Narrating and Teaching the Nation
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Eckert. Die Schriftenreihe Studien des Georg-Eckert-Instituts zur internationalen Bildungsmedienforschung Band 138 Herausgegeben von Simone Lässig Redaktion Susanne Grindel, Roderich Henrÿ und Wibke Westermeyer Die Reihe ist referiert. Wissenschaftlicher Beirat Konrad Jarausch (Chapel Hill/Berlin) Heidemarie Kemnitz (Braunschweig) Frank-Olaf Radtke (Frankfurt) Manfred Rolfes (Potsdam) Peter Vorderer (Mannheim) Denise Bentrovato Narrating and Teaching the Nation The Politics of Education in Pre- and Post-Genocide Rwanda V&Runipress ® MIX Papier aus verantwor- tungsvollen Quellen ® www.fsc.org FSC C083411 Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie;detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. ISSN 2198-6320 ISBN 978-3-8471-0516-9 ISBN 978-3-8470-0516-2 (E-Book) ISBN 978-3-7370-0516-6 (V&ReLibrary) WeitereAusgaben und Online-Angebote sind erhältlich unter:www.v-r.de 2015, V&Runipress GmbH, Robert-Bosch-Breite 6, 37079 Göttingen /www.v-r.de Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Das Werk und seine Teile sind urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung in anderen als den gesetzlich zugelassenenFällen bedarf der vorherigen schriftlichen Einwilligung des Verlages. Printed in Germany. Titelbild:Aclass in Northern Rwanda ( Denise Bentrovato, 2015) Druck und Bindung:CPI buchbuecher.de GmbH, Zum AltenBerg24, 96158 Birkach Gedruckt aufalterungsbeständigem Papier. Contents Acknowledgements ............................. 7 Introduction ................................. 9 1. History, identity,and the politics of education: aconceptualframework ......................... 15 Historical narratives and social construction .............. 15 History, identity conflict, and reconciliation .............. 21 Learning the “right stories”: the politics of education and the “usable past” ............. 25 Education, conflict,and transitional justice: reforming schooling after violence .................... 28 2. Historical background .......................... 37 3. Colonial Rwanda ............................. 49 The “Hamitic theory” and the writingofamythical ethno-history.. 49 Colonial schools as abreeding ground of racial Hamitic ideology. .. 54 Teaching aboutthe greatness of the Hamitic Tutsi ancestors ..... 55 Educational inequalityand the enactmentofthe myth of Tutsi superiority................................ 57 4. Post-colonial Rwanda ........................... 61 Hutu ethno-nationalism and the recycled “Hamitic theory” ...... 61 Pre-genocide schooling and the institutionalisation of “ethnism” ... 65 Teaching acult of difference ...................... 66 Educational policies and the reversal of inequality.......... 79 6 Contents 5. Post-genocide Rwanda .......................... 83 Building a“NewRwanda”: (re-)writing historyinthe service of national unity.......... 83 Mass (re-)education and the legalised censorship of alternative truths 92 The pedagogical function of state-sponsored transitional justice ... 97 Rwanda’svast “memoryindustry”: between remembering and forgetting ................. 97 Writing history out of justice: public trials and the pursuit of avictor’s truth ............ 105 Never again?Reforming schools after genocide ............. 109 Promoting equalityand aculture of peace and national unity.... 110 The post-genocide challenges of teaching the nation’s history.... 114 6. School voices: Youngpeople’snarrativesofRwanda’spastand present. 161 The field research process ........................ 163 Analysis of the survey ........................... 174 Structure and contentofthe narratives ................ 175 Constructing identities:nationhoodand the banalityofethnicity.. 176 Accounting for violence: externalization of blame and the myth of national rebirth ...... 180 The powerofeducation:moulding anew generation after genocide . 204 7. Charting away forward:what lessons for the future?......... 211 Assessing historyteaching in post-genocide Rwanda: success or failure?............................. 215 Looking forwards:the promises of reforming history education ... 218 Bibliography................................. 225 Glossary................................... 