Body politics and the Rwandan crisis

Since the Rwandan genocide of 1994, scholars and policy think-tanks have produced an impressive number of macro-level studies and theories to explain the seemingly inexplicable: how and why did this happen? Yet these studies, most often based on ethnic and/or global level analyses, tend to simplify...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Third world quarterly 2003-06, Vol.24 (3), p.479-493
Main Author: Baines, Erin K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Countries
Development studies
Ethnic Cleansing
Gender
Genocide
Human Body
Human rights
Hutu
Killing
Macroeconomics
Men
National identity
Nationalism
Political development
Political extremism
Political violence
Politics
Rwanda
Sex
Sexual violence
Sexuality
Tutsi
Violence against women
Violent extremism
Women
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Summary:Since the Rwandan genocide of 1994, scholars and policy think-tanks have produced an impressive number of macro-level studies and theories to explain the seemingly inexplicable: how and why did this happen? Yet these studies, most often based on ethnic and/or global level analyses, tend to simplify complex social relations at the local level which likewise contributed to the genocide. This article examines 'micro-level' testimonial evidence collected in human rights reports to shed light on one particularly under-theorised realm and approach, that of gender and the politics of the body. I suggest that the 1994 genocide was an extreme attempt not only to purge the 'Hutu nation' of the Tutsi, but also to actively engender a vision of the 'Hutu nation' in the minds of an otherwise diverse and fragmented local populace. Women's bodies, gender and sexuality became highly contested terrains for scripting this vision of an imagined nation.
ISSN:0143-6597
1360-2241
DOI:10.1080/0143659032000084429