Fujii, Lee Ann. Killing Neighbors

Anthropologist Lee Ann Fujii interviews a number of perpetrators and other members of local communities involved in the Rwandan genocide, focusing on the individual stories and what motivated these people to kill their neighbours. Fujii employs typology to categorise various types of involvement in the Rwandan genocide, focusing her research on what she describes as “joiners”. She argues that ethnic hatred and fear do not satisfactorily explain the mobilization of Rwandans against each other. Rather, group dynamics and established local ties played an important role in recruitment for and participation in the genocide: because killing in large groups conferred identity on those who acted destructively, the perpetrators of the genocide produced new groups centered on destroying prior bonds.

Fujii, Lee Ann. Killing Neighbors: Webs of Violence in Rwanda. Cornell University Press: Ithaca, 2009.