Includes bibliographical references (pages 379-385) and index.

Historical background -- The pre-colonial period -- The colonial period -- The First Republic -- The Second Republic -- The years of hegemony (1973-1990) -- The discourse of reconciliation and the continued policy of exclusion -- Attempt to create a rural totalitarian state -- A brief and fragile economic recovery (1974-1986) -- Insubordination, social violence and despair -- War, multipartism and genocide -- The MRND party-state resistance to change -- The political opposition at the root of the genocide -- Butare: origins of the prefecture's political moderation -- Historical background -- Butare under the Second Republic -- Tolerance, violence and genocide in Butare -- The October 1990 war -- Multipartism in Butare -- Genocide in the prefecture --Kigembe: a social and political history -- The First Republic -- The Second Republic -- Political radicalism in Kigembe -- The impact of the 1990 war on Kigembe -- The multiparty era -- Genocide in Kigembe -- Kibuye: land conflict and political violence -- Historical and social context -- The final years of the MRND party-state -- Popular mobilization, war and the transition to democracy -- Multipartism in Kibuye prefecture -- : moderate politics and genocide in Gitesi commune -- 1984-1990: social crisis and the rise of subversive behavior -- War and multiparty rule -- Genocide in gitesi commune -- General conclusion: massive popular participation in the genocide.

Originally published in French in 2008.