This book provides an in-depth examination of psychosocial marital well-being and mental health in traditional communities in Rwanda. It presents rich qualitative research conducted with men, women and elders, highlighting both the issues impacting on marital conflict and domestic violence, and also how potential solutions might be drawn from traditional practices. In doing, so it provides a unique resource for researchers and policymakers seeking to develop evidence-based and culturally-informed mental health and psychosocial support interventions in low and middle income countries. It will appeal in particular to those working the fields of public health, family psychology, social work, cross-cultural psychology and qualitative methodology.

In the 1994 Rwanda genocide, around 1 million people were brutally murdered in just thirteen weeks. This book offers an in-depth study of posttraumatic growth in the testimonies of the men and women who survived, highlighting the ways in which they were able to build a new, and often enhanced, way of life. In so doing, Caroline Williamson Sinalo advocates a new reading of trauma: one that recognises not just the negative, but also the positive responses to traumatic experiences. Through an analysis of testimonies recorded in Kinyarwanda by the Genocide Archive of Rwanda, the book focuses particularly on the relationship between posttraumatic growth and gender and examines it within the wider frames of colonialism and traditional cultural practices. Offering a striking alternative to dominant paradigms on trauma, the book reveals that, notwithstanding the countless tales of horror, pain, and loss in Rwanda, there are also stories of strength, recovery, and growth.

This ethnography of personhood in post-genocide Rwanda investigates how residents of a small town grapple with what kinds of persons they ought to become in the wake of violence. Based on fieldwork carried out over the course of a decade, it uncovers how conflicting moral demands emerge from the 1994 genocide, from cultural contradictions around “good” personhood, and from both state and popular visions for the future. What emerges is a profound dissonance in town residents’ selfhood. While they strive to be agents of change who can catalyze a new era of modern Rwandan nationhood, they are also devastated by the genocide and struggle to recover a sense of selfhood and belonging in the absence of kin, friends, and neighbors. In drawing out the contradictions at the heart of self-making and social life in contemporary Rwanda, this book asserts a novel argument about the ordinary lives caught in global post-conflict imperatives to remember and to forget, to mourn and to prosper.

This important new book explores how to support refugee family relationships in promoting post-trauma recovery and adaptation in exile.

Exposure to political violence or war is associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) in post-conflict settings (Clark et al., 2010; Gupta, Reed, Kelly, Stein, & Williams, 2012), and civilians and veterans who develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after exposure to combat or violence are more likely to perpetrate violence against an intimate partner (Taft, Watkins, Stafford, Street, & Monson, 2011). Rwandan health professionals estimate that after the 1994 genocide more than one-quarter of the country's population now suffers from PTSD (Munyandamutsa, Nkubamugisha, Gex-Fabry, & Eytan, 2012). Although the majority of Rwandan women (56%) have experienced IPV in their lifetime (National Institute of Statistics Rwanda, Ministry of Health (MINISANTE) [Rwanda], & ICF International, 2012), mental health problems from trauma have not yet been considered as a factor in efforts against gender-based violence. This study used mixed methods to document and describe the phenomena of trauma exposure, mental health problems, and intimate partner violence in Rwanda. The study examined risk and protective factors associated with the perpetration of physical, sexual, emotional, and financial intimate partner violence, with a particular focus on the role of trauma and mental health. Twenty-nine married men and 16 of their wives from rural and peri-urban communities of Rwanda completed semi-structured in-depth interviews (IDIs). Structured, face-to-face survey interviews were conducted with a representative sample of married men over the age of 35 (N=148) from one southern Rwandan district. Bivariate analyses were conducted to test relationships between risk and protective factors of interest and prior year perpetration of IPV. A series of multivariate logistic regression models tested the relationship between trauma and mental health problems with IPV. More than 30% of the male survey sample reported perpetrating at least one type of IPV in the previous year. Patriarchal attitudes, younger age, alcohol consumption, and anger were significantly associated with IPV perpetration in bivariate analyses. Although male survey respondents reported on average 11.2 lifetime traumatic events, exposure to traumatic events was not significantly associated with perpetration of IPV in bivariate analyses. Twenty-one percent of respondents met diagnostic criteria for PTSD. In multivariate analyses, men who met diagnostic criteria for PTSD were 3 times more likely to report perpetrating physical IPV compared to men without PTSD, OR = 3.13 [1.10, 8.86], and 1.4 times more likely to report emotional IPV perpetration, OR = 1.39, [0.57, 3.35]. Meeting the diagnostic cut-off for depression was associated with IPV in bivariate but not multivariate analyses. Stories from IDI respondents indicated that trauma exposure and the mental health of both male and female partners is important. Study findings confirm the importance of studying unique factors for IPV in a post-conflict setting and indicate that interventions to address mental health should be considered in policies and programs to address IPV in Rwanda. The findings may also have implications for other populations affected by political or community violence in the United States or abroad.

Since the Genocide against the Tutsi, when up to one million Rwandan people were brutally killed, Rwanda has undergone a remarkable period of reconstruction. Driven by a governmental programme of unity and reconciliation, the last 25 years have seen significant changes at national, community, and individual levels. This book gathers previously unpublished testimonies from individuals who lived through the genocide. These are the voices of those who experienced one of the most horrific events of the 20th Century. Yet, their stories do not simply paint a picture of lives left destroyed and damaged; they also demonstrate healing relationships, personal growth, forgiveness and reconciliation. Through the lens of positive psychology, the book presents a range of perspectives on what happened in Rwanda in 1994, and shows how people have been changed by their experience of genocide.

"Twenty-five years ago in April 1994, a savage campaign of genocide was unleashed against the Tutsis of Rwanda. The violence of a hundred days left as many as a million people dead. This personal narrative tells the story of two survivors--Jean Bosco and his fiancée Christine. While most of their family members perished, they managed to escape to what is now famous as the Hotel Rwanda. Their story of survival is at once a love story and a harrowing inside look at what happens when a country is overrun by evil. But it is also a story of faith--an effort to find God in the midst of horror--and of their subsequent struggles to find meaning, healing, and reconciliation"--