Joyce Leader, U.S ambassador to Rwanda, will speak at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 2 in Whitley Auditorium on the Elon University campus. Sponsored by International Studies, General Studies and African/African American Studies, the event is free and open to the public.
Leader served three years as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Rwanda just before the genocide of 1994. She will discuss the origins of the Rwandan genocide and U.S. policy towards it. Leader witnessed firsthand some of the atrocities of the Rwandan genocide.
“I can get very, very drained by just talking about it,” Leader said in an interview with American RadioWorks. “When I think back to Rwanda and my days there…it’s something that’s etched in my memory and I don’t think that I will ever forget.”
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