{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,14]],"date-time":"2024-05-14T12:32:49Z","timestamp":1715689969257},"reference-count":107,"publisher":"Cambridge University Press (CUP)","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,17]],"date-time":"2020-03-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1584403200000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/terms"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["cambridge.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Med. Hist."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,4]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>This article surveys the evolution of Rwandan family planning practices from the nation\u2019s mythico-historical origins to the present. Rwanda is typically regarded as a patriarchal society in which Rwandan women have, throughout history, endured limited rights and opportunities. However, oral traditions narrated by twentieth-century Rwandan historians, storytellers and related experts, and interpreted by the scholars and missionaries who lived in Rwanda during the nation\u2019s colonial period, suggest that gender norms in Rwanda were more complicated. Shifting practices related to family planning \u2013 particularly access to contraception, abortion, vasectomies and related strategies \u2013 are but one arena in which this becomes evident, suggesting that women\u2019s roles within their families and communities could be more diverse than the historiography\u2019s narrow focus on women as wives and mothers currently allows. Drawing upon a range of colonial-era oral traditions and interviews conducted with Rwandans since 2007, I argue that Rwandan women \u2013 while under significant social pressure to become wives and mothers throughout the nation\u2019s past \u2013 did find ways to exert agency within and beyond these roles. I further maintain that understanding historical approaches to family planning in Rwanda is essential for informing present-day policy debates in Rwanda aimed at promoting gender equality, and in particular for ensuring women\u2019s rights and access to adequate healthcare are being upheld.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1017\/mdh.2020.4","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,17]],"date-time":"2020-03-17T12:50:26Z","timestamp":1584449426000},"page":"219-239","update-policy":"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1017\/policypage","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["\u2018There Are No Other Options?\u2019: Rwandan Gender Norms and Family Planning in Historical Perspective"],"prefix":"10.1017","volume":"64","author":[{"given":"Erin","family":"Jessee","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"56","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"S0025727320000046_r105","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s12546-016-9177-9"},{"key":"#cr-split#-S0025727320000046_r104.1","unstructured":"See for example, Marie Berry, '\"There is no Hope to Get a Better Life\": How Rwanda's Remarkable Two-decade March from Genocide has Left Women Behind', Foreign Policy, 7 April 2014, http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2014\/04\/07\/there-is-no-hope-to-get-a-better-life\/"},{"key":"#cr-split#-S0025727320000046_r104.2","unstructured":"and Susan Thomson, 'Rwanda: Visible Progress yet Power is Still a Male Preserve', The World Today, 71, 2 (2015), 20-1."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r102","unstructured":"Brown, op. cit. (note 71)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r101","unstructured":"Gatete Nyiringabo Ruhumuliza, \u2018False Prophets in the Catholic Church\u2019, The New Times, 11 April 2019, https:\/\/www.newtimes.co.rw\/opinions\/false-prophets-catholic-church."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r100","unstructured":"Samuel Okiror, \u2018Paul Kagame Orders Release of Women and Girls Jailed over Abortion in Rwanda\u2019, The Guardian, 5 April 2019, https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2019\/apr\/05\/paul-kagame-orders-release-of-women-and-girls-jailed-over-abortion-in-rwanda."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r99","unstructured":"Central Intelligence Agency, op. cit. (note 6)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r98","unstructured":"Ibid."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r97","unstructured":"Igihe, \u2018Perezida Kagame yaganiriye n\u2019abanyamadini ku kibazo cyo gukuramo inda (President Kagame talked to church leaders about abortion)\u2019, 20 April 2012, http:\/\/www.igihe.com\/amakuru\/u-rwanda\/perezida-kagame-yaganiriye-n-abanyamadini-ku-bijyanye-n-ikibazo-cyo-gukuramo-inda."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r93","unstructured":"Rodrigue Rwirahira, \u2018Rwanda\u2019s Proposed Abortion Amendment Takes Procedure Out of the Courts\u2019, News Deeply, 22 January 2018, https:\/\/www.newsdeeply.com\/womenandgirls\/articles\/2018\/01\/22\/rwandas-proposed-abortion-amendment-takes-procedure-out-of-the-courts."