Balancing Peace, Power, and Paternalism in Post-Genocide Rwanda

The Rwandan Genocide resulted in the deaths of nearly one million ethnic Tutsi and Tutsi sympathizers during the summer of 1994. While entire families were targeted, Hutu militias killed men at a higher rate than women. More often, perpetrators subjected women and girls to rape meant to socially degrade the population by attacking the private sphere, taking the virginity of girls, or by infecting Tutsis with often fatal illnesses like HIV. In July, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriot Front took control of the country and ended the genocide. In the years that followed, the depleted male population created a political power vacuum which led Rwandan women to hold a larger percentage of political offices than any other country in the world. Rwanda remains only one of two countries with a female legislative majority. Despite this political positioning, women in Rwanda have made little strides in holding accountable perpetrators of sexual violence against women during the genocide or in its aftermath.

This paper examines the contradictions of a rare female-majority government limited in its response to crimes against women in the post-war era. It will examine the conflict both internally, using newly digitized materials from the Kigali Genocide Memorial Archives and Rwandan state documents, as well as from the perspective of outside pressures on Rwanda during its recovery. Through this examination, this paper seeks to complicate the narrative of African women as a strictly victimized population by assessing how women hold and wield power within a persistently paternalistic society.