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When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda
An incisive look at the causes and consequences of the Rwandan genocide
"When we captured Kigali, we thought we would face criminals in the state; instead, we faced a criminal population." So a political commissar in the Rwanda Patriotic Front reflected after the 1994 massacre of as many as one million Tutsis in Rwanda. Underlying his statement was the realization that, though ordered by a minority of state functionaries, the slaughter was performed by hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, including judges, doctors, priests, and friends. Rejecting easy explanations of the Rwandan genocide as a mysterious evil force that was bizarrely unleashed, When Victims Become Killers situates the tragedy in its proper context. Mahmood Mamdani coaxes to the surface the historical, geographical, and political forces that made it possible for so many Hutus to turn so brutally on their neighbors. In so doing, Mamdani usefully broadens understandings of citizenship and political identity in postcolonial Africa and provides a direction for preventing similar future tragedies.
"When we captured Kigali, we thought we would face criminals in the state; instead, we faced a criminal population." So a political commissar in the Rwanda Patriotic Front reflected after the 1994 massacre of as many as one million Tutsis in Rwanda. Underlying his statement was the realization that, though ordered by a minority of state functionaries, the slaughter was performed by hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, including judges, doctors, priests, and friends. Rejecting easy explanations of the Rwandan genocide as a mysterious evil force that was bizarrely unleashed, When Victims Become Killers situates the tragedy in its proper context. Mahmood Mamdani coaxes to the surface the historical, geographical, and political forces that made it possible for so many Hutus to turn so brutally on their neighbors. In so doing, Mamdani usefully broadens understandings of citizenship and political identity in postcolonial Africa and provides a direction for preventing similar future tragedies.
392 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
About the author
Mahmood Mamdani
34 books275 followersMahmood Mamdani is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and Professor of Anthropology and of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia University and Director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research in Kampala. He is the author of Citizen and Subject, When Victims Become Killers, and Good Muslim, Bad Muslim.
Mamdani is married to Mira Nair, the acclaimed Indian film director and producer. Mamdani and Nair's only son, Zohran Mamdani, is the mayor-elect of New York City.
Mamdani is married to Mira Nair, the acclaimed Indian film director and producer. Mamdani and Nair's only son, Zohran Mamdani, is the mayor-elect of New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
October 29, 2009
When I read Philip Gourevitch's book over five years ago, I thought that it was the best book to understand Rwanda and the genocide in 1995. But Gourevitch is a journalist and Mamdani is an academic. Mamdani breaks down the evolution of the political identities of Hutu and Tutsi into native and settler. These identities were created under Belgian colonialism and reinforced in the post-colonial era. To understand the complexities of identity and Rwanda, one has to read this book. Mamdani is the man. Well, I thought so... until I read this TNR piece. He is complicated, but I love his brilliance like Amartya Sen's.
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-...
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-...
March 23, 2007
I was amazed by both the depth and breadth of this book. I came out of it with a much better understanding (I think) of the multiplicity of causes leading up to the Rwandan genocide. My one critique would be that Mamdani's argument seems to loosen towards the end, particularly in his coverage of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, making his discussion of the years from 1980-1994 perhaps less precise and a little less adequate than desired. However, in terms of setting up the historical background so that one begins to understand how the potential for a genocide could even begin to exist, Mamdani does an excellent job.
January 3, 2026
A very detailed book on the origins of the Rwandan genocide. Goes into pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial state formation and identity construction of Hutu and Tutsi.
September 18, 2024
This book gave a very insightful, nuanced, and deep review of the genocide against the Tutsis and the factors that led up to it. It is very academic though and it was a little bit difficult to get through. I would recommend skimming or using for retrieval of a particular fact, reading this all at once like a novel was difficult and mind-numbing.
December 24, 2017
Took a long time to read about this hard subject. I hope we never go down this road
June 27, 2023
You have no idea how long I waited to mark this as finished! I am not one to not finish a book once it's started and I read this book blindly to just get it done. The only reason why it got done is because the due date to the library was coming up.
It's not that this is a bad book, it's just not a book for me. Someone is going to love this book and find it really interesting and in parts it was and I did learn some information that I didn't know before as I had read personal accounts of the Genocide in Rwanda before and not a political account. These to experiences are vastly different. As such, the book was a bit dry though not as bad as a research book. If you are interested in political opinions and why events and histories create awful ongoing situations then you would be into this book.
I did learn that Genocide has been an ongoing situation in Rwanda over the years when the Government, seemingly trying to help created huge divides between Tutsi, Hutu and Twa. I am sad that people who are not considered indigenous to their countries are considered less than and can be treatd so poorly and this is a scenerio that plays itself out all over the world.
It's not that this is a bad book, it's just not a book for me. Someone is going to love this book and find it really interesting and in parts it was and I did learn some information that I didn't know before as I had read personal accounts of the Genocide in Rwanda before and not a political account. These to experiences are vastly different. As such, the book was a bit dry though not as bad as a research book. If you are interested in political opinions and why events and histories create awful ongoing situations then you would be into this book.
I did learn that Genocide has been an ongoing situation in Rwanda over the years when the Government, seemingly trying to help created huge divides between Tutsi, Hutu and Twa. I am sad that people who are not considered indigenous to their countries are considered less than and can be treatd so poorly and this is a scenerio that plays itself out all over the world.
July 28, 2025
Absolutely recommend this for anyone wanting to understand the Rwandan Genocide. Decided to read this book due to the conflict in the Congo that started since 2023 that Rwanda is responsible for, and that the author’s son is Zohran Mamdani who’s running for mayor in NYC.
It’s a very nuanced and detailed look covering both the Hutu and Tutsi sides of the genocide, and goes into big detail about the historical context that allowed the genocide to happen. The last part is heavy stuff unsurprisingly as it details into how the genocide functioned and some of the horrifying things that happened there. The book does a great job in helping people understand the complex backstory that led to the whole tragedy whilst unequivocally condemning all those responsible for the genocide and the atrocities against the Tutsi people.
In a time when so many genocides are happening everywhere, I do recommend people read this book in order to inform themselves about one of the most horrifying events in recent memory.
It’s a very nuanced and detailed look covering both the Hutu and Tutsi sides of the genocide, and goes into big detail about the historical context that allowed the genocide to happen. The last part is heavy stuff unsurprisingly as it details into how the genocide functioned and some of the horrifying things that happened there. The book does a great job in helping people understand the complex backstory that led to the whole tragedy whilst unequivocally condemning all those responsible for the genocide and the atrocities against the Tutsi people.
In a time when so many genocides are happening everywhere, I do recommend people read this book in order to inform themselves about one of the most horrifying events in recent memory.
March 15, 2008
This book was astounding. Genocide is impossible to understand but this book comes closer to explaining it more than any other book I've read.
June 4, 2011
An interesting and in-depth analysis of Rwanda, the Hutu and theTutsi, although very academic and so not an easy read.
March 17, 2019
The introduction to Mamdani’s book made me cry. Several times. Without surprise, the text is arguably most powerful when it utilizes quotes by those who lived through the genocide, such as Mectilde’s story in Chapter Seven. Mamdani aims to make the Rwandan genocide “thinkable.” He does so by making many distinctions for his reader: distinctions between direct and indirect colonial rule (Rwanda is a “halfway house” between the two, neither one nor the other), between cultural and political identity (Hutu and Tutsi were political identities institutionalized by colonialism), distinctions between racialization and ethnicization (the Hutus and Tutsis were racialized under colonial rule not ethnicized), and distinctions between natives and nonnatives (Hutus were constructed as natives while Tutsis were constructed as nonnative even if colonized, a fact that helped to justify violence against them). Perhaps one the more brilliant aspects of Mamdani's analysis is the way he utilizes a regional approach. He helps the reader see that while many assume the genocide must be the outcome of processes that unfolded within the state boundary of Rwanda, this assumption ignores the regional processes that were simultaneously occurring; processes that must be taken into account if we are to stand any chance of seriously comprehending the genocide.
