- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Princeton University Press (12 Aug 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0691102805
- ISBN-13: 978-0691102801
- Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 16.2 x 2.3 cm
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
802,711 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #71 in Books > History > Countries & Regions > Africa > Eastern > Rwanda
- #87 in Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Psychology & Psychiatry > Comparative Psychology
- See Complete Table of Contents
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £4.80
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £4.80, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
The strengths of the book are clear and admirable. First, it provides what might be called an intellectual history of the Hutu-Tutsi division that is invaluable. . . . Anyone from now on who writes on identity in Central Africa--and there will be many--will have to wrestle with the case that Mamdani has made. -- Jeffrey Herbst, Foreign Affairs
Mr Mamdani's political settlement is not democracy, which would simply restore the majority Hutus to power, but an acceptance of the Hutu and Tutsi with political, not cultural or class affiliations. He recommends a broad-based constitutional settlement that includes everyone prepared to give up violence whatever their ideology. -- "The Economist
[Mamdani's] analysis of Rwandese society, in particular the role of the church in the genocide, is fascinating. . . . Mamdani believes that the tens of thousands of killers who wielded the machetes that murdered 800,000 people in three terrible months of 1994 saw themselves as victims who feared losing out in the struggle for power. -- Victoria Brittain, The Guardian
Few are better qualified to explain the tensions of post-colonial Africa than Mahmood Mamdani, a Ugandan political scientist with a sharp perspective on the colonially inspired differences between 'subject races'. His Rwandan case-study provides powerful evidence that the Tutsis came to be crushed between colonist and native. -- Richard Synge, The Independent
A welcome, powerful, and clear-sighted addition to this literature. . . . When Victims Become Killers represents a great achievement. It is a passionate and strongly argued work, memorable both as scholarship and as a brilliant political polemic. -- "Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History
Nuanced and ground-breaking . . . a book that, unlike any of its kind, holistically encompasses all the underlying factors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. [It] would be useful to anyone who is interested in not only knowing more about Rwandan history, but also how such a tragedy could occur in the modern era. -- "African Studies Quarterly
A genuinely original contribution to understanding the Rwandan catastrophe. -- "Dissent
This book is a must-read. In terms of historical research and analytical depth, When Victims Become Killers is an invaluable academic work. . . . [Mamdani's] arguments are compelling even to those who may wish to disagree with him. -- "Monitor
[A] brilliant study of political identity and violence. -- Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, H-Net Reviews
Mr Mamdani's political settlement is not democracy, which would simply restore the majority Hutus to power, but an acceptance of the Hutu and Tutsi with political, not cultural or class affiliations. He recommends a broad-based constitutional settlement that includes everyone prepared to give up violence whatever their ideology. -- "The Economist
[Mamdani's] analysis of Rwandese society, in particular the role of the church in the genocide, is fascinating. . . . Mamdani believes that the tens of thousands of killers who wielded the machetes that murdered 800,000 people in three terrible months of 1994 saw themselves as victims who feared losing out in the struggle for power. -- Victoria Brittain, The Guardian
Few are better qualified to explain the tensions of post-colonial Africa than Mahmood Mamdani, a Ugandan political scientist with a sharp perspective on the colonially inspired differences between 'subject races'. His Rwandan case-study provides powerful evidence that the Tutsis came to be crushed between colonist and native. -- Richard Synge, The Independent
A welcome, powerful, and clear-sighted addition to this literature. . . . When Victims Become Killers represents a great achievement. It is a passionate and strongly argued work, memorable both as scholarship and as a brilliant political polemic. -- "Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History
Nuanced and ground-breaking . . . a book that, unlike any of its kind, holistically encompasses all the underlying factors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. [It] would be useful to anyone who is interested in not only knowing more about Rwandan history, but also how such a tragedy could occur in the modern era. -- "African Studies Quarterly
A genuinely original contribution to understanding the Rwandan catastrophe. -- "Dissent
This book is a must-read. In terms of historical research and analytical depth, When Victims Become Killers is an invaluable academic work. . . . [Mamdani's] arguments are compelling even to those who may wish to disagree with him. -- "Monitor
[A] brilliant study of political identity and violence. -- Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, H-Net Reviews
Richard Synge, The Independent
Few are better qualified to explain the tensions of post-colonial Africa than Mahmood Mamdani. . . .
