Gender and state-building conversations: the discursive production of gender identity in Kenya and Rwanda

Okech, Awino

doi:10.1080/14678802.2019.1609762

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…Women were targeted during the genocide and have faced cruelty stemming from scars and long-term injuries. Their stories of overcoming invisible scars and physical bodily scars in the rebuilding of Rwanda remain underexplored (Mukamana and Brysiewicz, 2008; Mwambari et al, 2021; Okech, 2019). Overcoming social rejection reveals both survivors’ resilience and scars’ enduring impacts on their bodies and lives.…”

Section: Scars and One’s Self-perception And Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bodily Scars as Lived Memory in Post-Genocide Rwanda

Mwambari,

Sibomana

2023

Body & Society

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Scholarship about politics and the body in conflicts has gained prominence in academic debates. This article advances these conversations by arguing that bodily scars are potent ‘carriers’ of memories of mass atrocities committed during the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Using both semi-structured interviews and a wide range of secondary sources, this study found that bodily scars – as physical manifestations of wartime torture and pain – evidence past atrocities and survivor resilience. Similarly, they are avenues through which the past is communicated and transformed (in ways that complement and surpass other mediums of memory). Bodily scars play powerful and complex roles in memory conversations; they communicate trauma and keep memories of the mass violence vivid in public and private realms. This article empirically contributes to discussions on the politics of memory in post-genocide Rwanda, and body studies and memory scholarship more broadly.

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Section: Scars and One’s Self-perception And Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bodily Scars as Lived Memory in Post-Genocide Rwanda

Mwambari,

Sibomana

2023

Body & Society

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“…While measuring a contestant's height might be common practice in beauty pageants globally, in Rwanda it carries symbolism tied to colonialism and the post-colonial politics of beauty. This kind of measurement of one's physical appearance had been used during colonialism in determining who was Tutsi, Twa or Hutu (Baines 2003;Brown 2014;Okech 2019). It resonates with Alexander Barns' writings for the Royal Geographic Society in London on Hutus' and Tutsis' distinct features (Krüger 2010, 96).…”

Section: Beauty Race: Miss Rwanda Pageant and Colonial Vestigesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-genocide identity politics and colonial durabilities in Rwanda

Purdeková¹,

Mwambari

2021

Critical African Studies

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While academic literature has long explored the ways in which colonial reification of identity and narratives underpinning unequal racialised status of colonial subjects contributed to cycles of violence in the Great Lakes region, including in Rwanda, few ask the complementary question: Does the colonial legacy imprint on the 'post-conflict' era, shaping post-genocide attempts at nation-building and identity re-engineering carried out in the name of the broader project of peacebuilding? Using the conceptual framework of colonial durabilities, we argue that despite explicit attempts to remove the vestiges of colonialism, the colonial past endures, in everyday expressions of identity as well as in grand policies of its reformulation. The current paper aims to trace these vestiges in the transformations of identity politics and nation-building in Rwanda by looking at three distinct arenas: (i) the architecture of deethnicisation policy itself; (ii) the stubborn lingering of racialised distinctions in popular culture; and (iii) the rise of 'new' social divisions based on the country of exile.

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Gendered and Racialised Vulnerabilities and Violence Against the Rohingya in Myanmar

Salehin

2024

Gendered Vulnerabilities and Violence in Forced Migration

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This chapter presents gender differentiated forms of direct, structural, cultural and symbolic violence experienced by the Rohingya while they were in Myanmar. The documented atrocities, committed mainly by the Myanmar military, have placed the Rohingya in a state of ongoing discrimination and oppression. Within Myanmar, Rohingya women face a dual burden: enduring physical violence and mental anguish from military and societal forces, compounded by the patriarchal structure within their own community. Structural violence, such as educational discrimination, pervasive poverty, and lack of access to social and community life have affected Rohingya women, men, and children differently. A gendered narrative of threat portrays Rohingya women as ugly and reproductive dangers to Buddhism, while Rohingya men are framed as threats to nationalism and Buddhism. These religious and cultural narratives have served to justify ‘othering’ and various forms of violence by the Myanmar military.

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Gender and state-building conversations: the discursive production of gender identity in Kenya and Rwanda

Cited by 5 publications

References 15 publications

Bodily Scars as Lived Memory in Post-Genocide Rwanda

Bodily Scars as Lived Memory in Post-Genocide Rwanda

Post-genocide identity politics and colonial durabilities in Rwanda

Gendered and Racialised Vulnerabilities and Violence Against the Rohingya in Myanmar

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