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r91","unstructured":"Ibid."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r39","first-page":"138","volume-title":"The Biography of an African Society, Rwanda 1900\u201360: Based on Forty-Eight Rwandan Autobiographies","author":"Codere","year":"1973"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r43","unstructured":"Julie Solo, \u2018Family Planning in Rwanda: How a Taboo Topic Became Priority Number One\u2019, IntraHealth InternationalJune (2008), https:\/\/www.intrahealth.org\/sites\/ihweb\/files\/attachment-files\/fp_in_Rwanda.pdf."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r83","unstructured":"Government of Rwanda, \u2018Family Planning Policy\u2019, December 2012, 14, http:\/\/www.moh.gov.rw\/fileadmin\/templates\/Docs\/Rwanda-Family-Planning-Policy.pdf."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r34","unstructured":"See, for example, Taylor, op. cit. (note 2)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r32","unstructured":"Indeed, some Rwandans claim that this explains the origins of the Banyamulenge people in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), who are Kinyarwanda-speaking and predominantly Tutsi pastoralists."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r90","unstructured":"Guttmacher Institute, \u2018Abortion in Rwanda\u2019, April 2013, https:\/\/www.guttmacher.org\/fact-sheet\/abortion-rwanda."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r92","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0968-8080(13)41690-7"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r89","unstructured":"Daniel Mukeshimana, \u2018Ni iki kihishe inyuma yo kuba abagabo benshi mu Rwanda bamaze kwifungisha urubyaro burundu (What\u2019s the reason why so many men use permanent family planning methods)\u2019, Umubavu, 20 February 2017, http:\/\/umubavu.com\/amakuru\/article\/Ni-iki-kihishe-inyuma-yo-kuba-abagabo-benshi-mu-Rwanda-bamaze-kwifungisha-urubyaro-burundu."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r68","unstructured":"Ibid."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r15","unstructured":"Liisa Malkki, Purity and Exile: Violence, Memory and National Cosmology Among Hutu Refugees in Tanzania (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1995), 54. See also, Yolande Bouka, \u2018(Oral) History of Violence: Conflicting Narratives in Post-Genocide Rwanda,\u2019 Oral History Forum d\u2019Histoire Orale, 33 (2013), 7; Jennie Burnet, \u2018Whose genocide? Whose truth? Representations of victim and perpetrator in Rwanda\u2019, in A. Hinton and K. O\u2019Neill (eds), Genocide: Truth, Memory and Representation (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), 96; Erin Jessee, Negotiating Genocide in Rwanda: The Politics of History (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 119\u201320; Ibid., 37\u20138; Elizabeth King, \u2018From Data Problems to Data Points: Challenges and Opportunities of Research in Postgenocide Rwanda\u2019, African Studies Review, 52, 3 (2009), 127\u201348; and Marc Sommers, \u2018Review of Liisa Malkki, Purity and Exile: Violence, Memory and National Cosmology Among Hutu Refugees in Tazania\u2019, American Anthropologist, 99, 1 (1997), 218."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r38","unstructured":"Des Forges, op. cit. (note 5), 241\u20132."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r84","unstructured":"Chief editor, \u2018Karongi: Ntibemera ko umugabo yaboneza urubyaro (Karongi: They do not agree that men should use family planning)\u2019, Muhabura, July 2017, http:\/\/mobile.muhabura.rw\/spip.php?page=article&id_article=4112."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r79","unstructured":"Charles Kambanda, \u2018Rwanda: Why Sterilize the Poor?\u2019, San Francisco Bay View, 14 June 2011, https:\/\/sfbayview.com\/2011\/06\/rwanda-why-sterilize-the-poor\/."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r95","unstructured":"BBC Gahuza, \u2018 Abayobozi b\u2019amadini mu Rwanda bamaganye gukuramo inda (Church leaders in Rwanda are fighting against the new abortion law)\u2019, 9 April 2012, https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/gahuza\/amakuru\/2012\/04\/120409_rwanda_religious_abotion."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r58","first-page":"44","volume-title":"Genocide Lives in Us: Women, Memory and Silence in Rwanda","author":"Burnet","year":"2012"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r62","unstructured":"Republic of Rwanda, \u2018Rwanda Vision 2020\u2019, revised 2012, i, 12, http:\/\/www.minecofin.gov.rw\/fileadmin\/templates\/documents\/NDPR\/Vision_2020_.pdf."