Genocide presents the historical framework surrounding the holocaust of Africa"s two smallest countries, Rwanda and Burundi, where ethnic consciousness was almost nonexistent before German and Belgian colonialism. With reports on the war between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples and the rebellion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), the author examines genocide - the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group - from socio-historical, psychological, and cultural perspectives, tracing the practice of ethnic cleansing back to pre-biblical times.