Bienvenue! Murakaza neza! Welcome to my e-portfolio in which I will over the course of this semester be going in depth on one particular country in order to become a country expert. As the only requirements for the country chosen were a) To be lower or middle income countries b) not to be actively involved in a civil war and c) to be non-democratic or in transition, I settled on Rwanda for my country.
I deliberated for quite a long time before I decided which country I wanted to choose for this e-portfolio. I knew I was interested in Sub-Saharan Africa because my work had increasingly brought me into contact with the region, engaging y curiosity. But admittedly, there are many Sub-Saharan countries, most of which would have fulfilled the three requirements set by the course, so why Rwanda?
Of course I already had impressions of Rwanda before choosing this country. Probably the most dominant impression I had in my mind was of the Rwandan Genocide, which happened the year of my birth. I grew up learning about the genocide, slowly learning more and more details, truly uncovering the horrors that happened in various classes throughout middle and high school before finally getting more in-depth in a class at my undergrad. However, I never understood anything about the country beyond that impression, part of the reason I was so surprised when in my work on gender, peace and security I discovered that Rwanda had in some ways some of the most gender-equal structures in place in their armed forces and peacekeeping contingents. While most other nations struggled to meet a basic requirement for women in peace operations or security, Rwanda seemed to meet it much more consistently. So I was intrigued. The dichotomy between the genocide and horror I’d heard of, and the progressive policy in this one arena.
In these upcoming weeks I am hoping to continue to challenge my preconceptions of Rwanda as I also seek to understand the themes from our class. Grappling with the question of whether it is important to have regional expertise as well as understanding more about the political underpinnings of countries like Rwanda.
Rwanda Reconsidered 