This book investigates the juxtaposition of ethnicity and regionalism in Rwandan politics and the unfolding of the worst mass murder at the end of the twentieth century.

The acts of violence perpetrated on African slaves brought to America resulted in an erasure of their identity, history, and memory. Early African American writers created a black literary and cultural identity by retrieving, recording, and interpreting fragments of the African culture that survived

Blessed with natural beauty and rich vegetation, Rwanda is often called the "land of a thousand hills" (le pays des mille collines), a reference to its many lush and green rolling hills. Moreover, for many Rwandans, at least in the past, Rwanda, in spite of its small size, is vast; in fact, it means the universe. This idyllic view, however, sharply contrasts with the sad history of ethnic strife that unfolded since the 1950s: the 1959 Hutu Revolution followed by years of anti-Tutsi pogroms, undemocratic regimes, the civil war of 1990-1994, and, more significantly, the April-July 1994 genocide...

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.