Sources of violence: Analyzing the literature on the Rwandan tragedy in the 1990s

Abstract

This is a historiographical thesis that analyzes the literature written about the massive human rights violations perpetrated in Rwanda in the 1990s. This violence includes the genocide against Tutsis in 1994, in which the majority of Tutsis within Rwanda were killed, as well as crimes against Hutus perpetrated by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the scale and nature of which are difficult to establish. The RPF occupied the country during the genocide and has remained in power since. There are two contending versions of history written about Rwanda, one favourable to the RPF, and one hostile to it. I call these camps Friends and Enemies of Rwanda, respectively. In between these contending camps lies the scholarly literature, which is more nuanced. The main focus of this thesis is not the scholarly literature, but rather the two antagonistic camps. The thesis has both a qualitative and a quantitative part. In the qualitative part, I analyze the literature to show what characterizes these two camps by discussing some of the main controversies in Rwandan history; I also show where scholars stand with respect to both camps. In the quantitative part I analyze the patterns of references between the most important authors on Rwanda, and attempt to categorize the literature with citation network analysis.