This database constitutes an update of two well-known 1987 volumes edited by Marcel d'Hertefelt and Danielle de Lame. Like those volumes, it was compiled within the Ethnosociology and Ethnohistory Section of the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Tervuren).

It adds some 2,000 new references of articles and post-1987 references of books to the 5,550 contained in the first Bibliographical Encyclopaedia.
Each addition has been read and analysed. Unlike the two published volumes, which are still available for purchase, this update does not provide its user with a summary; rather, it uses detailed keywords to identify texts that are easily accessible in libraries. The keywords have been assigned according to a thesaurus specific to this database, taking into account that it is intended for Rwanda experts in need of a precise index - for example, regarding place names. Disciplines include all those within the human and social sciences.
For comparative perspectives or regional context, we invite website visitors to consult the human sciences database at: http://societies.africamuseum.be

For more information, click on 'Background' and "Help". Clicking on 'Help' and 'Keyword list' is essential.

Posting this information online continues the century-old knowledge dissemination mission of the RMCA Human Sciences Documentation Centre.
It is part of a long tradition of research on Rwanda that stems from institutional links between the Royal Museum for Central Africa and the Institut de Recherche scientifique en Afrique centrale (IRSAC) founded in 1947.
By posting this information online, we hope to disseminate knowledge of Rwanda through access to an abundant and diverse literature.