\u201cI have friends, students, and researchers who were killed, and in some cases I know who killed them.\u201d\u2014Timothy Longman<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As a University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison grad student in political science, Longman planned to do his dissertation research in Congo. But in 1991, two weeks before he was to fly there, rioting targeting westerners broke out. A faculty member advised him to refocus, suggesting Rwanda as \u201ca nice, peaceful little country.\u201d Longman spent much of 1992 and 1993 in Rwanda, watching the country fall apart as it was wracked by extremist politics and fears of ethnic violence.
\n![\"Rwandabook\"](\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/today\/files\/2018\/01\/Rwandabook-332x420.jpg\")
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Different sources offer different numbers, but Longman believes that between 500,000 and 600,000 Rwandans were killed in the bloodbath that began in April 1994\u2014in a country roughly the size of Vermont. Most of the dead were Tutsis massacred by Hutu, who also killed moderate Hutu. Neighbors killed neighbors in a firestorm of violence fueled by ethnic differences, but sparked and fanned by government propaganda. After months of violence, Tutsi rebels known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) overthrew the government and stopped the genocide. Longman returned there as director of the Rwanda field office of Human Rights Watch in 1995 and 1996, charged with investigating what had happened and witnessing the country\u2019s struggles to move beyond the chaos. Much of what he learned is described in his new book.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helped to go back to Rwanda as a human rights worker instead of just a scholar, because I felt I was able to do something proactive,\u201d Longman says. He helped to train international criminal tribunal researchers so they could hold people accountable, and he served as an expert witness in trials held in countries around the world to bring people accused in the genocide to justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a subject I can\u2019t just approach from an academic perspective,\u201d he says. \u201cI have friends, students, and researchers who were killed, and in some cases I know who killed them. One of the main organizers of the genocide in one of the communities where I worked extensively was someone I knew very well. I\u2019ve eaten in his house; he used to give me rides to the capital. He ended up participating in the killing of some of my friends, and I have friends he raped. That reality is tough to live with, to know that normal, ordinary people, people you would have dinner with in their homes, are capable of such terrible things.\u201d<\/p>\n
While efforts to restore justice and rebuild the country often look successful on the surface, Longman says, most of the economic gains have benefited a small and politically connected elite. He made several return trips to continue his research, but eventually decided that it was unsafe. His books describe shades of gray in Rwanda\u2019s postgenocide era, which some powerful Rwandans prefer to see as a black-and-white success story.<\/p>\n
Longman acknowledges that the current government is very efficient, is successfully managing development, and has been relatively effective in its fight against corruption. But, he says, RPF leaders are working hard to keep tight reins on power. Ideas and initiatives are dictated from the top. And while the RPF government has done a great job of attracting international investment, economic inequality is widespread, and freedom of speech is treated as a luxury the country cannot afford.<\/p>\n
\u201cProf. Longman does not offer simple or simplistic answers on Rwanda. Because there are none,\u201d says Adil Najam, dean of the Pardee School. \u201cHis research stands out not only because it sheds new and nuanced light on transitional justice, but even more because it is undertaken with such care and thoughtfulness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMemory and Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda<\/em>\u00a0is seminal,\u201d says Fallou Ngom, a CAS professor of anthropology, who succeeded Longman last year as director of the African Studies Center. \u201cThe book has set a new standard of excellence for postgenocide studies not just in Africa, but everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\nLongman doesn\u2019t think there\u2019s danger of a return to widespread violence. In fact, the government deliberately reminds people of the horrors of violence, with genocide memorials containing unburied remains, which unfortunately also makes life painful for survivors who wish to bury their dead. In one of the book\u2019s passages, Longman recounts walking through a memorial as fragments of victims\u2019 bones crunched under his shoes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut,\u201d he says, \u201cI also don\u2019t think any kind of positive development in Rwanda is possible for the long term unless the government begins to allow its population to speak and to organize and to think for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the challenges of working in Rwanda, Longman maintains a deep love for the country and its people. He says he has tried to move on to other countries for his research, but he keeps getting drawn back in.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the terrible events that I have seen in Rwanda, the friends that I have lost, the difficult stories that I have heard, I feel a moral responsibility to bear witness,\u201d he says. \u201cI have Rwandan friends that I\u2019ve known for more than 25 years, and I feel an obligation to continue to share their stories and to do what I can to contribute to Rwanda\u2019s development. You can\u2019t walk away from something like the Rwandan genocide. It will haunt me the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Timothy Longman will read from\u00a0<\/em>Memory and Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda\u00a0today, January 31, at 4 pm, at the African Studies Center, Room 505, 232 Bay State Rd.<\/em><\/p>\nAuthor, Joel Brown can be reached at\u00a0jbnbpt@bu.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pardee professor speaks today about his new book on country\u2019s recovery Timothy Longman with youth from Kabarondo, a village in the Eastern Province of Rwanda, in 2006. Photo courtesy of Timothy Longman. Timothy Longman\u00a0doesn\u2019t go back to Rwanda anymore. Too much of his work has displeased the regime. \u201cI don\u2019t feel safe to go,\u201d says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7048,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[101,34,381,281,252,13,102,207,93,437],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/federal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/federal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/federal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/federal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7048"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/federal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/federal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8140,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/federal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8139\/revisions\/8140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/federal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/federal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/federal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Rwanda\"](\"\/federal\/files\/2018\/02\/Rwanda.jpg\")
Timothy Longman with youth from Kabarondo, a village in the Eastern Province of Rwanda, in 2006. Photo courtesy of Timothy Longman.<\/em><\/p>\n