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r33","unstructured":"H Kigeri Ndabarasa file #10, The Vansina Collection. This is one of several ibit\u00e9ekerezo related to Nyirabiyoro that can be found in the Vansina Collection."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r63","unstructured":"Government of Rwanda, \u2018Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper\u2019, June 2002, 35, http:\/\/siteresources.worldbank.org\/INTPRS1\/Resources\/Country-Papers-and-JSAs\/Rwanda_PRSP.pdf."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r74","unstructured":"Emmanuel Ntirenganya, \u2018Catholic Church Changes Stance on \u201cArtificial\u201d Family Planning Methods\u2019, The New Times, 4 September 2016, https:\/\/www.newtimes.co.rw\/section\/read\/203226."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r30","unstructured":"In ideal circumstances, the father of a beautiful young girl would be given a cow \u2013 a highly valued status symbol due to its ability to produce milk and thereby enhance the wealth of the recipient \u2013 by the father of the intended groom as a form of dowry. There was no punishment for the boy or man responsible for getting the young girl pregnant."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r60","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/14623528.2019.1623527"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r27","unstructured":"As elite men could have multiple wives, it was typically the husband\u2019s favourite wife who could exercise the most power within their communities. In the case of abamikazi (queens), their political power rested on the abami deciding not only that they were their favourite wife, but that they should be named umugabekazi (Queen Mother) to the son whom their husband wanted to succeed him \u2013 a position that allowed them to share power equally with their husband\u2019s successor. In most cases, the abamikazi and abagabekazi (queen mothers) were descendants of three powerful matridynastic clans, the Abega, the Abakono and the Abasinga, which ensured that these clans shared monarchical power with the otherwise dominant Abanyiginya clan. However, Rwandans often say that all beautiful women belonged to the king, regardless of their clan."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r22","unstructured":"The narrative mentions that prior to being sacrificed, the bull was fed \u2018royal saliva\u2019, which is often interpreted as meaning the mwami\u2019s semen. This may explain why ultimately Gasani did not see Sabizeze as illegitimate, and why as the child grew older he was said to look more like Nkuba. Mukarutabana, op. cit. (note\u00a012)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r88","unstructured":"Solo, op. cit. (note 43), 26."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r47","unstructured":"Kimonyo, op. cit. (note 45), 37."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r57","unstructured":"Brown, op. cit. (note 24), 32."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r77","unstructured":"Edward Musoni, \u2018700\u00a0000 Men Expected to Undergo Vasectomy\u2019, The New Times, 2 February 2011, https:\/\/www.newtimes.co.rw\/section\/read\/28116."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r86","unstructured":"Chief Editor, op. cit. (note\u00a083)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r50","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/1966588"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r18","unstructured":"Malkki, op. cit. (note 15), 68. British physician and ethnologist Charles Seligman was a key proponent of the Hamitic hypothesis. His 1930 book, Races of Africa, distinguishes between Hamite pastoralists who were of European descent and \u2018two other African stocks, the Negro and the Bushman\u2019. Charles Seligman, Races of Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1930), 96. For additional information, see Edith Sanders, \u2018The Hamitic Hypothesis: Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective\u2019, Journal of African History, 10, 4 (1969), 521\u201332."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r61","unstructured":"For additional information on events leading up to and during the genocide, see Alison Des Forges, Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999); Andr\u00e9 Guichaoua, From War to Genocide: Criminal Politics in Rwanda, 1990\u20134 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2015); and Jessee op. cit. (note\u00a015)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r25","unstructured":"There are a few exceptions: Des Forges, Vansina and historian Sarah Watkins have written about abagabekaziwho ruled as equals alongside their sons when they became kings during the Nyiginya kingdom. Des Forges, op. cit. (note 5); Vansina, op. cit. (note 2); and Sarah Watkins, \u2018Iron Mothers and Warrior Lovers: Intimacy, Power and the State in the Nyiginya Kingdom, 1796\u20131913\u2019."