Longman in CSM: Crisis in Rwanda
Timothy Longman, Associate Professor of International Relations and Political Science at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, said that President Kagame’s attempts to stay in power were causing a crisis in Rwanda.
Longman made his case in an Oct. 8 article in the Christian Science Monitor entitled “No Limits? Rwandan Ruling Shows How African Leaders Stay in Power.”
From the text of the article:
Leaders in “Burundi, Burkina Faso, and Congo have tried to extend their terms, but there has been enough political space to rise up and protest,” says Timothy Longman, a political science professor at Boston University.
That is not the case in Rwanda, where years of repressions have stamped out a strong opposition and civil society. And despite the main opposition Democratic Green Party (DGP) challenging the proposed constitutional amendment, the checks and balances on presidential power appear not be working, allowing Kagame to manipulate the democratic process.
You can read the entire article here.
Longman is the director of the African Studies Center, an affiliated regional studies center of the Pardee School. His current research focuses on state -society relations in Africa, looking particularly at human rights, transitional justice, democratization, civil society, the politics of race and ethnicity, religion and politics, and women and politics. Learn more about him here.