Gender & Genocide in Burundi: The Search for Spaces of Peace in the Great Lakes Region

Burundi, like Rwanda, Congo, and Uganda, is linked to patterns of recurrent genocidal violence that have shaped events in the African Great Lakes region. In Gender and Genocide in Burundi, Patricia O. Daley argues that sexual patterns of violence have become more pervasive as male and Western-dominated cultures of impunity devalue lives across the region. In her view, only a revised feminist-historical approach to understanding violence and a reformed peace process, on local as well as international levels, will bring genocide to an end. By bringing gender to bear, Daley breaks down divisions at places where violence or social injustice has been reproduced in the past and illustrates how the protracted nature of oppression, warfare, and endemic violence can come to an end. Daley's unique insight into the politics of genocide shows how a new gender-oriented paradigm that emphasizes rights and humanity can make "never again" a reality.

Patricia O. Daley is a lecturer in Human Geography at the School of Geography, Jesus College, Oxford University.