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The Experiences of Rwandan Secondary Schools’ History Teachers in Teaching the Genocide Against the Tutsi and Its Related Controversial Issues

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The Experiences of Rwandan Secondary Schools’ History Teachers in Teaching the Genocide Against the Tutsi and Its Related Controversial Issues THE EXPERIENCES OF RWANDAN SECONDARY SCHOOLS’ HISTORY TEACHERS IN TEACHING THE GENOCIDE AGAINST THE TUTSI AND ITS RELATED CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES By Jean Leonard Buhigiro 212558617 Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History Education) at the University of KwaZulu- Natal 2017 i DECLARATION I, J.L.Buhigiro declare that (i) The research reported in this dissertation, except where otherwise indicated, is my original work. (ii) The dissertation has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. (iii) This dissertation does not contain other persons’ data, pictures, graphs or other information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons. (iv) This dissertation does not contain other persons’ writing, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, then: a) their words have been re-written but the general information attributed to them has been referenced; b) where their exact words have been used, their writing has been places inside quotation marks, and referenced. (v) Where I have reproduced a publication of which I am an author, co-author or editor, I have indicated in detail which part of the publication was actually written by myself alone and have fully referenced such publications. (vi) This dissertation does not contain texts, graphics or tables copied and pasted from Internet unless specifically acknowledged, and the source being detailed in the dissertation and in the references section. (vii) The Turnitin originality report (number: 764979914) processed on 7 and 8 February 2017 revealed a similarity index of 13% for the first four chapters and 1% for the the rest of the study. Student: Jean Leonard Buhigiro Supervisor: Prof. Johan Wassermann ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I sincerely thank my supervisor, Professor Johan Wassermann, guidance and academic support during the long journey of my doctoral research. Thank you to my wife Jeanne Mugiraneza for supporting me during my studies. I also thank my brother Théophile Buhigiro and my sister Alice Umugwaneza, her husband Charles Munyentwali and Elliot Kwizera for their moral support. Thank you my mother for your prayers and words of comfort. My gratitude goes also to the Government of Rwanda and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa which financially contributed to my studies. I recognise the support of the University of Rwanda, College of Education which granted me a study leave for fulfilling my studies. A special thanks to the participants for valuable information and their time. A special thanks also to Mrs Angela Bryan for editing services. Jean Léonard Buhigiro iii DEDICATION To Jeanne Mugiraneza iv ABSTRACT After the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, a moratorium was placed on the teaching of history in Rwandan secondary schools. This was done because the subject was considered as one of the causes of the Genocide. When reintroduced the subject contained content related to the Genocide. This study was motivated by the idea of understanding the experiences of Rwandan secondary schools’ history teachers on teaching the Genocide against the Tutsi and its related controversial issues. This study adopted a qualitative approach with a sample of seven history teachers from across Rwanda. A range of research methods, including drawings, photo- elicitation, semi-structured interviews and self-interviews, were used for gathering the data for this thesis. It was found that the commencement of teaching the Genocide was a daunting task which inspired fear and anxiety. This was due to the fact that the Genocide is a recent event and the wounds are still fresh in the minds of both teachers and learners who were affected in one way or another by the event. Due to the sensitivity of the topic the participating teachers, as stipulated by the curriculum, hardly used the participatory approach. Equally, parents feared talking to learners about certain topics related to the Genocide. The overarching reasoning being to prevent hatred ideas, that could contradict the official version of the history of the Genocide, from finding its way into classrooms. Consequently, teachers were more inclined to use teacher centred methods and comply with the curricula and official version of the history of the Genocide. This was done so as to educate patriots capable of preventing genocide, and promote unity and harmonious living. Moreover, the prevalence of teacher centred methods led the teacher to avoid the actual Genocide by focusing on topics such as the pre- and post-colonial histories of Rwanda. In the teaching