Donald E Miller, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
A scholar of the Rwandan genocide argues that while a genocide and a pandemic are very different, the experiences of Rwanda’s survivors may provide lessons on how to heal from pandemic trauma.
Rwanda’s presidential couple at the 2021 genocide commemoration.
SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP via Getty Images
Between 1992 and 1994, the former regime is said to have imported 581 tonnes of machetes into Rwanda. This figure appears to establish that the genocide was planned. But is this number accurate?
Burundi’s president-elect Evariste Ndayishimiye signs a condolence book for Burundian president Pierre Nkurunziza.
(Photo by Evrard Ngendakumana/Xinhua via Getty)
The sudden death of Burundi’s former president, Pierre Nkurunziza, marks the end of a long reign, characterised by violent political crises.
A Tamil man who was paralyzed by shelling during the final weeks of the conflict in Mullivaikkal in 2009 is seen in this 2018 photo in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.
Priya Tharmaseelan
This spring marks the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide and the 10th year since the Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka. The world knows what happened in Rwanda. What about Sri Lanka?
Security is tight in Rwanda’s authoritarian state.
Charles Shoemaker/EPA
The 1994 Rwandan genocide evokes shame, despair, and revulsion.Yet, the events warrant reflection and remind us about the risks of looking the other way.
A protestor uses grass to obscure his identity during a protest against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term in Bujumbura, Burundi.
Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
The prospects for reconciliation are bleak. Formal gestures by the government to nudge the opposition parties to join an intra-Burundi dialogue have consistently failed.
Maintaining law and order in Burundi is proving increasingly difficult as the number of militias organised along ethnic lines increases.
Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
The “quick fix” nature of the Arusha Peace Agreement seems to have come back to haunt Burundi. Ethnic protests threaten to tear the country apart, leading it to the path of a failed state.
Professor of Religion at the University of Southern California and Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences