Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

First Advisor

Dean, Erin

Keywords

Rwanda, Ethnography, Ethnicity, Genocide, Agriculture, Poverty, Land Degredation, Development, Nonprofit, Cooperatives

Area of Concentration

Environmental Studies

Abstract

This thesis is an exploration of Rwandan culture and society, past and present. Through this work I aim to emphasize the role both land and agriculture have played in shaping the history of Rwanda and its people over time and through many distinct phases. I do so within the context of Rwandan political and agricultural history, choosing to focus on agriculture and pastoralism, as well as colonialism, and their impact on race relations and ultimately the Genocide of 1994. I use the history of ethnicity and agriculture as a tool for examining issues of post-genocide Rwandan society, specifically the cycle of poverty as it exists in rural Rwanda today. Central to my evaluation is the ethnographic fieldwork I conducted in the agrarian countryside of Rwanda in June of 2012, in connection with the Gainesville, Florida and Gisenyi, Rwanda based microfinance nonprofit Rwanda Sustainable Families. Through the illustration of my time spent with the families of RSF, I aim to create a profile of agriculture and poverty in the Murara village and shed light on the innovative strategies of poverty reduction being employed on a small scale both from abroad and from within. Pervasive throughout the thesis is the important connection between Rwandese people and the land, and the significance this connection holds not only for analyzing the past, but looking to the future. This thesis is an exploration of Rwandan culture and society, past and present. Through this work I aim to emphasize the role both land and agriculture have played in shaping the history of Rwanda and its people over time and through many distinct phases. I do so within the context of Rwandan political and agricultural history, choosing to focus on agriculture and pastoralism, as well as colonialism, and their impact on race relations and ultimately the Genocide of 1994. I use the history of ethnicity and agriculture as a tool for examining issues of post-genocide Rwandan society, specifically the cycle of poverty as it exists in rural Rwanda today. Central to my evaluation is the ethnographic fieldwork I conducted in the agrarian countryside of Rwanda in June of 2012, in connection with the Gainesville, Florida and Gisenyi, Rwanda based microfinance nonprofit Rwanda Sustainable Families. Through the illustration of my time spent with the families of RSF, I aim to create a profile of agriculture and poverty in the Murara village and shed light on the innovative strategies of poverty reduction being employed on a small scale both from abroad and from within. Pervasive throughout the thesis is the important connection between Rwandese people and the land, and the significance this connection holds not only for analyzing the past, but looking to the future.

Rights

The author has granted New College of Florida the nonexclusive right to archive, make accessible, and distribute for educational purposes this work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The copyright of this work remains with the author.

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