The first generation of children born after Rwanda's 1994 genocide is
just now reaching maturity, setting aside their school uniforms to take
up adult roles in Rwandan society and the economy. At the same time,
Rwanda's post-war government has begun to shrug off international aid as
it pursues an increasingly independent path of business-friendly yet
strongly state-regulated social and economic development. The Orderly
Entrepreneur tells the story of a new Rwanda now at the vanguard among
developing countries, emulating the policies of Singapore, Korea, and
China, and devoutly committed to entrepreneurship as a beacon for 21st
century economic growth.
Drawing on ethnographic research with nearly 500 participants, The
Orderly Entrepreneur investigates the impact and reception of the
Rwandan government's multiyear entrepreneurship curriculum, first
implemented in 2007 as required learning in all secondary schools. As
Honeyman shows, "entrepreneurship" is more than a benign buzzword or
hopeful panacea for economic development, but a complex ideal with
unique meanings across Rwandan society. She reveals how curriculum
developers, teachers, and students all brought their own interpretations
and influence to the new entrepreneurship curriculum, exposing how even
a carefully engineered project of social transformation can be full of
indeterminacies and surprising twists every step of the way.
