Memory and Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda

Abstract

Following times of great conflict and tragedy, many countries implement programs and policies of transitional justice, none more extensive than in post-genocide Rwanda. Placing Rwanda's transitional justice initiatives in their historical and political context, this book examines the project undertaken by the post-genocide government to shape the collective memory of the Rwandan population, both through political and judicial reforms but also in public commemorations and memorials. Drawing on over two decades of field research in Rwanda, Longman uses surveys and comparative local case studies to explore Rwanda's response both at a governmental and local level. He argues that despite good intentions and important innovations, Rwanda's authoritarian political context has hindered the ability of transnational justice to bring the radical social and political transformations that its advocates hoped. Moreover, it continues to heighten the political and economic inequalities that underline ethnic divisions and are an important ongoing barrier to reconciliation.

Imagining genocide heritage: Material modes of development and preservation in Rwanda

“…The process is traceable not only through documents like Vision 2020 that explicitly set out goals and required changes for the country, but also through examples like the RPF’s construction of knowledge about Rwandan history and politics (Pottier, 2002) or the wide-ranging attempts at national transformation outlined by Straus and Waldorf (2011). Efforts include gender relations and political representation (Berry, 2015; Burnet, 2008); citizenship and civic education (Purdeková, 2015; Sundberg, 2016); identity and ethnicity (Eramian, 2018; Hintjens, 2008); and reconciliation and transitional justice (Doughty, 2016; Longman, 2017; Thomson, 2013). Government interventions also target the physical landscape, land use, and built structures through initiatives such as villagization and land reform (Ansoms, 2009; Newbury, 2011) and projects of urban development that aim to reshape the capital city, Kigali (Goodfellow, 2017; Shearer, 2017).…”

“…2 They are critical sites for the construction of national identity via the historical narratives advanced there, but they are also places of contestation between the government’s goals for history education and genocide survivors’ desires for commemoration (Dumas and Korman, 2011; Ibreck, 2010). While acting as places of mourning and commemoration, they are also deeply involved in the RPF’s politics of memory and identity (Jessee, 2017; Korman, 2013), especially through promoting official narratives about the genocide while suppressing unofficial ones (King, 2010; Longman, 2017: 65–90). The official histories promulgated at these sites are sometimes resisted, including by survivors (Ibreck, 2010), and their use of human remains has also been contested (Korman, 2015).…”

Mobilizing Global Knowledge

“…Similarly, debates on the past must assume the regenerative format of remembering and reintroducing memories of traumatic events as a bridge to our understanding of the present. Examples for this kind of endeavour could easily be drawn from Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and India (Kaushikee 2017;Longman 2017;Seoighe 2016). Without gazing into the future, and daring to imagine how things could be different, one cannot move beyond the weight of present circumstances of displacement and dispossession.…”

Can the Rwandan Catholic Church Overcome its History of Politicization? A Reply to Philippe Denis

“…To what extent did the church align itself with this 'new' narrative? To the extent that it had, it would merely have been recycling an interpretation that has come under sustained criticism by specialists in the field (Guichaoua 2015;Longman 2017;Pottier 2002;Straus 2008b). Some experts were involved in designing a new history curriculum in the 2000s.…”