Womens Work: In post-genocide Rwanda, women play an important role in development

I found a link to this video on my favorite blog, feministing.com. Check it out.

The Rwandan genocide took place in April 1994, when, famously, 800,000 people were massacred in 100 days. "Men were killed in greater numbers during the genocide...Out of necessity, women got more involved," the narrator of this documentary says. Women play an important role in the country now, as it develops post-genocide. This clip illustrates the long-term effect of the genocide on Rwandan society, which has in the past 14 years. It tells the story of a remarkable woman named Jeanette Nyirabaganwa, who lost her entire family in the genocide but who now runs a phenomenally productive coffee farm. It also discusses the importance of women in post-conflict development, something I am going to try to research more over the next few months (as time allows, since I'm finishing school). As Kai remarked on the blog Zuky, "There's some sort of strange, painful, twisted irony in Rwanda's rise from the horrors of post-colonial genocide to become one of the most visibly women-led countries in the world." (Emphasis mine).

I am not an expert on Rwanda nor on Darfur, but I think this model of women in post-genocide development will be central to rebuilding Darfur once the violence stops.

I've also posted this on Protect the Human and will continue to post my pieces about women in development on both blogs.