The text reminds of Fanon, if for no other reason than Mamdani uses him often, along with Hannah Arendt (which I deeply appreciated), to conceptualize race and racial violence, but we can also see traces of the boundaries of Wimmer here, with the idea of a sense of belonging through common ancestry (whether authentic or colonially constructed) seemingly reigning supreme. Mamdani takes his time throughout the text, even devoting considerable space to the “Hamitic hypothesis” in Chapter Three, where he traces the history of how the Tutsis came to be seen as nonindigenous Hamites. This section, especially the religious origins of the belief, was most peculiar (here we have the delusional belief of Africans who are actually Caucasian under their skin but cursed).
Mamdani makes clear that he is concerned with political identities in this book, identities produced by and formed inside of the (post)colonial state. Most of the exploration of these identities is merely a build up to get to the meat of the text in Chapter Seven, where he works through the “morally troublesome fact” that the genocide was carried out by subaltern masses even if organized by state functionaries. He closes, as he argues he “needs to,” with real obstacles that might be in the way of democratizing public life in a postgenocide Rwanda.
The text reminds of Fanon, if for no other reason than Mamdani uses him often, along with Hannah Arendt (which I deeply appreciated), to conceptualize race and racial violence, but we can also see traces of the boundaries of Wimmer here, with the idea of a sense of belonging through common ancestry (whether authentic or colonially constructed) seemingly reigning supreme. Mamdani takes his time throughout the text, even devoting considerable space to the “Hamitic hypothesis” in Chapter Three, where he traces the history of how the Tutsis came to be seen as nonindigenous Hamites. This section, especially the religious origins of the belief, was most peculiar (here we have the delusional belief of Africans who are actually Caucasian under their skin but cursed).
Mamdani makes clear that he is concerned with political identities in this book, identities produced by and formed inside of the (post)colonial state. Most of the exploration of these identities is merely a build up to get to the meat of the text in Chapter Seven, where he works through the “morally troublesome fact” that the genocide was carried out by subaltern masses even if organized by state functionaries. He closes, as he argues he “needs to,” with real obstacles that might be in the way of democratizing public life in a postgenocide Rwanda.
March 2, 2022
"Atrocity cannot be its own explanation. Violence cannot be allowed to speak for itself, for violence is not its own meaning. To be made thinkable it needs to be historicized."
Rather than focus too much on the actual horrors of the genocide (which many many other writers have), Mamdani's goal is to put the genocide in a historical context-- to make it thinkable. The only way we can understand violence, create accountability and justice, and to prevent future violence is to make it thinkable.
Mamdani's book is not an introductory text. If you don't know much about the Rwandan genocide I would strongly recommend familiarizing yourself with some basic history first. Dense but critically sharp, this book demands your attention but can also be overwhelming with information.
One of the major key points in this book is the difference between race and ethnicity, and cultural vs political identities. Mamdani distinguishes race as being a mutually exclusive categorization of indigenous vs nonindigenous, which was a colonial construct imposed on ethnic (cultural) groups when Europe carved up Africa. Ethnicity, too, is a troubling category when politicized.
Mamdani calls for a creative solution that transcends binary labels on inherently dynamic identities--Hutu and Tutsi, indigenous and nonindigenous, majority and minority, perpetrator and victim. He calls for not victor's justice, but survivor's justice (different from revolutionary justice, which does not fit the context of Rwanda) that goes beyond individual accountability to institutions.
"The prerequisite to life is not power. The prerequisite to cohabitation, reconciliation, and a common political future is to give up the monopoly of power."
Rather than focus too much on the actual horrors of the genocide (which many many other writers have), Mamdani's goal is to put the genocide in a historical context-- to make it thinkable. The only way we can understand violence, create accountability and justice, and to prevent future violence is to make it thinkable.
Mamdani's book is not an introductory text. If you don't know much about the Rwandan genocide I would strongly recommend familiarizing yourself with some basic history first. Dense but critically sharp, this book demands your attention but can also be overwhelming with information.
One of the major key points in this book is the difference between race and ethnicity, and cultural vs political identities. Mamdani distinguishes race as being a mutually exclusive categorization of indigenous vs nonindigenous, which was a colonial construct imposed on ethnic (cultural) groups when Europe carved up Africa. Ethnicity, too, is a troubling category when politicized.
