Citation

Zorbas E. J. Genocide Res. 2009; 11(1): 127-147.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/14623520802703707

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The word “reconciliation” is a key political slogan of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) government, and is widely used by donors, media, and Rwandans themselves. Despite ubiquity, the meaning of “reconciliation” remains unclear. Drawing on fieldwork in two communities in southern Rwanda, this paper examines how respondents understand and articulate the term. For respondents, reconciliation: (i) requires punitive justice informed by a hierarchy of responsibility for crimes; (ii) does not necessarily involve forgiveness; and (iii) is repeatedly referred to as returning to “the way things were before.” The paper then contrasts these understandings and expectations with the official government discourse on reconciliation, the “RPF Healing Truth,” a narrative which, among other things, stresses that the “hauts responsables” (high leadership) of the previous regime is primarily responsible for the genocide even though a large segment of the population participated, and the need to “improve,” meaning chiefly educate and emancipate, Rwandans. The comparison of the “public” and “hidden” transcripts on reconciliation reveals areas of both agreement and disagreement. For example, the notion of a hierarchy of responsibility for the genocide spanning from the “hauts responsables” to the “bas peuple” (low people) is found in both discourses. Grassroots respondents, however, also attribute some responsibility for the genocide to the RPF who are themselves part of the “hauts responsables.” The article concludes by highlighting signs of an internal contradiction between RPF reconciliation policy and practice: as the RPF calls for Rwandan emancipation, education and critical thinking on the one hand, it attempts to “institutionalize” and control people's behaviour on the other, as is seen in the example of “state-bestowed” forgiveness.