By
Stephen Williams
Leave none to tell the story By Alison Des Forges and others
£24.95 Human Rights Watch (US)
ISBN 1-56432-171-1
Over the past few years African Business has reviewed a number of books which either touched on or were primarily concerned with the Rwanda genocide of 1994 Both Dervla Murphy in her book ‘Visiting Rwanda’ and Philip Gourevitch’s ‘We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families’ dealt in depth with the 100 day genocide campaign resulting in the slaughter of three quarters of the Tutsis of Rwanda.
Both books highlighted the utter failure of what is termed the ‘international community’, (in this instance primarily Belgium France, the US and the UN) to either recognise the warnings of an impending disaster or respond meaningfully when it began. But both these books shared a common and understandable need to express the author’s emotional reaction to such a monumental crime against humanity.
This book is different. First published in the spring of 1999 as an 800-page report, it takes a less subjective and more detached approach in detailing the mechanisms of mass murder, providing a wide-ranging analysis of how ordinary state structures and practices were turned to the purpose of genocide
The evidence is clearly presented to counter the view that the killings were simply an explosion of latent and ancient ethnic hatreds between Hutus and Tutsis leading to the failure of the Rwandan state to control events.
Mass of documents
This explanation was widely touted at the time and is still given some currency today. A careful study of the mass of documents produced by just two of Rwanda’s prefecture administrations, Gikongoro and Butare, point to a well-prepared conspiracy, the culmination of years of meticulous planning, to eliminate political opposition. While there were honourable exceptions, many bureaucrats, soldiers, police, intellectuals and church leaders, as well as an elite group of politicians, are implicated. The killing grounds were readied by a media propaganda campaign which legitimatised, cajoled, preached, threatened and mobilised the population to embark on the ‘patriotic duty’ of exterminating their minority neighbours.
Having laid to rest the myth that the Rwanda genocide was the result of a classic ‘failure of the state’, attention is turned towards the role of the international community. The UN, which had a military presence with its UNAMIR force in the country at the outset of the killings, and major world players made concerted efforts to compartmentalise the atrocities, to describe them as a localised, regional or an African ‘problem’
Betrayal of Responsibility
The facts disclosed in this book show otherwise. The decision of the UN to withdraw most UN troops in the midst of the carnage can only be described as a betrayal of responsibility. The UNAMIR commander, General Dallaire, himself asked the rhetorical question “Did the ineffectiveness of the UN mission in grasping the situation and the poor handling of the political, humanitarian and military response in extremis abet the genocide?” His answer was that he believed it did.
On a national government level, the US, still smarting at the humiliation of its Somalia intervention, refused to recognise the killings as genocide so as to avoid legal obligations to intervene under the 1948 International Declaration on Genocide Prevention; the French were more interested in defending Francophone influence and declined to recognise that anything more than a local disturbance was taking place; the Belgians were anxious to save face; and the British government sat on its hands lest it get embroiled in the turmoil.
Compounding the culpability these nations and others share was a failure to halt the massive flow of arms to Rwanda even as the genocide continued. An arms embargo was subsequently put in place, but not before millions of dollars worth of small arms reached the country and thousands more people were slaughtered.
RPF under question
The authors also question the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) government, which swept to power with a victorious military campaign shortly after the genocide abated. Allegations of serious human rights violations contained in a UN commissioned study of the RPF’s actions, ‘The Gersony Mission’, is reproduced in this book
Since the RPF came to power, the report alleges massive retaliatory killings have taken place - not simply acts of revenge but part and parcel of a policy of terror to consolidate political power. This implies that the RPF’s stated aim of national reconciliation is little more than a charade.
Since this book was published, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has detailed cases of assassination, murder, arbitrary detention, torture and other abuses, perpetrated chiefly by the army. Meanwhile, Amnesty International (AI) has condemned the inhumane treatment of prisoners awaiting trial for participating in the genocide six years ago, claiming that 100,000 suspects have been held for long periods of time with no indication of when their cases would be heard.