Mamdani calls for a creative solution that transcends binary labels on inherently dynamic identities--Hutu and Tutsi, indigenous and nonindigenous, majority and minority, perpetrator and victim. He calls for not victor's justice, but survivor's justice (different from revolutionary justice, which does not fit the context of Rwanda) that goes beyond individual accountability to institutions.
"The prerequisite to life is not power. The prerequisite to cohabitation, reconciliation, and a common political future is to give up the monopoly of power."
July 11, 2021
I think this is a very valuable addition to the study of the production of cultural identities (political, economic, cultural, etc.). In this and in Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism, I find Mamdani to be a very clear writer, though in this book I think some points were kind of repetitive in an unproductive way. Mamdani is really just super well equipped to understand this, and I really appreciate the insight he brought into developments in the Congo, Uganda, Burundi, etc., which are often left out in other accounts of the genocide (I'm thinking of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families in particular, which is good, but not as geographically comprehensive). It's the kind of international awareness which I think is so often missing from historical accounts (especially in so-called "area studies"), and which Mamdani in many ways champions here. Interesting.
September 6, 2025
The author is truly an expert on the topic and everything surrounding it, there is so much information and context for the genocide that I feel like some of my main takeaways aren't even about the genocide's context as context; it's a great starting point for learning about the history of the region and Rwanda. Because I don't know much about this subject, including the history/politics/culture of the region, I can't say if the book misses anything important. Regardless, the conclusions he reaches are so thoroughly argued and imo emotionally resonant. The language he uses can be verbose but it's mostly endearing and makes for more engaging and understandable reading; I really like the analogy of the cat and the mouse he continuously returns to for that. Furthermore the subject matter is highly relevant to the middle east, and he grapples with that directly in the conclusion, which I appreciated. I also appreciated the directness with which he turns towards the future and talks about how these issues should be approached. Highly recommend, I'm looking forward to reading more from this author
May 18, 2018
The title of this book really threw me off at first. It took me like half way through the book to understand the reason behind the choice of the title. According to the author, Hutus who were victims during the colonial era turned into killers during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
The author reaffirms that colonialism indeed created a strong divide between Hutu and Tutsi when the white colonialists portrayed Tutsi as Hamites whose birth right is to rule over the Bantu Hutu (indigenous). It is indeed the discrimination during the colonial era that led the Hutu revolutionists to rise up against the current monarchy and bring about the Hutu manifesto. What followed is just history.
I learned a lot while reading this book especially regarding the political parties in 1957 and early 1990s once Habyarimana accepted muti-party politics. I also understood the power dynamics that led to the genocide as the author argues.
Overall the author does a good job at explaining the events that culminated to the genocide against Tutsi. It would be more beneficial to the readers if the author could carry out studies about post-genocide Rwanda in order to evaluate his own predictions.
The author reaffirms that colonialism indeed created a strong divide between Hutu and Tutsi when the white colonialists portrayed Tutsi as Hamites whose birth right is to rule over the Bantu Hutu (indigenous). It is indeed the discrimination during the colonial era that led the Hutu revolutionists to rise up against the current monarchy and bring about the Hutu manifesto. What followed is just history.
I learned a lot while reading this book especially regarding the political parties in 1957 and early 1990s once Habyarimana accepted muti-party politics. I also understood the power dynamics that led to the genocide as the author argues.
Overall the author does a good job at explaining the events that culminated to the genocide against Tutsi. It would be more beneficial to the readers if the author could carry out studies about post-genocide Rwanda in order to evaluate his own predictions.
January 12, 2024
« Rwanda has become the epicenter of the wider crisis in the African Great Lakes. Tied together by the thread of a common colonial legacy—one that politicized indigeneity as a basis for rights—the region has little choice but to address the Rwandan dilemma, if only to address its own dilemma. To do so will mean, first of all, to reform the state and citizenship within their own borders so that power recognizes equal citizenship rights for all based on a single criterion: residence. (...) To do so will be to recognize that neither the tragedy of Rwanda nor its possible salvation can be exclusively, or even mainly, a Rwandan responsibility. »
September 30, 2018
This is a deeply moving book. Mamdani's writing changed the way I look at the world, language and culture. I read the book a few years ago as part of my graduate study for international affairs, so I don't have the recall to give a detailed review. That being said, passages of his writings come to mind often in many different settings of my daily life.
