30 years ago today, the RPF launched a massive assault on northern Rwanda that came close to capturing Kigali. I was living in Rwanda at the time and remember the fear that gripped the country. I was in Kirinda in Kibuye Province on the day, and I remember the fear among the people as they struggled to find out what was going on. No one could travel for a few days until things settled down. The Peace Corps and other foreigners were soon pulled out of the country.

I've helped the US government a number of times by doing democracy, human rights, and governance assessments in countries in Africa. Turning that same lens on the US, here's what I would report today: Consensus: Growing polarization in recent decades has led to a breakdown in agreement over the fundamental rules of the game and sharp debates over history and ideas of national identity.

@downey Interesting question. I think there are some different dynamics going on in African Christian resistance to LGBT rights. For Africans churches the issue is a way to assert independence from colonial control with few local consequences, because LGBT communities in Africa... @downey are so small and invisible. Reporting that treats the Africans as being manipulated by conservative Western Christians I think miss the point that the Africans see their hard-line position as an expression of anti-colonial sentiment.

This is an excellent piece, and I urge my colleagues in the Academy to read it. It resonates with my own observation that the greatest challenges for faculty of color come from progressive people who imagine themselves to be allies who are personally free from racism.

https://twitter.com/mkguliford/status/1039485928484560897

I worked for over a decade at a school where I had a joint appointment in a black studies program. I was the first white professor hired in the program, but my colleagues there welcomed me warmly into their vibrant academic community.

Spending the summer reading everyone posting about their successful 500 words a day left me feeling wholly inadequate. But I've realized there are different writing methods that work for different people. Personally, I have to chew over something at length then write in a burst. After picking at my APSA paper for weeks, putting down a line here and another there, I finally finished it by writing for two days straight. I finished my most recent book by sending my family on vacation and finishing two chapters in 10 days.

A deeply disturbing take on the decline of the international human rights culture, focused on the frustrations of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the face of growing international indifference.

https://twitter.com/lindsayhamsik/status/1022100496830672896

The concept of human rights is under attack from conservatives, but I have become increasingly frustrated at the supposed progressives who criticize human rights as a neocolonial project but offer no better alternative.

Working on a book review today, I realized that every single of my citations was to a woman scholar, and it made me reflect on recent calls to cite women. I can't imagine writing anything on Rwanda without doing so, because women have been at the forefront of Rwanda scholarship. An earlier generation of scholars like Alison Des Forges, Catharine Newbury, Claudine Vidal, Danielle de Lame, & Villia Jefremovas set a high standard, In recent years, essential work has been produced by @susanmthomson, Jennie Burnet, An Ansoms, @AnuChakravarty, @lafujii08540

With the US government increasingly embracing inhumane policies, I want to offer a few observations from my experience in Rwanda and what lessons it might offer for this moment. 1/20 As background, I lived in Rwanda in 1992-93 and watched the country move from optimism about possible transition to pessimism and fear as leaders divided the country along ethnic, regional, and political lines. 2/20

Excellent balanced analysis of Rwanda's agricultural policies, highlighting the heavy hand of the state, driving increased production but also limiting farmers with risky rules like mono-cropping. Cites the brilliant An Ansoms. lemonde.fr/afrique/articl… For those who can't read French, the main take away is that Rwanda's government is tightly controlling farming, including what can be planted. This is bringing in more money to the country but also limiting farmers' freedoms and making the poor more vulnerable.

I finally saw Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri recently, and I didn't much like it. The acting was great, but the portrayal of Missouri did not ring true for me at all. My folks lived in MO off and on for 40 years, and I've spent a lot of time there, and I've never run into people like these. I've certainly never heard anyone curse as much as they do! (My mom still says about movies, "It was a good film, but there was so much cursing!")

The effort to promote local scholars and local scholarship is important, but a question like this assumes a free society where local scholars can safely speak. This is not the case everywhere. In violent or authoritarian states, outside scholars have an important role.

https://twitter.com/_alice_evans/status/1003935202488528896

When I was in Eastern Congo in 2000 during the civil war, people literally lined up at my hotel door to provide information about the atrocities underway. They told me I had a responsibility to publicize what was happening since they could not.