Memory and Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda

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.

1. Introduction: the meaning of Murambi; Part I. Creating What You Are Afraid Of: The Rwandan Patriotic Front's Transitional Justice Program: 2. Rewriting history in post-genocide Rwanda; 3. Symbolic struggles; 4. Justice as memory; 5. From violent repression to political domination: transitional justice, political reform and development; Part II. Popular Narratives: 6. Political reform in three Rwandan communities; 7. Popular narratives of memory and history; 8. Politics by other means: popular opinion about 'transitional justice'; 9. Conclusion: 'we pretend to live together': assessing the impact of transitional justice mechanisms in Rwanda.

Timothy Longman is Director of the African Studies Center and Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Boston University. He has previously held teaching and research positions at Vassar College, New York, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and the National University of Rwanda. He has conducted over twenty years of research in Rwanda and is the author of Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda (Cambridge, 2010).