New Books Network Shakirah E. Hudani, "Master Plans and Minor Acts: Repairing the City in Post-Genocide Rwanda" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
Sep 18, 2025
In this engaging conversation, Shakirah E. Hudani, an urban studies scholar specializing in African cities, explores her book on post-genocide Rwanda. She discusses the intricate balance of urban master planning and grassroots efforts in Kigali, highlighting how spatial strategies reshape lives and memories. Hudani dives into local community responses to urban changes, revealing tensions around land use and environmental initiatives. Her insights bridge the complex intersections of identity, memory, and urban repair, while offering parallels to other post-conflict regions.
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Urban Transformation Linked To Post-Genocide Transition
- Hudani frames Rwanda's urban transformation as tied to post-genocide transition from the 1990s to early 2000s.
- She situates spatial change as both temporal and political, not merely physical redevelopment.
Field Experience In Gacaca Courts And Kibuye
- Hudani recounts research at Gacaca courts in 2002–2004 and visiting crowded prisons near markets and memorials in Kibuye (Karonji).
- That proximate cohabitation initially allowed encounters later reduced by formalization and planning.
Material Politics Of Repair Defined
- Hudani defines 'material politics of repair' linking built environment and social reconciliation.
- She reads dispossession as both material loss and relational disconnection in post-conflict settings.