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
IN THE decade that followed African political independence, militant nationalist intellectuals focused on the expropriation of the native as the great crime of colonialism. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
IN THE decade that followed African political independence, militant nationalist intellectuals focused on the expropriation of the native as the great crime of colonialism. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
9 reviews
70 of 73 people found the following review helpful
Should become the standard English-language introduction
21 Aug 2001
Format:Hardcover
This new book by Mahmood Mamdani, one of the world's most respected Africa scholars, stands a good chance of replacing Gérard Prunier's "The Rwanda Crisis" as the standard English-language introduction to Rwanda and its genocide. Mamdani's highly-readable account focuses on the political construction of Hutu and Tutsi as racial/ethnic identities, tracing the tale from the pre-colonial era, through Belgium's administration of the country, to the 1959 Revolution and subsequent attempts to develop an overarching sense of Rwandan nationhood. These attempts were cut short by the rise of Hutu Power in the early 1990s, culminating in the horrific outbreak of mass killing in April 1994. The advantage of Mamdani's book is that it offers "history from below," arguing that the racialized hostility between Hutu and Tutsi helps to account for the extraordinary (perhaps unprecedented) degree of popular involvement in the 1994 killing campaign. He also stresses the regional context of the Rwandan civil war and genocide, with separate chapters on Uganda and Congo/Zaire. The book is rich in theoretical insights but never ponderous or pretentious. A "must" for any student of Rwanda or modern African politics more generally (see also Mamdani's award-winning 1996 book "Citizen and Subject," which fleshes out some of the theoretical frameworks used in "When Victims Become Killers").
49 of 51 people found the following review helpful
When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the
24 Feb 2002
Format:Hardcover
The Rwandan genocide was a horrible affair of unequal proportions. I have always wondered though how a whole population can commit such horrendous acts against fellow countrymen/women en masse, as was reported. Surely there must've been something that must've been brewing all along; there must've been an underlying "cause". Despeakable it maybe I wanted to know what in Rwanda's history could've given rise to this. I have read Phillip Gourevitch'sr "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda", although a good book, is mostly a narrative and I was still left with the unfinished business of why? why? why?. This book filled the void for me. With a historical background of precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial sociopolitical Rwanda, the author provides an amazingly rich analysis of the Rwandan state leading to what heppened in 1994. It has given me the picture I needed to see, to begin to address the issues of why did this awful thing took place. It's a must read to anyone interested in Rwanda and what went on there.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Reform the state and citizenship
14 Jan 2005
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Mahmood Mamdani is Professor of Government and Director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University. His reputation as an expert in African history, politics and international relations has made him an important voice in contemporary debates about the changing role of Africa in a global context. Mamdani proposes that Burundi and Rwanda need to reform the state and citizenship within their own borders so that power recognizes equal citizenship rights for all based on a single criterion: residence. Without a reform in power, one that recognizes both the importance of a majority in politics and the need for fearful minorities to participate in the exercise of power, Mamdani maintains there can be no sustained reconciliation between Hutu and Tutsi.
Reviewed by David S. Fick, Author of Africa: Continent of Economic Opportunities, STE Publishers, Johannesburg SA, May 2005, www.ste.co.za
Reviewed by David S. Fick, Author of Africa: Continent of Economic Opportunities, STE Publishers, Johannesburg SA, May 2005, www.ste.co.za
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Psychology & Psychiatry > Comparative Psychology
- Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Psychology & Psychiatry > Specific Topics > Violence
- Books > History > Countries & Regions > Africa > Eastern > Rwanda
- Books > History > Military History > Strategy, Tactics & Military Science
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > Countries & Regions > Africa
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
