Defeat Is the Only Bad News: Rwanda under Musinga, 1896 1931 (Africa and the Diaspora)
Alison Liebhafsky Des Forges
ISBN 10: 0299281442 ISBN 13: 9780299281441
Published by University of Wisconsin Press, 2011
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Description:
"This text is in large part the dissertation of Alison Liebhafsky Des Forges as originally presented to the Yale University Department of History in 1972"--Editor's note. Editor(s): Newbury, David. Series: Africa and the Diaspora: History, Politics, Culture. Num Pages: 304 pages, Illustrations. BIC Classification: 1HFGR; 3JJC; HBJH; HBLW. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 228 x 154 x 20. Weight in Grams: 490. . 2011. 1st Edition. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9780299281441
Synopsis:
A Rwandan proverb says “Defeat is the only bad news.” For Rwandans living under colonial rule, winning called not only for armed confrontation, but also for a battle of wits—and not only with foreigners, but also with each other. In Defeat Is the Only Bad News Alison Des Forges recounts the ambitions, strategies, and intrigues of an African royal court under Yuhi Musinga, the Rwandan ruler from 1896 to 1931. These were turbulent years for Rwanda, when first Germany and then Belgium pursued an aggressive plan of colonization there. At the time of the Europeans’ arrival, Rwanda was also engaged in a succession dispute after the death of one of its most famous kings. Against this backdrop, the Rwandan court became the stage for a drama of Shakespearean proportions, filled with deceit, shrewd calculation, ruthless betrayal, and sometimes murder.
Historians who study European expansion typically focus on interactions between colonizers and colonized; they rarely attend to relations among the different factions inhabiting occupied lands. Des Forges, drawing on oral histories and extensive archival research, reveals how divisions among different groups in Rwanda shaped their responses to colonial governments, missionaries, and traders. Rwandans, she shows, used European resources to extend their power, even as they sought to preserve the autonomy of the royal court. Europeans, for their part, seized on internal divisions to advance their own goals. Des Forges’s vividly narrated history, meticulously edited and introduced by David Newbury, provides a deep context for understanding the Rwandan civil war a century later.
About the Authors:
Alison Liebhafsky Des Forges (1942–2009) was a Yale-trained historian, a leading activist with Human Rights Watch, and the author of Leave None to Tell the Story.
David Newbury is the Gwendolen Carter Professor of African Studies at Smith College and author of Kings and Clans: A Social History of the Lake Kivu Rift Valley.
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Bibliographic Details
Title: Defeat Is the Only Bad News: Rwanda under ...
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Publication Date: 2011
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: New