN staff, past present and future should buy at least ten copies - and read them all!
Dr Alan Goodall
Honorary Consul for Rwanda in Scotland
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly Recommended - Choice Current Reviews, August 30, 2005
This review is from: Paul Kagame and Rwanda: Power, Genocide and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (Paperback)
Waugh, a specialist on African development, provides interesting, informative comment on Rwanda and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
He focuses neither on the causes or the progression of genocide in Rwanda, nor on the role of the UN or the US. Instead, he discusses the political life of Paul Kagame, the RPF's involvement in the Rwandan civil war and the postgenocidal period. Waugh is sympathetic to Kagame, had interviews with him and had access to some of his files.
Waugh is a good guide to Rwanda and this is an impressive addition to the literature as it deals with subjects often de-emphasized elsewhere. In sum: Highly Recommended for general readers, undergraduates, graduates and researchers.
A. Klinghoffer, Reviewer, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well researched, well written, highly biased, August 12, 2011
This review is from: Paul Kagame and Rwanda: Power, Genocide and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (Paperback)
I'd like to start this review by saying there is a lot to recommend this book. It is obvious that Colin Waugh spent a great deal of time researching and putting together a pretty thorough examination of recent Rwandan history including, of course, the genocide that took place in 1994. The book reads very easily without being fluff, and for that I am also appreciative. For anyone looking for an easily digestible recounting of events in Rwanda over the past twenty years, one can do much worse.
My problem with the book (and the reason I actually would rate it 3.5 stars if that were an option), is its very blatant stance of apologizing for the shortcomings of the post-genocide Kagame regime. I should preface my criticism with a couple of points. First, and most importantly, Waugh has set out to try to contextualize Kagame and his leadership by drawing distinctions between what kind of democracy is possible and "acceptable" in a normative, Western sense and that which is possible and acceptable in late-twentieth and early-twenty-first century Africa. I think this is a laudable, important effort and certainly one I can get behind (particularly when we've so recently seen examples of what can happen when attempts are made to air-drop Western-style democracies into places with very little regard for the culture, political or otherwise, of those places). Secondly, Waugh is also very forthcoming with the excesses and abuses in Rwanda on Kagame's watch. That being said...
My primary problem is that Waugh refuses to be critical at all of Paul Kagame and the way Rwanda has been run since the RPF came to power in 1994. Each time he points out something like political intimidation or extra-legal violence, there is an immediate "but this is Africa" caveat. These apologies are sometimes easy to accept, and sometimes they are baffling.
The line of reasoning is effective to a point, and I am not trying to argue one way or the other regarding what Kagame has done in Rwanda. In fact, if I were forced to cast myself as either pro- or anti-Kagame, I'd certainly fall in the former camp. What I am trying to argue, though, is that this contextualizing of the Rwandan situation only goes so far, and sometimes you can feel Waugh really stretching to make it work. Some of the justifications that he makes are real head-shakers. This is especially true when he abandons the "but this is Africa" refrain and draws parallels to the behaviors of Western nations in the past. When discussing Rwanda, comparisons with the Holocaust are bound to come up, and reasonably so. But when Waugh justifies Rwanda's extraction of mineral wealth from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 1990s by essentially saying, "Well, the Americans did it to Germany after World War II", it's a bit much. While I agree that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones, I also believe that such cavalier dismissal of present day injustices by arguing "well, it's not the first time" does not nothing but guarantee that humankind will continue along the same path.
The low point of the book, for me, was when Waugh equated a Rwandan voter who questioned the legitimacy of a 95% vote for Kagame in the 2003 elections (come on, give me a break) with the Rwandan "revisionists" who absurdly talk of a double-genocide in their country. Defend the imperfection of Rwandan democracy if you must, but don't lump those who are willing to call it what it is in with those who attempt to excuse genocide. For me, that was just a step or twelve over the line, and destroyed the last vestiges of any impartiality Waugh might have claimed.
Well, the close-up photo of Paul Kagame playing tennis, with the caption "Paul Kagame playing tennis" was a pretty low point, too.
In any case, the book is well worth reading, and you will almost certainly come away with a more comprehensive understanding of recent Rwandan history. To Waugh's credit, he doesn't try to hide his biases, so it's easy to take his analysis of the situation with a grain of salt. The theory behind viewing the recent Rwandan political experience through a non-Western lens is quite sound, I think, as long as you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