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r51","unstructured":"Ibid., 21. See also Anicet Kashamura, Famille, Sexualit\u00e9 et Culture: Essai sur les Moeurs Sexuelles et les Cultures des Peuples des Grands Lacs (Paris: Payot, 1973); and L. Ntezilyayo, \u2018Contribution \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9tude de co\u00fbt-efficacit\u00e9 de la planification familiale au Rwanda\u2019 (unpublished PhD thesis: Institut Africain et Mauricien de Statistique et d\u2019Economie Appliqu\u00e9e, 1989)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r54","unstructured":"Cited in Stephen Childress, \u2018From Revolution to Ruin: A Preliminary Look at Rwanda\u2019s First Two Presidents, Gr\u00e9goire Kayibanda and Juv\u00e9nal Habyarimana, and their Administrations\u2019 (unpublished PhD thesis: University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2015), 375; and May et\u00a0al., op. cit. (note\u00a050)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r12","unstructured":"Rose-Marie Mukarutabana, \u2018Gakondo\u2019, http:\/\/www.dlblanc.com\/Gakondo\/en\/Myths\/Kigwa.php(archived)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r72","unstructured":"Ryan Brown, \u2018How Rwanda\u2019s Catholic Clinics Struck a Contraception Compromise\u2019, Christian Science Monitor, 2 January 2019, https:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/World\/Africa\/2019\/0102\/How-Rwanda-s-Catholic-clinics-struck-a-contraception-compromise."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r49","unstructured":"Though referred to as a bloodless coup, over the next two years many of Kayibanda\u2019s inner circle were executed or died in prison, while Kayibanda was allegedly starved to death. G\u00e9rard Prunier, The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide (London: Hurst & Company, 2002), 82."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r42","unstructured":"Fieldnotes from the Presidential Palace Museum in Kigali, 2017. Peterson Tumwebaze, \u2018The abortion debate: \u201cThey should bear the cross!\u201d\u2019, The New Times, 7 November 2011, http:\/\/www.newtimes.co.rw\/section\/read\/36591."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r96","unstructured":"Ibid."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r19","unstructured":"Newbury, op. cit. (note 7), 193."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r52","unstructured":"P. Mukamfizi, Enqu\u00eate sur la Contraception Traditionelle au Rwanda (Kigali: ONAPO, 1985); cited in May et\u00a0al., op. cit. (note 50), 23."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r37","unstructured":"Des Forges, op. cit. (note 5), 241."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r65","unstructured":"Government of Rwanda, op. cit. (note\u00a062), 45."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r26","unstructured":"Vansina, op. cit. (note 2), 31."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r85","unstructured":"Ibid."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r1","unstructured":"Cited in J.J. Carney, Rwanda Before the Genocide: Catholic Politics and Ethnic Discourse in the Late Colonial Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 40."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r35","unstructured":"Indeed, Watkins notes that the mwami did not enjoy absolute power, and was under constant pressure to perform rituals to ensure the prosperity of his people and their cattle, and demonstrate his legitimacy. Watkins, op. cit. (note 25), 76."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r2","unstructured":"Christopher Taylor, Milk, Honey and Money: Changing Concepts in Rwandan Healing (Washington: Smithsonian Books, 1992), 66; Jan Vansina, Antecedents to Modern Rwanda: The Nyiginya Kingdom (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005), 39. See also Iris Berger, The Kubandwa Religious Complex of Interlacustrine East Africa: An Historical Study (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973); Luc de Heusch, \u2018Mythe et soci\u00e9t\u00e9 f\u00e9odale: Le culte du kubandwa dans le Rwanda traditionnel\u2019, Pourquoi l\u2019\u00e9spouser? (1971), 205\u201325; and Alexis Kagame, Un abr\u00e9g\u00e9 de l\u2019ethno-histoire du Rwanda (Butare: Editions universitaires du Rwanda, 1972)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r103","unstructured":"Brown, op. cit. (note 24), 230."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r11","unstructured":"I am grateful to historian Sarah Watkins for kindly sharing with me her scans of the Vansina Collection. For more information, see The Vansina Collection, Ibit\u00e9ekerezo: Historical Narratives from Rwanda: A Collection of Texts and Translations, 1957\u201361 (Chicago: CRL-CAMP Department of Photoduplication, University of Chicago Library, 1973)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r66","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S1743923X11000250"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r31","unstructured":"Jessee, op. cit. (note 15), 101\u20132."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r5","first-page":"237","volume-title":"Defeat is the Only Bad News: Rwanda Under Musinga, 1896\u20131931","author":"Des Forges","year":"2011"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r69","unstructured":"Republic of Rwanda, op. cit. (note\u00a066), 10."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r75","unstructured":"Family Planning 2020, \u2018Rwanda: FP2020 Core Indicator Summary Sheet\u2019, 2017, http:\/\/www.track20.org\/download\/pdf\/2017%20FP2020%20CI%20Handouts\/english\/Rwanda%202017%20FP2020%20CoreIndicators.pdf."},{"key":"#cr-split#-S0025727320000046_r24.1","unstructured":"See, for example, Sara Brown's recent discussion of pre-genocide Rwanda as characterised by 'deeply entrenched patriarchal systems' in which 'Rwanda's women were hard pressed for a space to exercise agency'. Sara Brown, Gender and the Genocide in Rwanda: Women as Rescuers and Perpetrators (London: Routledge, 2018), 33"},{"key":"#cr-split#-S0025727320000046_r24.2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"and Sara Brown, 'Reshaping Gender Norms in Post-Genocide Rwanda', Genocide Studies International, 10, 2 (2016), 233.","DOI":"10.3138\/gsi.10.2.06"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r3","unstructured":"Carney, op. cit. (note 1), 25."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r80","unstructured":"Interestingly, such sentiments were amplified by the far-right American print magazine, The New American. In response to the 2011 campaign, they quoted Steven Mosher of the Population Research Institute, which opposes anti-population growth initiatives, who argued that \u2018every single time a sterilization campaign has had a target and a timetable, it inevitably involves coercion and other human rights abuses\u2019. Mosher linked his criticism of Rwanda\u2019s vasectomy campaign to the controversy that surrounded Rwanda\u2019s 2008 campaign to promote circumcision as a means of reducing the spread of HIV\/AIDS. Michael Tennant, \u2018US Government Funds Rwandan Sterilization Campaign\u2019, 15 February 2011, https:\/\/www.thenewamerican.com\/usnews\/foreign-policy\/item\/1377-us-government-funds-rwandan-sterilization-campaign."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r4","unstructured":"Carney notes that the White Fathers regarded this number as disappointing, compared to the estimated 100\u00a0000 Ugandans who had converted to Catholicism by this time, op. cit. (note 1), 28."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r6","unstructured":"Central Intelligence Agency, \u2018The World Factbook: Rwanda\u2019, updated 27 December 2018, https:\/\/www.cia.gov\/library\/publications\/the-world-factbook\/geos\/rw.html. The Catholic Church was more prominent prior to the 1994 genocide, in which an estimated 800\u00a0000 Tutsi civilians were murdered by Hutu Power extremists. However, its Rwandan leadership\u2019s widespread complicity in the genocide prompted many Rwandans to leave the church. Today, Protestant Christians make up Rwanda\u2019s largest religious community. Timothy Longman, Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r7","unstructured":"See, for example, Carney, op. cit. (note\u00a01); Des Forges, op. cit. (note\u00a05); Longman, op. cit. (note\u00a06); Catharine Newbury, The Cohesion of Oppression: Citizenship and Ethnicity in Rwanda, 1860\u20131960 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r8","unstructured":"An important exception to this statement is the subject of the introduction of ethnicity by Europeans, which will be addressed in greater detail below, and other topics that relate to the roots of the 1994 genocide."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r94","unstructured":"James Karuhanga, \u2018Government drafts guidelines on abortion\u2019, The New Times, 11 October 2018, https:\/\/www.newtimes.co.rw\/news\/government-drafts-guidelines-abortion."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r9","unstructured":"I am grateful to Canada\u2019s Social Science and Humanities Research Council for funding my initial doctoral and postdoctoral research in Rwanda, as well as the Centre for International Governance Innovation\u2019s Africa Initiative, the Carnegie Trust and the Royal Society of Edinburgh for having allowed me to continue conducting historical research in the country. Likewise, this article would not have been possible without the incredible support of my Rwanda-based research assistants, and the valuable feedback I received from Laura Kelly, Agata Ignaciuk and two anonymous reviewers."