Representing the 1994 Genocide

My last post on Rwanda's Ethnic Card raised some important questions, made to me via email and on the comment board. In this post, I want to share my thoughts on the ways in which the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) represents the 1994 genocide in ways that reinforce its political power.

At the heart of the RPF's post-genocide reconstruction effort is the policy of national unity and reconciliation. On paper, the programme is a set of mechanisms that aims to promote ethnic unity between Tutsi and Hutu in creating one Rwanda for all Rwandans. In practice, it disguises the government’s efforts to control its population by using the language of ethnic unity and social inclusion while working to consolidate the political power of the ruling RPF.

The government’s programme of national unity and reconciliation is grounded in a specific interpretation of more than a century of history. According to “historical” documents produced by the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC), Rwandan society was essentially unified before the arrival of colonial powers and the Catholic Church. A direct cause of the 1994 genocide is the ethnic divisions imposed on Rwanda by colonial rule. According to the policy of national unity and reconciliation, the post-colonial Hutu-led governments of Kayibanda (1962-1973) and Habyarimana (1973-1994) used ethnicity strategically to divide Rwandans.

Significant state resources are dedicated to ensuring the population understands the importance of ethnic unity. The post-genocide government has established mandatory solidarity camps known as ingando to “re-educate” the population on the root causes of the genocide. The government also encourages a collective memory of the genocide through memorial sites and mass graves that double as genocide museums to show the end-result of ethnic divisionism. In many sites across the country, the bodies of victims are on display, exposed on shelves, in semi-open tombs, or in the rooms where the killing took place. Every year, annual commemorations are held during national mourning week (7 to 14 April) to remind Rwandans of the pernicious effects of ethnic divisionism.

The RPF-led government has introduced new national holidays – Heroes Day (1 February), Day of Hope (April 7), Independence Day (1 July), Liberation Day (4 July), and Patriotism Day (1 October) – to accord with the vision of ethnic unity and act as platforms for leaders to remind Rwandans of the need to fight the ideology of genocide. The 2003 revised Constitution made illegal public references to ethnic identity (article 33) and criminalised ‘ethnic divisionism’ and ‘trivializing the genocide’ (article 13). The RPF also changed place names at all administrative levels, from villages to provinces, in 2006 as part of Rwanda’s administrative re-structuring to protect genocide survivors from remembering where their relatives died.

All of these mechanism of ethnic unity and memory work to consolidate the power of the RPF by spreading its loyalists throughout the bureaucratic apparatus. There is virtually no room for ordinary Rwandans to shape their everyday lives, let alone sincerely reconcile with one another. As a Tutsi widower said, "I can hardly support this notion of national unity when I know it is meant to keep us [Hutu and Tutsi] apart. If they [the government] left us alone, we could find our own ways to reconcile. Now, we have to do it publicly, and when we are told to do so. The RPF doesn’t care about if we truly reconcile, they only care about their own positions...".

In other words, anyone, including opposition politicians, journalists and human rights defenders, who challenge or question the RPF’s interpretation of the historical record will suffer the wrath of the government.