process, a range of issues including the content, the curriculum, the collaboration with parents and the teaching methods have been identified as controversial. Issues such as, for example, the double genocide theory and the naming of the Genocide were considered as controversial. Additionally, certain v resources such as films proved to be inappropriate because they traumatised learners. Consequently learners’ emotions also hindered the achievement of the stated aims as most of the teachers lacked the ability to deal with such situations. Evidence from teachers’ experiences indicated that most controversial issues were actually raised by the learners. In the analysis process, the theoretical framework on teaching controversial issues by Stradling (1984) and other scholars did not totally fit the Rwandan context. Some specific positions, such as playing devil’s advocate and risk-taking, were avoided for not propagating Genocide denial or divisive ideas. Instead alongside indoctrination and stated commitment, compliance for self-care emerged as the best explanation for why the history teachers taught the Genocide and its related controversial issues the way they did. vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 The building blocks of meaning…………………………………..………125 Figure 3.2 Positionality umbrella for teaching controversial issues. Adapted from Harro’s umbrella model of oppression (1997)……………………………………………….……………………….……142 Figure 5.2: A drawing of a cross and a history lesson in an open area…..………199 Figure 5.3: A drawing of a woman stuck between two walls…………….…………203 Figure 5.4: A drawing of a giant with an anxious look facing people holding hands………………………………………………………………………..206 Figure 5.5: A drawing of a man ready to butcher a kneeling woman………………………………………………………….……..…....210 Figure 5.6: A drawing of a man on the ladder……………..………………...………..212 Figure 5.7: A drawing of a kneeling person asking pardon………………….………216 Figure 5.8: A drawing of a reflective teacher in view of teaching for ‘never again’..219 Figure 9.4: Positionality umbrella model for teaching controversial issues in post- Genocide Rwanda 9adapted from Harro’s umbrella model of oppression (1997) ….411 Figure 9.5: Rwandan teachers’ enacted aims in teaching the Genocide…………415 vii TABLE Table 4.1 Drawing analysis inspired by Parsa (2004)…………………………………........................................................................182 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration…………………………………………………………..……………..……..….ii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………..………..iii Dedication……………………………………………………………………………..……..iv Abstract…………………………………………………………………….………...……....v List of figures……………………………………………….………………………...….….vii Table……………………………………………….…………...……………….……….....viii CHAPTER 1: CONTEXTUALISING THE RESEARCH JOURNEY……..………..…..1 1.1 Introduction…………..……………………………………………………...…..1 1.2 A brief contextualisation of the Rwandan scene…….……………….....…...4 1.3 History educational background………………………..………….................7 1.4 My positionality and motivational rationality as a researcher……………..16 1.5 Statement of the research problem……………………………………….…21 1.6 Purpose and focus of the study……………………………………..…...…..22 1.7 Research questions……………………………………………………….…..22 1.8 Theoretical considerations……………………………………………………23 1.9 Methodological considerations…………………………………………….…24 1.10 Overview of the study…………………………………………………….….27 1.11 Conclusion………………………………………………..………………..…29 CHAPTER 2: JOURNEYING THROUGH THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE GENOCIDE IN RWANDA………………………………………..……………….………31 2.1 Introduction………………………………………………..…………….……..31 2.2 Understanding the pre-colonial period of Rwandan history (14th century- 1897)………………………………………………..……………………...…….…32 2.3 Rwanda under colonial rule - Changes and continuity (1897-1962)….....39 2.3.1 German rule in Rwanda (1897-1916)……………………………..39 2.3.2 Belgian colonial rule (1916-1962)……………………..…………..41 2.4 Post-colonial Rwanda (1962-1994): Learning from the past……………...49 2.4.1 First and second republics’ failed journey (1962-1994)…………49 2.4.2. Execution of the Genocide against the Tutsi…………………….54 2.4.3 The inefficiency of the reaction of the international community..63 ix 2.4.4 The post-Genocide transformation (1994 up to the present)…..65 2.5 Uniqueness or similarities with other genocides……………………….…..73 2.6 Conclusion…………….…..……………………………………………….…..74 CHAPTER 3: JOURNEY COMPANIONS: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL IDEAS………………………………..……………………………..…...76 3.1 Introduction…………………….……..………………………………….…….73 3.2 Conducting a literature review…………………………………..…….….….77 3.3 Conceptualising controversial issues and genocide……………..….….…79 3.3.1 Controversial issues conceptualisation……………………….…..79 3.3.2 Conceptualising genocide………………………………..…..…….83 3.4 Relevance of teaching controversial issues………………………………...87 3.5 Relevance of teaching genocide……………………………………………..93 3.6 Some cases
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