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Stepp'd in Blood: Akazu and the Architects of the Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsi
The 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi was the signature moral horror of the late 20th century. Andrew Wallis reveals, for the first time, the personal lives and crimes of the family group (‘Akazu’) that destroyed their country and left one million dead. Wallis’ meticulous research uncovers a broad landscape of terror, looking back to the ‘forgotten’ Rwandan genocide of the early 1960s and the failure by the international community, to learn lessons of prevention and punishment, a failure that would be repeated thirty years later. Taking the rise and fall of Akazu personalities and their mafia-like network as its central strand, Stepp'd in Blood reveals how they were aided and abetted by western governments and the churches for decades. And how post-1994, many successfully evaded international justice to enjoy comfortable retirements in the same countries that supported them when they were in power. Stepp'd in Blood publishes in the year of the 25th commemoration of the Rwandan Genocide.
744 pages, Paperback
Published April 26, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 26, 2021
This book provided a really detailed and researched history of the Habyarimana regime. As a Rwandan, I was surprised at how much of this information was new to me, but it has helped me understand some things a bit better. I would recommend this book to everyone, but especially to those who would like more background on the ongoing fight against genocide denial and it’s origins.
April 19, 2020
I highly recommend this new book. While I really got a lot out of reading "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families" and "Machete Season," this book places the focus on the historical rise of Habyarimana and the central role played by certain Hutu elites in carrying out the genocide. The fact that so many of them are still free is bone-chilling. I am no expert on Rwanda but I could not put this book down.
October 4, 2024
Excellent book with some research behind it, this does an amazing job of illuminating the Second Republic, and goes farther than some other sources about 1990-1994. This is a must-read for any serious researcher of Rwanda, it has a broader scope than Andrew Wallis' other book about France's involvement in 1990-1994 and the events of Spring 1994.
No other book tells many of the details of the Lizinde and the coup, or Colonel Mayuyu's assassination. Its really unparalleled for many topics, though I ultimately believe that Wallis has failed to research some topics adequately and results in erroneous assertions.
There is some laziness about some details, Andrew Wallis tends towards hyperbole and even exaggeration that stretches into misrepresentation. He once talks about how in [Bosnia] there were hundreds of thousands of NATO and UN troops (never true, 60 000 at most) He calls the prefecture of Kigali-Ngali "Kigali town", when "Kigali city" is the more conventional usage. There are more typos than is typical for a work of this type. I thought his assertion that "Culturally suicide is not in the Rwandan make-up" to be wildly ill-informed, as I remember reading about so many suicides at court. He asserted Kigali's population was 2800 in 1959 without a source, a third smaller than the UN estimate. I don't have a problem that the number could vary, I just need him to show his work why he thinks it was what he says.
His conclusions are so wildly erroneous so you should critically examine what he says. There is virtually zero analysis about the RPF at all, they are a complete cipher in his books. He claims there is an apathy about genocide in Africa, which is completely incorrect. As I am writing in my book, there is an apathy around genocide everywhere, Rwanda is in fact the only place that is was ever prosecuted as such. There was an infinite greater response to 1994 than to Burma, Chechnya, Armenia, Cambodia, so this is a lazy, incorrect and misleading charge.
This could be your first book on this topic, though I would probably recommend Prunier or Wallis' other book so you know the Rwandan Civil War well. I think this is the best book on the Second Republic before the war : 1973-1990, so start with this.
No other book tells many of the details of the Lizinde and the coup, or Colonel Mayuyu's assassination. Its really unparalleled for many topics, though I ultimately believe that Wallis has failed to research some topics adequately and results in erroneous assertions.
There is some laziness about some details, Andrew Wallis tends towards hyperbole and even exaggeration that stretches into misrepresentation. He once talks about how in [Bosnia] there were hundreds of thousands of NATO and UN troops (never true, 60 000 at most) He calls the prefecture of Kigali-Ngali "Kigali town", when "Kigali city" is the more conventional usage. There are more typos than is typical for a work of this type. I thought his assertion that "Culturally suicide is not in the Rwandan make-up" to be wildly ill-informed, as I remember reading about so many suicides at court. He asserted Kigali's population was 2800 in 1959 without a source, a third smaller than the UN estimate. I don't have a problem that the number could vary, I just need him to show his work why he thinks it was what he says.
His conclusions are so wildly erroneous so you should critically examine what he says. There is virtually zero analysis about the RPF at all, they are a complete cipher in his books. He claims there is an apathy about genocide in Africa, which is completely incorrect. As I am writing in my book, there is an apathy around genocide everywhere, Rwanda is in fact the only place that is was ever prosecuted as such. There was an infinite greater response to 1994 than to Burma, Chechnya, Armenia, Cambodia, so this is a lazy, incorrect and misleading charge.
This could be your first book on this topic, though I would probably recommend Prunier or Wallis' other book so you know the Rwandan Civil War well. I think this is the best book on the Second Republic before the war : 1973-1990, so start with this.
November 3, 2020
Amazing book. Andrew made great efforts to present the traumatic reality in the recent history of Rwanda
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews