Historical Dictionary of Rwanda

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Rwanda, a country of over 10,000 square miles of precipitous slopes and lush banana groves has not only one of the highest population densities in the world (7.2 million people or 720 per square mile), but an equally satiated historical experience that indludes domination by Tutsi pastoralists, German, and eventually Belgian colonials. The national period or post-independence in Rwanda was a time of ethnic strife and massacre, famine, and civil war. Rwanda is also one of the poorest countries in the world, primarily because ethnic and national integration have eluded this polity. Only recently, with the signing of a peace treaty (the Arusha Agreement in Tanzania) on August 4, 1993, between President Juvenal Habyarimana and Alexis Kanyarengwe, the leader of the Front Patriotique Rwandais, has there been reason for hope and optimism that Rwanda may be able to resolve its many problems. This dictionary is an extensive survey of political, social, and economic events in Rwanda from antiquity to the present. Many of the entries are devoted to historical personalities and place names, but economic and social events are not ignored. The chronology is fairly extensive, particularly the period after independence and the October 1990 invasion of Rwanda by the RPF. The dictionary is designed for librarians, scholars, and students interested in Africa.

Author Biography: Learthen Dorsey (BS, Pennsylvania State University; MA, PhD, Michigan State University), Assistant Professor of History, University of Nebraska/Lincoln, has also taught at Clemson University and served as Director of the Sahel Documentation Center at Michigan State University, East Lansing. Professor Dorsey conductedarchival and field research in Belgium and Rwanda.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Much of this book stems from research done by the author (history, Univ. of Nebraska) for his thesis on Rwanda (1983). Like the other volumes in this series, it is prefaced by a handy table of abbreviations as well as a useful chronology and a good, readable historical overview (both ending about March 1993, shortly before the current crisis began). A brief bibliography is appended at the end. The dictionary section includes terms in French and Kinyarwanda, with a host of historical and government terms, biographical entries, and general words and phrases that should prove helpful to a broad audience, especially reference librarians and students. An index and greater cross-referencing would have made this a more useful tool. Although Rwanda is a small country, given its unfortunate prominence in world affairs lately, this book may prove quite valuable to a wide variety of collections.-Paul H. Thomas, Hoover Inst. Lib., Stanford, Cal.

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