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Rwanda 1994: The Myth of the Akazu Genocide Conspiracy and Its Consequences by Barrie Collins Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan , 2014. Pp. 272. £65·00 (hbk)
Reviews
Challenging dominant narratives that exist about historical events is an admirable task. It takes courage to fight the morality and power that are given to individuals who are glorified within those narratives. Barrie Collins has attempted to challenge the dominant narrative about the Rwandan genocide. He considers his primary task to be challenging the myth that a group of Hutu Power elites, known as the Akazu, planned and implemented the genocide. While doing so, he criticises those who repeat the dominant narrative for wrongly assuming the genocide to be 'a crime of obedience' conducted by a 'powerful, centralised state' (p. 8). There are many powerful claims made in this book, which takes aim at the moral legitimacy derived by Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) for their role in bringing an end to the violence in 1994. However, Collins uses sources selectively and fails to critically address the wide range of evidence that has been brought forward by two decades of research on the genocide. Only 22 interviews are listed in the bibliography of the book - mostly with individuals who have...