This book offers a novel sociological examination of the historical trajectories of Burundi and Rwanda. It challenges both the Eurocentric assumptions which have underpinned many sociological theorisations of modernity, and the notion that the processes of modernisation move gradually, if precariously, towards more peaceable forms of cohabitation within and between societies.

Jack Palmer is a teaching fellow in sociology at the University of Leeds. His research interests lie in theoretical debates concerning experiences, interpretations and trajectories of modernity, in the sociology of colonial-imperialism, and in genocide studies.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I

1. Genocide and Colonialism

2. Theorising the Multiplicity tf Modernity: Entangled Historical Routes to and through Modernity

Part II

3. Precolonial Burundi and Rwanda: A Historical Survey*

4. The Colonial Entanglement, 1905-1945: The Racialisation of Tradition.

5. Trajectories Towards Independence, 1945-1965: Multiple 'Societal Self-Understandings'

6. Postcolonial Crisis and Genocide, 1965-1994: Traumas of Modernity.

Conclusion

Bibliography