Dividing and uniting: The use of citizenship discourses in conflict and reconciliation in Rwanda

Global Society

Volumn 20, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 101-113

  Buckley zistel, Susanne ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CITIZENSHIP; CULTURAL IDENTITY; POLITICAL CONFLICT; POLITICAL DISCOURSE;

AFRICA; CENTRAL AFRICA; RWANDA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA;

EID: 30944458412     PISSN: 13600826     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13600820500405616     Document Type: Article

References (75)

1. Said Adejumobi, "Citizenship, Rights, and the Problem of Conflict and Civil Wars in Africa", Human Rights Quarterly Vol. 23, No. 1 (2001), pp. 148-70.
2. Ibid.
3. See for instance Human Rights Watch, 'Leave None to Tell the Story.' Genocide in Rwanda (Washington: Human Rights Watch, 1999);
4. Jean-Pierre Chrétien, "Un génocide africain: De l'idéologie à la propaganda", in J.-P. Chrétien, E. Decaux and R. Verdier (eds.), Rwanda. Un génocide du XXe siècle (Paris: Harmattan, 1995), pp. 45-56.
5. Nigel Eltringham, Accounting for Horror. Post-Genocide Debates in Rwanda (London: Pluto, 2004), p. xii.
6. I am very grateful to the anonymous reviewer for encouraging me to clarify this point.
7. NURC, Nation-Wide Grassroot Consultations Report: Unity and Reconciliation Initiatives in Rwanda (Kigali: NURC, 2000), p. 6.
8. NURC, The Road towards Unity and Reconciliation. Ten Years After (1994-2004) (Kigali: NURC, 2004), p. 6.
9. Fatuma Ndangiza, Dealing with Genocide and its Effects. The Rwandan Case, Conference on Learning and Remembering: The Holocaust, Genocide and State Organised Crime in the Twentieth Century, Berlin 12-15 March 2003, p. 1.
10. Anastase Shyaka, "Refondation de la rwandité: Stratégie de résolution des conflits, de démocratisation et de développement durable du Rwanda", in: Faustin Rutembesa, Josias Semujanga and Anastase Shyaka, Rwanda. Identité et citoyenneté (Butare: Université Nationale du Rwanda, 2003), p. 210.
11. Ibid.
12. Faustin Rutembesa, Josias Semujanga and Anastase Shyaka, Présentation, in: Faustin Rutembesa, Josias Semujanga and Anastase Shyaka, Rwanda. Identité et citoyenneté (Butare: Université Nationale du Rwanda, 2003), p. 11.
13. Réne Lemarchand, "Managing Transition Anarchies: Rwanda, Burundi, and South Africa in Comparative Perspective", Journal of Modern African Studies Vol. 32, No. 4 (1994), p. 588.
14. Catharine Newbury and David Newbury, Identity, Genocide, and Reconstruction in Rwanda (Brussels: Parlement Européen, 1995), p. 16.
15. Charles Kabwete Mulinda, "La généalogie de l'idée du peuplement du Rwanda: Considérations sur l'autochtonie ou l'allochtonie des Rwandais", in Faustin Rutembesa, Eugene Ntaganda and Justin Murwanashyaka (eds.), Peuplement du Rwanda. Enjeux et pérspectives (Butare: Editions de l'Université Nationale du Rwanda, 2002) pp. 50-51.
16. Louis de Lacger, Ruanda (Kabgayi, 1959), p. 51.
17. Mulinda, op. cit., p. 52.
18. Gérard Prunier, The Rwanda Crisis. History of a Genocide (London: Hurst & Company, 1995), pp. 38-39.
19. Human Rights Watch, op. cit., p. 36.
20. Alexis Kagame, Un Abrégé de l'ethno-histoire du Rwanda (Butare: Editions Universitaires du Rwanda, 1972), pp. 22-28.
21. Michel Elias and Danielle Helbig, "Deux mille collines pour les petits et les grands. Radioscopie des stéréotypes hutu et tutsi au Rwanda et Burundi", Politique Africaine Vol. 42 No. June (1991), p. 67.
22. Lacger, op. cit., p. 57.
23. Peter Uvin, "Prejudice, Crisis, and Genocide in Rwanda", African Studies Review Vol. 40, No. 2 (1997), p. 98.
24. Cited in Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers. Colonialism, Nativism and the Genocide in Rwanda (Oxford: James Currey, 2001), p. 103.
25. Cited in Pierre Enry, Rwanda 1994. Clés pour comprendre le calvaire d'un peuple (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1994), p. 58 (my translation).
26. Cited in Chrétien, op. cit., p. 59 (my translation).
27. Josias Semujanga, "Formes et usages des préjugés dans le discours social du Rwanda", in Faustin Rutembesa, Josias Semujanga and Anastase Shyaka (eds.), Rwanda. Indentité et citoyenneté, op. cit., p. 28.
28. Catharine Newbury, The Cohesion of Oppression. Clientships and Ethnicity in Rwanda, 1860-1960 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), p. 75.
29. Mahmood Mamdani "African States, Citizenship and War: A Case Study" International Affairs Vol. 78, No. 3 (2002), p. 500.
30. Uvin, op. cit., p. 99.
31. IRDP, Rebuilding Lasting Peace in Rwanda: Voices of the People (Kigali: IRDP, 2001), p. 28.
32. Cited in Chrétien, op. cit., p. 48 (my translation).
33. Human Rights Watch, op. cit., p. 74.
34. Ibid.
35. I. Nsengimana, "La guerre d'octobre: Le mythe s'en prend-il au droit?", La Rélève, No. 165, March (1991);
36. cited in Faustin Rutembesa, "Le discours sur le peuplement comme instrument de manipulation identitaire", in Faustin Rutembesa, Eugene Ntaganda and Justin Murwanashyaka (eds.), Peuplement du Rwanda. Enjeux et pérspectives, op. cit., p. 4 (my translation).