Amnesty International has also condemned the introduction of a system of justice to deal with most genocide cases, known as garaca (essentially village courts, with the public as judge and juries), describing them as fundamentally flawed and failing to meet basic international judicial standards.
The RPF government’s Foreign Minister, Andre Bumaya, is quoted as responding to these allegations by saying that “we were expecting more understanding from these organisations [HRW and AI] which are not unaware of the disastrous impact of the genocide on our country.” But his government’s steadfast refusal to allow investigations of the existence of mass graves or, for that matter, scrutiny of the use made of its international economic aid, indicates that this story may not have reached its conclusion.
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Mr Bigstuff the Godess of Charm Parties, Wars, Love and Ambition South of the Sahara
By Fiona Sax Ledger
£12.99 Picador
ISBN 0-330-37437-0
 In
over a decade as a freelance journalist, magazine editor and a features
producer for the African Service of the BBC World Service, Fiona Sax Ledger
has travelled throughout Africa. In this book she relates some of her encounters
and experiences Her self deprecating style brings a view of Africa which,
while not ignoring the continent’s distressing disasters, tyrants,
cruelty and corruption, concentrates on a broad cross-section of African
peoples. From pimps to presidents, she observes Africa’s humanity
in all its diversity.
While her views are occasionally tinged with the vaguely patronising attitude the BBC has made a house style, they are nevertheless affectionate and respectful. She reserves most of her scorn for her own shortcomings in dealing with her journalistic duties. Whether it’s struggling to make a radio documentary programme while coping with a bout of dysentery, learning her lines for an amateur dramatic performance, or trying to persuade a suicidal driver to chauffeur her at less than a hundred miles an hour along a dirt track, she is under no illusion about the limits of her own abilities She retains an awareness that she is essentially an outsider who has been given the privilege of travelling to, and experiencing, a continent like no other.
Series of vignettes
Fiona Sax Ledger constructs the book in a seemingly random series of vignettes which begin in 1980 on a visit to northern Nigeria. Invited no doubt due to her pioneering work reporting on the performance of back-hoe loaders and cement mixers in West Africa, here she witnesses the visit of the President to open a German truck factory. The ceremony runs hopelessly late, crowds of onlookers gatecrash the party, the guests scoop the food laid out on tables into their handbags to take home and the plates and cutlery are similarly spirited away. It is little short of chaos. The author then accepts the offer of a ride in a big man’s car which inevitably leads to a spirited defence of her virtue.
This opening chapter is followed by further adventures in Somalia, Angola, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, South Africa and Kenya. As she undertakes a series of assignments which vary from researching stories, producing documentaries, teaching people how to record sound or participating in theatrical projects, her earthy prose relates the surreal, the flamboyant, the touching, the hilarious and occasionally downright dangerous aspects of her decade long career in Africa.
South Africa - A Modern History 5th Edition
By Rodney Davenport Christopher Saunders
£35 Macmillan Press
ISBN 0-333-79223-8
In the foreword, Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes the book as a remarkable ‘tour de force’, principally because the authors have managed to condense so much detail of South Africa’s history, from the dawn of prehistoric times to the second democratic elections, into one concise volume. This is, in fact, the fifth edition of the book which was first published in 1977.
In this edition, T R H Davenport who is emeritus professor of history at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, is joined by Christopher Saunders, professor of history at the University of Cape Town, to share authorship for the first time. Between them they have updated the fourth edition, published in 1991, which ended with the release of Nelson Mandela and the independence of Namibia.
The last two chapters of the previous edition have been entirely rewritten and spread across three chapters to include the social, political and constitutional developments of the Mandela presidency (1990-1999). Other changes include new interpretations of prehistoric rock art; the ‘mfecane controversy’ of the first part of the 19th century; Kimberly, de Beers and labour in the diamond fields; the origins of the Anglo-Boer War; and fresh insights into African politics at a number of points between the cattle-killings of 1857 and the uprisings of 1976-7.