251 Acknowledgements Iwould liketoexpress my deepest gratitude and appreciation to the people who, in differentways, contributed to the realisation of this study.Mygreatest thanks go to the hundreds of boys and girls in Rwanda whoshared with me, astranger from far away,their personal views, perceptions, and experiences. Their con- tribution has been critical as much of this study relies on their insightful, and often tragic, stories. Aspecial thank-yougoestothe countless people whohelped me in the field. Ithank, first of all, my research assistants and friends Maurice, Emile, and Alex. Their unremitting assistance has been fundamental to the successful completion of the research. Ialso thank the directors and teachers whowelcomed me into their schools, and whocommitted their precious time and energytoallowthe realisation of this project. Manythanks also to the staff members of the National Unityand Reconciliation Commission (NURC), the National Curriculum DevelopmentCentre(NCDC), and the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace (IRDP) in Rwanda for their invaluable assistance. Iam furthermore indebted to Professor Bob de Graaff for his excellentguidance and to the UniversityofUtrechtfor its generous financialsupport. Without them, this projectwould, quitepossibly,never have leftthe ground and would have remained merely adream. Thanks also to the editors and peer-reviewersofthe Schriftenreihe for their comments and suggestions.Last, but not least, asincere thank youtomyfamily (mamma, papµ,Silvia, and Francesca), and especially to my partner,Jitse, for their unwavering supportand encouragement. Introduction The twentieth centurywas an age profoundlymarked by mass violence. It was punctuated by colonialism, two global wars, and amultitude of interstate and civilwars, rebellions, coups, revolutions, politicides, and genocides. It also witnessed the rise and fall of totalitarian and dictatorialregimes, which were responsible for unspeakable crimes. The violence touched the lives of millions and its impact continues to fester in manyplaces as an ever-presentreminder of apainful past. This “age of extremes”, as Eric Hobsbawm famously described it in 1994,1 has been followed by what Pierre Nora calls an “age of com- memoration”. Our times, according to Nora, have been significantly marked by criticism of official versions of historyand recoveryofareas of historypreviously repressed;demands for signs of apast that had been confiscated or suppressed; growing interestin“roots” and genealogical research;all kinds of commemorative events and new museums;renewedsensitivitytothe holding and openingofarchives for public consultation;and growing attachment to what in the English-speaking world is called “heritage” and in France“patrimoine”.2 Today, numerous countries around the worldcarry with them the burden of a violentpast and share the challenge of having to deal with its legacy. Confronting its owndark historyisinvariably adelicate undertakingfor anation, an un- dertaking which has commonly sparked considerablecontroversy around the “historical truth” and its public representation. The challenges of critically facing historyhaveprovenespecially daunting in societies recently emerging from internecine conflict, where wounds are still fresh and divisions are deep.In the last two decades, countless attempts have been made in transitionalsocieties to address past abuses as partofpost-war processes of social reconstruction and reconciliation. This periodhas seen an upsurge in strategies designed to deal with dark pasts, such as truth commissions,criminal prosecutions, lustration, 1E.Hobsbawm, The AgeofExtremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991, London1994. 2P.Nora, “The Reasons for the CurrentUpsurge in Memory”, in: Transit –Europäische Revue 22 (2002), www.iwm.at [last accessed on 02/05/2014]. 10 Introduction reparations, institutional reforms, memorialisation practices,and educational programmes. This book aims to contribute to the ongoing discussions concerning the approaches adopted by transitional societies when dealing with the challenges posed by adifficult and controversial national past. In particular,itexplores the role of formal education, adomain that is believed to hold unique promise in such contexts due to its capacitytoprovide younger generations with the tools and opportunities to makesense of the past and the presentand to prepare for the future. The study draws on the case of Rwanda, todayanobligatorypointof reference when discussing sectarian mass violence.3 This small countryinthe heartofAfrica is nowinfamous for having been the dramatic scene of one of the worst crimes ever recorded in human history:in 1994, genocide was committed in the hills of Rwanda, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and many more displaced in the course of only onehundred days. EveryApril since then, the populationhas been invited to remember this tragedy in order to ensure that it will never happen again. In Rwanda, calls for the memoryofthe genocide to be kept alivehavebeen accompanied by official efforts to instruct the public about the nation’s “true” history. As partofthese efforts, educating the upcoming generations has been aparticular priorityofthe post-genocide governmentinits attempt to build a“new Rwanda” based on the harsh lessons