37. Mamdani, "African States, Citizenship and War: A Case Study", op. cit., p. 500.
38. Human Rights Watch, op. cit., p. 84.
39. Ibid.
40. Newbury/Newbury, op. cit., p. 18.
41. Réne Lemarchand, "A History of Genocide in Rwanda", Journal of African History, Vol. 43 (2002), p. 309.
42. . Ibid., p. 308.
43. Réne Lemarchand, "Coming to Terms with the Past: The Politics of Memory in Post-Genocide Rwanda", Observatoire de l'Afrique centrale (July 2000), available:
44. See also Johan Pottier, Re-Imagining Rwanda. Conflict, Survival and Disinformation in the Late Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
45. Etienne Balibar, "The Nation Form: History and Ideology", in Geoff Eley and Roland Griegor Suny (eds.), Becoming National (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 140.
46. Ibid.
47. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991), p. 7.
48. Interview with Fatuma Ndangiza, Kigali, 01.12.03.
49. NURC, The Road towards Unity and Reconciliation. Ten Years After (1994-2004), p. 12.
50. Protais Musoni, The End of the Transition Period: Prospects and Challenges, Conference Paper presented at the Workshop on Citizenship and Social Reconstruction in the Aftermath of Genocide, Butare, March 2003, p. 13.
51. Office of the President/Republic of Rwanda, The Unity of Rwandans. Before the Colonial Period and under the Colonial Rule & under the First Republic (Kigali: Office of the President, 1999), p. 16.
52. Ingando (Kinyarwanda)is translated 'camp', and is often described as a 'Solidarity Camp'. Ingandos have been set-up for civic education for university students, released prisoners, returning refugees, Gacaca judges and others.
53. Office of the President/Republic of Rwanda, The Unity of Rwandans, p. 16.
54. Office of the President/Republic of Rwanda, Report on the Reflection Meetings Held in the Office of the President of the Republic from May 1998 to March 1999 (Kigali: Office of the President, 1999), p. 99.
55. Eltringham, op. cit.
56. Pottier, op. cit.
57. Eric Hobsbawm, "Introduction: Inventing Traditions", in E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 1.
58. NURC, Annual Report of the Activities by the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission February 1999-June 2000, p. 19.
59. Interview with Fatuma Ndangiza, Kigali, 01.12.03.
60. For a more detailed assessment see Susanne Buckley-Zistel, "We are Pretending Peace - Local Memory and the Absence of Social Transformation and Reconciliation in Rwanda", Paper presented at the conference 'The Rwandan Genocide and Transitional Justice: Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Genocide', Oxford, 15.5.2004.
61. Imidugudu are artificial villages constructed by the present government.
62. Gacaca translates as'lawn' and signifies local village tribunals which have been established to deal with the vast amount of people accused of genocide.
63. The estimate of people killed varies from 338 (according to the government) and 2,000-4,050 (according to international observers) (Pottier, op. cit., p. 162).
64. Ad hoc Parliament Commission on Genocide Ideology, Genocide Ideology (Kigali: Parliament of Rwanda, 2004).
65. European Union, Rwanda: Election présidentielle 25 Aout 2003; élections législatives 29 et 30 Septembre, 2 Octobre 2003. Mission d'observation électorale de l'Union Européenne. Rapport Final (Brussels: European Union 2004).
66. Fillip Reyntjens, "Rwanda, Ten Years on: From Genocide to Dictatorship", African Affairs Vol. 103 (2004), p. 210.
67. Susanne Buckley-Zistel, "Remembering to Forget. Chosen Amnesia as a Strategy for Local Coexistence in Post-Genocide Rwanda", Africa Vol. 76, No. 2 (2006).
68. Reyntiens, op. cit., p. 187.
69. Claudine Vidal, Rony Brauman and Stephen Smith "Rwanda: Politique de terreur, privilège d'impunité", Espirt, August-September (2000), p. 151.
70. It is important to note however that reconciliation happens on an individual level, between victim and perpetrator (although not often clearly defined), and that a government is not in a position to bring people together. Nevertheless, governments can create conditions which either undermine or foster a reconciliation process - it is here were individual and societal levels interact.
71. An exception is the gacaca jurisdictions which have as their objective to provide a space to reveal th1 truth about the genocide and to trial perpetrators. Gacaca only tries genocide crimes and not RPF/A war crimes. Moreover, due to many problems including corruption, fear, social coercion, denial etc. gacaca, too, does not allow for a frank conversation about the past. See Susanne Buckley-Zistel, "'The Truth Heals'? Gacaca Jurisdictions and the Consolidation of Peace in Rwanda", Die Friedens Warte No. 1-2 (2005).
72. Kogila Moodley and Heribert Adam, "Race and Nation in Post-Apartheid South Africa", Current Sociology Vol. 48, No. 3 (2000), p. 52.
73. Ibid.
74. HRW estimates the death toll to be around 20,000-40,000.
75. French had been the official language after colonialism. However, many Rwandans who returned from exile after 1994 are anglophone, changing the language (and power) balance towards English.