October 8, 2020
I found this book more difficult to start to read than others on the topic, as it is written by an academic rather than a journalist. But as I progressed in the book, and became more familiar with his style, it became easier. I wouldn't recommend this as the first book to read on the genocide, but it should be on the reading list of anyone interested in the topic.
April 16, 2021
This book was very well written, great for an introduction to the complexity of decolonization. Although centered around the Rwandan Genocide, it includes a lot of theory applicable in other European colonies in Africa. It truly highlighted the role of the Church as an institution and the Belgian administration. I recommend this book it was really interesting and accessible !!
May 8, 2020
Amazing book about Rwanda before, during, and after the civil war. Clear explanations about this rather unknown country.
April 27, 2021
Hard to read (in terms of both writing style and subject matter) but thoughtful and informative in its assessment of the causes of the Rwandan genocide and Rwanda’s possible futures.
March 12, 2023
Taking another genocide class. Why must all my classes make me sad
November 4, 2024
my brain hurts
September 7, 2025
An academic dive into the psychology behind the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda, anyone with interest in the tragedy should be encouraged to read this.
February 21, 2026
A really good book, but I think 3 stars is enough
May 7, 2012
This new book by Mahmood Mamdani, one of the world's most respected Africa scholars, should be considered as the standard English-language introduction to Rwanda and its genocide. Mamdani's highly-readable account focuses on the political construction of Hutu and Tutsi as racial/ethnic identities, tracing the tale from the pre-colonial era, through Belgium's administration of the country, to the 1959 Revolution and subsequent attempts to develop an overarching sense of Rwandan nationhood. These attempts were cut short by the rise of Hutu Power in the early 1990s, culminating in the horrific outbreak of mass killing in April 1994. The advantage of Mamdani's book is that it offers "history from below," arguing that the racialized hostility between Hutu and Tutsi helps to account for the extraordinary (perhaps unprecedented) degree of popular involvement in the 1994 killing campaign. He also stresses the regional context of the Rwandan civil war and genocide, with separate chapters on Uganda and Congo/Zaire. The book is rich in theoretical insights but never ponderous or pretentious.
January 3, 2017
I realized the other day that Mamdani is one of the few non-fiction writers who I regularly read, regardless of my background knowledge of or interest in the topic. He writes as well as any author, weaving between grand but impeccably argued statements about the relationship between international and regional actors and governments and citizens of sub Saharan African countries, and incredibly detailed chapters which ultimately serve to support his argument. Obviously anyone with an interest in the historical legacy of colonialism should consider his work indispensable, but anyone who appreciates well written historical non-fiction should read this book or his work on the conflict in Sudan.
It's been a while since I read this one specifically so I'm a bit fuzzy, I will only paste in what I read from Jeffrey Herbst's review of this book: "Anyone from now on who writes on identity in Central Africa--and there will be many--will have to wrestle with the case that Mamdani has made."
It's been a while since I read this one specifically so I'm a bit fuzzy, I will only paste in what I read from Jeffrey Herbst's review of this book: "Anyone from now on who writes on identity in Central Africa--and there will be many--will have to wrestle with the case that Mamdani has made."
September 3, 2012
The Rwandan genocide is a scar on human history, this book is thoughtful, rigorous and systematically researched and provides a detailed account of the causes of the war and genocide. Mamdani provides an in-depth scholarly account of the political, cultural and social forces which converged over a century. To his merit Mamdani manages to remain objective without losing sight of the tragedy, a fault of some authors, particularly those focused on finding economic interpretations.
June 10, 2014
Very informative look at the buildup to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The author gives incite to what was happening in the surrounding areas leading up to the 1990 RPF invasion and the after effects of the civil war in Rwanda. My main drawback to this book was that a lot of information was repeated. The repeated information is important for understanding of what occurred but some of the repetition seem a bit much.
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August 3, 2011A fantastic look at the historical context leading to the Rwandan genocide, and an even better re-thinking of citizenship in post-colonial societies. Mamdani is always thought provoking and rewarding to read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews