Review: Atlas of Rwanda

Gérard Brasseur reviews the 1981 Atlas du Rwanda, prepared by the National University of Rwanda, emphasizing the historical coverage within its 32 plates and accompanying commentaries. Four plates address the country’s past: Kagamé traces the kingdom’s formation from about 1312, its districts in 1896, and early European travel routes; three plates by B. Lugan cover precolonial trade, German administration and wartime retreat, Belgian colonization and developments leading to independence, and the Catholic Church from 1900 to 1976. Brasseur notes unclear eighteenth- and nineteenth-century dates, probably typographical errors, and questions the meaning of the “royaumes pluviateurs” shown among the districts. He also identifies historical material in maps of population density, Protestant and Muslim settlement, and urban growth, especially Kigali. Despite these reservations, he praises both the historical plates and the physical, human, and economic geography maps as remarkable.