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r10","unstructured":"The research assistants and research participants associated with my earlier fieldwork in Rwanda have chosen to remain anonymous in the outcomes I produce associated with these research projects. Below, however, I use \u2013 with their consent \u2013 the real names of the research assistants who have helped with the translation of the media articles I rely upon in this article."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/3172121"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/hia.2014.7"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r17","unstructured":"Malkki, op. cit. (note 15), 72."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0022343309353097"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r21","unstructured":"There is no mention of how many children Gasani had previously. Mukarutabana, op. cit. (note\u00a012)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r16","unstructured":"Malkki, Ibid., 54. For more on the 1972 genocide in Burundi, see, for example, Ren\u00e9 Lemarchand, \u2018Burundi 1972: Genocide denied, revised and remembered\u2019, in R. Lemarchand (ed.), Forgotten Genocides: Oblivion, Denial and Memory (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 37\u201350."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r23","unstructured":"The mwami had the power to execute people who displeased him, and so resistance to the mwami\u2019s authority was rare and required exceptional provocation. Vansina, op. cit. (note 2), 89\u201390."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r28","unstructured":"It is difficult to reconstruct what precisely Vansina and other historians who work on early Rwandan history mean by phrases like \u2018well-mannered children\u2019. However, in modern Rwanda, great value is placed on raising children who are quiet, do not cry or complain too much, contribute to the family by performing chores around the home, and treat their elders with respect."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r29","unstructured":"Mukarutabana, op. cit. (note 12). The story goes on to tell of how Sabizeze later overheard Gasani talking about how he was conceived, which made him very angry, prompting him to reject Gasani and leave heaven, taking with him two siblings, fire, and various domesticated animals to help them in their new life on Earth. The remainder of the story tells of how they settled in what is today northwestern Rwanda among people of the Abazigaba clan, and ultimately gave rise to the Nyiginya kingdom. Sabizeze became known as Kigwa (meaning \u2018fallen\u2019) and his descendants gave rise to the Abanyiginya clan, while his siblings gave rise to the Abega, Abaha and Abakono clans."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r36","unstructured":"Carney, op. cit. (note 1); and Longman, op. cit. (note 6)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r40","unstructured":"Indeed, it is notable that women do not feature in Carney\u2019s comprehensive overview of Catholic politics in Rwanda prior to 1994. Carney, op. cit. (note 1). Beyond Rwanda, however, historian Richard Volks has demonstrated that Uganda-based missionaries, recognising the importance of women\u2019s spiritual leadership in communities where people worshipped Nyabingi \u2013 a likely mythical queen whose spirit could possess people, allowing them to perform miracles \u2013 encouraged practitioners to merge their beliefs with Christian theology surrounding the Virgin Mary. Richard Volk, Ghosts of Kanunga: Fertility, Secrecy and Exchange in the Great Lakes of East Africa (Suffolk: James Currey, 2009), 18."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r70","unstructured":"Republic of Rwanda, \u2018National Family Planning Policy and its Five-Year Strategies (2006\u20132010)\u2019, March 2006, https:\/\/www.gfmer.ch\/SRH-Course-2010\/national-guidelines\/pdf\/National-FP-policy-MOH-Rwanda-2006.pdf. See, most recently, Government of Rwanda, \u2018Family Planning 2020 Commitment\u2019, 11 July 2017, https:\/\/www.familyplanning2020.org\/sites\/default\/files\/Govt.-of-Rwanda-FP2020-Commitment-2018-Update_1.pdf."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r41","unstructured":"Kanjogera had been assigned to serve as the umugabekazi to her husband Mwami Rwabugiri\u2019s favourite son by another wife, Rutarindwa. However, soon after Rwabugiri\u2019s death in 1895, Kanjogera and her brother Kabare orchestrated a coup at Rutarindwa\u2019s new court in Rucunshu that prompted the new mwami\u2019s suicide and allowed Kanjogera to make her young son Musinga the next mwami. She subsequently arranged the massacre of Rutarindwa\u2019s supporters to ensure the court supremacy of her clan, the Abega, and took an active role in ruling the kingdom alongside her son. For more information, see Des Forges, op. cit. (note\u00a05), 16\u201317; Sarah Watkins and Erin Jessee, \u2018Legacies of Kanjogera: Women Political Elites and the Transgression of Gender Norms in Rwanda\u2019, Journal of Eastern African Studies, 2020."