Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda / Edition 1

by Peter Uvin

Overview

* Winner of the African Studies Association’s 1999 Herskovits Award
* A boldly critical look at structural violence relating to the 1994 Rwanda genocide

Aiding Violence expresses outrage at the contradiction of massive genocide in a country considered by Western aid agencies to be a model of development. Focusing on the 1990s dynamics of militarization and polarization that resulted in genocide, Uvin reveals how aid enterprises reacted, or failed to react, to those dynamics. By outlining the profound structural basis on which the genocidal edifice was built, the book exposes practices of inequality, exclusion, and humiliation throughout Rwanda.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781565490833
Publisher:	Kumarian Press, Inc.
Publication date:	09/28/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Peter Uvin is the Henry J. Leir Professor of International Humanitarian Studies at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. He received his doctorate in international relations from the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales, University of Geneva. He has been a Research Associate Professor at the Watson Institute of International Affairs, Brown University, and has taught at New Hampshire College and the Graduate School of Development Studies, Geneva. For the last 20 years, he has worked periodically in Africa as a development practitioner and consultant, recently collaborating with UNDP, the OECD, and Belgian, Dutch, Danish, and British bilateral agencies. His book, Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda, won the 1999 African Studies Association Herskovits Award for the most outstanding book on Africa.

Table of Contents

Part I. Background; 1) Rwanda before Independence: A Contested History; 2) After Independence: Strategies for Elite Consolidation; 3) The Image of Rwanda in the Development Community; Part II. Crisis, Elite Manipulation, and Violence in the 1990s; 4) Political and Economic Crises and the Radicalization of Society; 5) Under the Volcano: The Development Community in the 1990s; Part III. The Condition of Structural Violence; 6) From Structural to Acute Violence; 7) Aid and Structural Violence; Part IV. Two Issues: The Role of Civil Society and Ecological Resource Scarcity; 8) And Where Was Civil Society?; 9) The Role of Ecological Resources Scarcity; Part V. Conclusions; 10) Why Did People Participate in Genocide? A Theoretically Informed Synthesis; 11) Development Aid: Conclusions and Paths for Reflection

What People are Saying About This

Johan Galtung

With great skill the different factors contributing to the holocaust [in Rwanda] are sorted out, cultural, structural and the more personal and situational, including the role of Western development agencies in fortifying the entrenched structural violence brought out by colonialism.

Editorial Reviews

"A very well researched, well-thought through, astonishing, most upsetting book about the 1994 Rwanda genocide. This book should be obligatory for anybody, African as well as non-African, concerned with the continent."

"This book should be read by everyone involved in development. For those with some knowledge of Rwanda, reading it is nothing short of a cathartic experience. Much of what Peter Uvin has distilled so carefully and passionately from the Rwandan experience is also painfully relevant for other parts of the world."

"Paradigm-rocking... simply must be required reading for anyone who desires to set foot in an African nation, no matter how noble or lofty their goals."

"An invaluable anatomy of the way development aid to Rwanda before the genocide contributed to what took place - essential reading for anyone with a tender conscience and a strong stomach."

From the Publisher

Everyone involved in development should read this book. Fort those with some d of Rwanda, reading it is nothing shore of a cathartic experience. Much of what Peter Uvin has distilled so carefully and passionately from the Rwandan experience is also painfully relevant for other parts of the world… This remarkable book states what is rarely stated about the symbiotic relationship between development aid and the ruling class, and about the consequences of this relationship on a society driven by wide-scale and acute inequality of opportunity. It also raises a profound issue of general development aid's lack of ability to involve, and benefit, the 'ultra-poor'.
— Development in Practice

Anne Lloyd-Williams

…Aiding Violence simply must be required reading for anyone who desires to set foot in an African nation - no matter how noble or lofty their goals!

WorldViews