EAN 9780791454886

Brickyards to Graveyards examines how the overidealized picture of Rwanda as the darling of the world community in the 1980s was shattered amidst the genocide that occurred a decade later. The brick and tile industries of Rwanda provide a microcosm to examine the transformation of gender, class, and power relations through the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial periods, and provide insights into the explosive impact of these changes on Rwandan culture and society. The book illustrates how these gender, class, and power relations played out in times of economic, political, and demographic crisis, and argues that these factors have not changed significantly since the Rwandan Patriotic Front took power in 1994.