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r44","unstructured":"Vansina, op. cit. (note 2), 28."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r46","unstructured":"Ibid., 51."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r48","unstructured":"Kimonyo, op. cit. (note 45), 37\u20139."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r53","unstructured":"Previously, artificial family planning such as condoms and birth control medications were available within the country, but only via private medical facilities. May et\u00a0al., op. cit. (note 50), 29, 25."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r55","unstructured":"Ibid., 375."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r56","unstructured":"Organization of African Unity, \u2018Rwanda, the Preventable Genocide: Report of the International Panel of Eminent Personalities to Investigate the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda\u2019, July 2000, 4:15."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r71","unstructured":"Government of Rwanda, Ibid., 9."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r59","first-page":"379","article-title":"Loose Women, Virtuous Wives and Timid Virgins: Gender and the Control of Resources in Rwanda","volume":"25","author":"Jefremovas","year":"1991","journal-title":"Canadian Journal of African Studies"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r64","unstructured":"Ibid., 31."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r87","unstructured":"Chief Editor, op. cit. (note\u00a083)."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r67","unstructured":"Republic of Rwanda, \u2018National Reproductive Health Policy,\u2019 July 2003, iv, 9, http:\/\/www.africanchildforum.org\/clr\/policy%20per%20country\/rwanda\/rwanda_reproductivehealth_2003_en.pdf."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r73","first-page":"249","article-title":"Motivations and Constraints to Family Planning: A Qualitative Study in Rwanda\u2019s Southern Kayonza District","volume":"3","author":"Farmer","year":"2015","journal-title":"Global Health"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r76","unstructured":"There is evidence to suggest that in instances where religious leaders have criticised the government\u2019s family planning policies, they have faced prosecution for threatening state security. See, for example, the case of priest Emile Nsengiyumva, who was sentenced to eighteen months in prison after giving a sermon that criticised the government housing programme and family planning policies, discussed in: Freedom House, \u2018Rwanda: Freedom in the World\u2019, 2012, https:\/\/freedomhouse.org\/report\/freedom-world\/2012\/rwanda."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r45","first-page":"37","volume-title":"Rwanda\u2019s Popular Genocide: A Perfect Storm","author":"Kimonyo","year":"2016"},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r78","unstructured":"Anonymous, \u2018Opinion: Vasectomies in Rwanda\u2019, JamboNews.net, 8 May 2012, http:\/\/www.jambonews.net\/en\/news\/20120508-rwanda-vasectomies-in-rwanda\/."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r81","unstructured":"Kamonyi District, \u2018Nyamiyaga: Depite Mukakarangwa yibukije abaturage ko kuboneza urubyaro ari ngombwa (Nyamiyaga: Deputy [member of Parliament] Mukakarangwa reminded citizens that family planning is very important)\u2019, Government of Rwanda, n.d., http:\/\/www.kamonyi.gov.rw\/index.php?id=38&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=497&cHash=9c6e875f200ebf86a4fb6b9ab78672da. For more on umuganda \u2013 a community works programme adapted from early Rwandan history in which people came together to construct a house or undertake some similar group task, see Rwanda Governance Board, \u2018Umuganda\u2019, n.d., http:\/\/www.rgb.rw\/index.php?id=37."},{"key":"S0025727320000046_r82","unstructured":"Kamonyi District, Ibid."}],"container-title":["Medical History"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/services\/aop-cambridge-core\/content\/view\/S0025727320000046","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,17]],"date-time":"2020-03-17T12:51:26Z","timestamp":1584449486000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/product\/identifier\/S0025727320000046\/type\/journal_article"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,17]]},"references-count":107,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,4]]}},"alternative-id":["S0025727320000046"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/mdh.2020.4","relation":{},"ISSN":["0025-7273","2048-8343"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0025-7273","type":"print"},{"value":"2048-8343","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,17]]},"assertion":[{"value":"\u00a9 The Author(s), 2020. 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