1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910968658303321

Autore

Burnet Jennie E

Titolo

Genocide lives in us : women, memory, and silence in Rwanda / / Jennie E. Burnet

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Madison, : University of Wisconsin Press, c2012

ISBN

9780299286439

0299286436

9781283692243

1283692244

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (303 p.)

Collana

Women in Africa and the diaspora

Disciplina

967.57104/31

Soggetti

Genocide - Rwanda

Women in public life - Rwanda

Women - Rwanda - Social conditions

Rwanda History 1994-

Rwanda History Civil War, 1994 Atrocities

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Intro -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- List of Abbreviations -- Note on Kinyarwanda Usage and Spelling -- Introduction -- 1. Social Classification, State Power, and Violence -- 2. Remembering Genocide: Lived Memory and National Mourning -- 3. Amplified Silence: Hegemony, Memory, and Silence's Multiple Meanings -- 4. Sorting and Suffering: Social Classification in the Aftermath of Genocide -- 5. Defining Coexistence and Reconciliation in the New Rwanda -- 6. Paths to Reconciliation -- 7. Reconciliation, Justice, and Amplified Silence -- Conclusion -- Glossary -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

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 uncovers 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.Honorable Mention, Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize, Women's Caucus of the African Studies Association