Chrétien, Jean-Pierre

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CHRÉTIEN, Jean-Pierre

PERSONAL:

Male.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Paris, France. Agent—c/o Author Mail, MIT Press, Five Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142-1493.

CAREER:

Centre Nationale de Recherches Scientifique, Centre de Recherches Africaines, University of Paris, Paris, France, research director.

WRITINGS:

(Collector) Histoire rurale de l'Afrique des Grands Lacs: Guide recherches, AFERA (Paris, France), 1983.

(Editor, with B. Jewsiewicki) Ambiguités de l'innovation: Sociétés rurales et technologies en Afrique centrale et occidentale au XXe siècle, SAFI (Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada), 1984.

(Editor, with Emile Mworoha, and others) Histoire du Burundi: Des origines à la fin du XIXe siècle, Hatier (Paris, France), 1987.

(Editor, with Gérard Prunier) Les Ethnies ont une histoire, Editions Karthala (Paris, France), 1989.

(With André Guichaoua and Garbiel Le Jeune) La Crise d'août 1988 au Burundi, AFERA (Paris, France), 1989.

Burundi: L'Histoire retrouvée: 25 ans de métier d'historien en Afrique, Editions Karthala (Paris, France), 1993.

(Editor, with others) L'Invention religieuse en Afrique: Histoire et religion en Afrique noir, Editions Karthala (Paris, France), 1993.

(Editor, with Jean-François Dupaquier, Marcel Kabanda, and Joseph Ngarambe) Rwanda: Les Médias du génocide, Editions Karthala (Paris, France), 1995.

(Editor, with E. Verdier and E. Decaux) Rwanda, un génocide du XXe siècle, Harmattan (Paris, France), 1995.

Le Défi de l'ethnisme; Rwanda et Burundi, 1990-1996, Editions Karthala (Paris, France), 1997.

(Editor, with Jean-Louis Triaud) Histoire d'Afrique: Les Enjeux de mémoire, Editions Karthala (Paris, France), 1999.

(Editor, with François-Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar and Claude-Hélène Perrot)) Afrocentrismes: L'Histoire des Africains entre Eqypte et Amérique Editions Karthala (Paris, France), 2000.

L'Afrique des Grandes Lacs: Deux mille ans d'histoire, Aubier (Paris, France), 2000, translated by Scott Straus as The Great Lakes of Africa: Two Thousand Years of History, Zone Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor to Comprendre les faits du XXe siècle, edited by Marc Ferro, Marobout (Verviers, Belgium), 1977.

SIDELIGHTS:

French historian Jean-Pierre Chrétien has devoted several decades of his life to the study of Central Africa, focusing on the countries of Burundi and Rwanda. His work on the genocides in that region have appeared in French, while his L'Afrique des Grands Lacs: Deux mille ans d'histoire appeared in English translation in 2003 as The Great Lakes of Africa: Two Thousand Years of History.

Chrétien documents the "racist propaganda between 1990 and 1994 which made the [Rwandan] genocide possible," noted Villia Jefremovas in an Africa review of Rwanda: Les Médias du génocide. The 1994 mass killings of half a million Tutsi and moderate Hutu tribal members was the most recent of such genocides in the region. In 1972, Hutus were also slaughtered in Burundi. According to Jefremovas, "The strength of [Rwanda] is its powerful indictment of the journalists and the extremist politicians who planned the genocide and its meticulous examination of the grotesque propaganda which made it possible." With Burundi: L'Histoire retrouvée: 25 ans de métier d'historien en Afrique, Chrétien gathers essays and studies published between 1968 and 1998 that reflect what Filip Reyntjens, writing in the Journal of Modern African Studies, noted as Chrétien's two central areas of research: "pre-colonial and colonial history … [and] contemporary politics." Reyntjens further commented that Chrétien "is an influential student of Burundi, whose historical work is of great importance and outstanding quality." However, the same critic went on to note that Chrétien's writings on contemporary politics in the region have proven controversial, as they "have consistently provided an academic warranty to the successive military regimes of Tutsi-Hima stock."

With his The Great Lakes of Africa, Chrétien "journeys into the heart of Africa and returns with an unhappy report," said a contributor for Kirkus Reviews. David Schoenbrun, writing in the International Journal of African Studies, observed that "in five long chapters, a short introduction and a brief conclusion, senior historian Jean-Pierre Chrétien presents more than three decades reflection and research on the Central African Past." Chrétien's history spans several millennia in the timeline of the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, which encompasses Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, eastern Congo, and western Tanzania. Schoenbrun further explained that Chrétien "tries to excavate the historical development of racialized ethnic cleavages in Rwanda and Burundi," and it is this theme that gives the book "most of its narrative drama." A critic for Kirkus Reviews felt that Chrétien "brings clarity to the interpretation of recent events." However, Christopher Ondaatje, writing in the Times Higher Education Supplement, thought that Chrétien "soft-peddles the poisonous influence of the European colonial powers," and further criticized certain lapses. For example, about the role of the French government in "financing and training the Hutu militias in 1994, the book maintains a shameful silence," Ondaatje observed. Reviewing the same title in the International Herald Tribune, John Shattuck nonetheless praised Chrétien for having "undertaken the formidable task of tracing the roots of the region's violence and exposing the ideological myths on which the ancient-hatreds theory rests."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Africa, spring, 2000, Villia Jefremovas, review of Rwanda: Les Médias du génocide, p. 298.

Boston Globe, August 26, 2003, Mary Meier, review of The Great Lakes of Africa: Two Thousand Years of History.

International Affairs, July, 1999, Patrick Chabal, review of Histoire d'Afrique: Les Enjeux de mémoire, pp. 682-683.

International Herald Tribune, September 20, 2003, John Shattuck, review of The Great Lakes of Africa.

International Journal of African Historical Studies, summer, 2000, David Schoenbrun, review of L'Afrique des Grands Lacs: D +eux mille ans d'histoire, pp. 696-702.

Journal of African History, May, 1995, "Le Passé de l'Afrique par l'oralite," pp. 351-352; January, 1996, Nadia Lovell, review of L'Invention religieuse en Afrique, pp. 120-121.

Journal of Modern African Studies, December, 1994, Filip Reyntjens, review of Burundi: L'Histoire retrouvée, pp. 725-726.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2003, review of The Great Lakes of Africa, pp. 356-357.

Third World Quarterly, August, 1999, Elaine Windrich, review of Rwanda: Les Médias du génocide, pp. 855-860.

Times Higher Education Supplement, June 20, 2003, Christopher Ondaatje, review of The Great Lakes of Africa, p. 30.