New evidence and fresh interpretation provided by various distinguished
academics have been assembled and analysed. Insights into Afrikaner nationalism
and its development in the apartheid era, and new knowledge of the conduct
of the liberation struggle serves to provide an understanding of the events
that have shaped the new South Africa of today The authors have produced
a compelling work that is authoritative, readable and revealing.
Silent
Images
Women in Pharaonic Egypt
By Zahi Hawass
£32 Harry N Abrams Inc
ISBN 0-8109-4478-2
In this superb book, the world renowned archeologist Zahi Hawass explores
the role of women in ancient Egypt. As director of the Giza pyramids,
field director of the Bahariya oasis excavations, and a lecturer at Cairo
University, his text carries immense authority. Complemented by some 150
exquisite photographic illustrations, this lavish book presents a somewhat
surprising view of Egyptian women and their place within that ancient
society. The forward by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak explains that the idea for
the book arose from her wish to present delegates at the UN’s Fourth
World Conference on Women with a better understanding of the respect accorded
to women in ancient Egypt. Her hope was that this might, in her own words
“serve as a model for today’s feminist awakenings.”
While it might be taken for granted that women had a central function
in the life of the family, his analysis also offers a view that women
played a broader role in the fabric of everyday life. Not only did ancient
Egypt’s women have legal rights the equal of their menfolk to own
property, unlike their counterparts in ancient Rome and Greece, but they
also had a place among the elite that controlled the worship of the ancient
kingdom’s various deities.
Their place should not be overstated, their status within the ruling hierarchies
was mainly based on to who they were related, but even if they were not
the wife, mistress, mother, sister or daughter of a powerful man, the
author presents a compelling argument that ancient Egyptians fully recognised
the importance of women.
Rather than viewed as mere chattels of their husbands, they were valued
as the anchor of the family unit and, as such, of tremendous importance
to the stability of society as a whole. If a husband died, it was quite
clearly stated in law that his wife should inherit at least one third
of his property. A similar arrangement would apply to divorce settlements.
Career opportunities for women were limited, no matter what their status.
Literacy was denied to them, and official positions of authority within
government administration were very few. However, it seems likely that
women could and did obtain positions of service within royal households
For example, it is known that the wife of a sixth century vizier (the
deputy of the king) who was herself of royal blood, had a whole staff
of female officials.
But in general, for a woman to advance her own economic independence she
would extend those skills of the household - such as market trading, the
manufacture of textiles or the baking of bread - to earn an income which
she had a legal right to dispose of as she wished.
The author suggests that the balance between the very different roles
of men and women created a stable society - and although the position
of women would not meet the demands of today’s feminists, the women
of ancient Egypt would not have had the same concept of independence and
equality. But then, neither did men! Both genders had to accept their
positions within a highly authoritarian and totally hierarchical, stratified
and segregated society and it is probable that the women of ancient Egypt
valued the security of close-knit family ties above personal independence.
African Banking
Directory 2000
Compiled and published by SIFIDA, this unique directory brings together
in one volume of more than 700 pages all the useful data on more than
1,000 African banking and financial institutions including offices of
the World Bank and the IFC, the African Development Bank, regional institutions
and guarantee funds. Finance ministries and central banks of each country
as well as debt servicing institutions and stock exchanges are also listed.
Banks and other financial institutions are listed by country and listings
include details of shareholders, their boards of directors, main executives
and financial results for the last two years.
For more details or to order contact SIFIDA at 22 rue Francois-Perreard,
CP310, 1225 Chene-Bourg/Geneva, Switzerland.
Copyright © IC Publications Limited 2001. All rights reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means or used for any business purpose without the written consent of the publisher. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained herein is as accurate as possible, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any consequences arising from its use.
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