Complexities and Dangers of Remembering and Forgetting in Rwanda
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Olivier Nyirubugara Olivier Complexities and Dangers of Remembering and Forgetting in Rwanda Can a society, a culture, a country, be trapped by its own memories? The question is not easy to answer, but it would not be a bad idea to cautiously say: ‘It depends’. This book is about one society – Rwanda – and its culture, traditions, identities, and memories. More specifically, it discusses some of the ways in which ethnic identities and related memories constitute a deadly trap that needs to be torn apart if mass violence is to be eradicated in that country. It looks into everyday cultural practices Rwanda in Forgetting and Remembering such as child naming and oral traditions (myths and tales, proverbs, war poetry etc.) and into political practices that govern the ways in which citizens conceptualise the past. of Dangers and Complexities Rwanda was engulfed in a bloody war from 1990 until 1994, the last episode of which was a genocide that claimed about a million lives amongst the Tutsi minority. This book – the first in the Memory Traps series – provides a new understanding of how a seemingly quiet society can suddenly turn into a scene of the most horrible inter-ethnic crimes. It offers an analysis of the complexities and dangers resulting from the ways in which memories are managed both at a personal level and at a collective level. The main point is that Rwandans have become hostages of their memories of the long-gone and the recent past. The book shows how these memories follow ethnic Complexities and Dangers lines and lead to a state of cultural hypocrisy on the one hand, and to permanent conflict – either open and brutal, or latent and beneath the surface – on the other of Remembering and hand. Written from a memory studies perspective and informed by critical theory, philosophy, literature, [oral] history, and psychology, amongst others, this book Forgetting in Rwanda deals with some controversial subjects and deconstructs some of the received ideas about the recent and the long-gone past of Rwanda. Dr. Olivier Nyirubugara is lecturer of New Media and Online Journalism at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (Erasmus University Olivier Nyirubugara Rotterdam). His main areas of publication include digital media, history education, cultural heritage, and cultural memory. ISBNSidestone 978-90-8890-110-2 Press Sidestone ISBN: 978-90-8890-110-2 Bestelnummer: SSP86460002 Memory Traps Artikelnummer: SSP86460002 Volume I 9 789088 901102 This is an Open Access publication. Visit our website for more OA publication, to read any of our books for free online, or to buy them in print or PDF. www.sidestone.com Check out some of our latest publications: Complexities and Dangers of Remembering and Forgetting in Rwanda Sidestone Press Complexities and Dangers of Remembering and Forgetting in Rwanda Olivier Nyirubugara Memory Traps Volume I © 2013 O. Nyirubugara Published by Sidestone Press, Leiden www.sidestone.com Sidestone registration number: SSP86460002 ISBN 978-90-8890-110-2 Photographs cover: Anna Omelchenko | Dreamstime.com Cover design: K. Wentink, Sidestone Press Lay-out: F. Stevens & P.C. van Woerdekom, Sidestone Press Contents Acknowledgments 9 Introduction 11 1 Tales and Myths as Memory 13 2 The Meanings of Memory 15 Artifacts 15 Process 16 3 Characterising Memory 17 Presentism 18 Futurism 19 Multiplicity 21 4 Memory and History 22 Exclusiveness 22 Marriage 23 Suspiciousness 25 5 This Book and Its Author 26 Part One - Memory Policing 31 1 Dual Interpretations 33 1.1 Earlier Times 33 1.2 The ‘True Story’ 38 1.3 Controlling Memory through Education 41 1.4 Inheriting a Heavy Past 43 2 Parallel Remembrances 47 2.1 Remember the ‘Right’ Past 47 2.2 Imposed Amnesia 48 2.3 Self-Imposed Amnesia 53 2.4 Overcoming Amnesia through Language 54 3 Ethnic Guilt 59 3.1 The Gacaca Pedagogy 59 3.2 Collective Guilt 64 3.3 Some Are Guiltier Than Others 66 3.4 Scapegoating 69 Summary 71 Part Two - Memory Transmission 75 4 Oral Traditions and the Representation of the Past 77 4.1 Myths Are not Just Myths 78 4.2 Clue-Providers 80 4.3 Mapping Ancient Rwanda 83 4.4 Myths as Source of Divergence 86 5 The Reminders 89 5.1 The Drum Impasse 89 5.2 The Drum as a Symbol of the Golden Age 92 5.3 Memory Reminders in Independent Rwanda 93 6 Name as a Memory Keeper 97 6.1 Name is Man 98 6.2 Memory in a Nutshell 100 6.3 The Selective Character of the Name 102 6.4 Personal Name and Collective Memory 104 7 Name as Mission Statement 107 7.1 Sealing and Unsealing Fate 107 7.2 I Am My Past 110 7.3 The Name ‘Rwanda’ 113 8 Names as a Form of Dialogue 117 8.1 Coding the Message 117 8.2 Decoding and Responding to the Message 121 8.3 Language Subtleties 123 Summary 125 Part Three - Memory at Work 127 9 Memories, the Self, and the Collectivity 129 9.1 Autobiography as Memory 130 9.2 Society and Pursuit of Happiness 132 9.3 ‘We’ and ‘They’ 135 9.4 Horizontality and Verticality 138 10 Backgrounding the Self 141 10.1 All In Common Except… 142 10.2 The Relevant Past 144 10.3 One Event, Two Perspectives 145 Summary 149 11 Concluding Remarks 151 11.1 Remembering 151 11.2 Forgetting 153 11.3 Conciliation 156 11.4 The Way Forward 159 References 165 To my father whose passion for Rwanda’s history, culture, and oral traditions continues to inspire me; to Stella. Acknowledgments I started working on this book in 2007, which is more than five years before its initial publication, and many people have helped me shape my ideas or otherwise enrich the work. Although this work is entirely mine, it would be unfair not to mention and thank those people. I would like to thank prof. dr. Eric Ketelaar, prof. dr. Frank van Vree, prof. dr. Annemiek Richters, and dr. Jean-Valéry Turatsinze for their critical reading of the manuscript [or part of it]. Their tough questions and insightful observations have allowed me to sharpen my arguments. I am indebted to Clare Martin-Bell who has gone through this manuscript to make sure that it reads smoothly. I am grateful to my publishers Corné van Woerdekom and Karsten Wentink for their inspiring thoughts about the manuscript and the tremendous work they have completed to turn it into the book you have in your hands. Finally, let me express my gratitude to my family, my wife, my daughters, my mother, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and my friends, for having provided me the opportunity to test my analyses, my arguments, and my ideas, without necessarily knowing that I was working on this book. The discussions took place in informal settings but were highly useful since they helped me detect some holes in my arguments. Introduction On 31st May 1994, as the genocide was in its second month in Rwanda, Gaspard Gahigi, the Editor-in-Chief of Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM) made a one-century dive into the past to explain the news from that day. He was trying to provide an historical context to the alleged recruitment of the Tutsi in the Great Lakes Region by the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), a Tutsi-dominated rebel movement that was at war against the Hutu-dominated army. Gahigi made a comparison between that campaign and a similar one carried out by King Kigeri IV Rwabugiri [1853–1895],1 who was facing the White Man’s invasion: I would like to remind you that the Tutsi’s arrogance started a long time ago. I don’t know if you remember the greatest Tutsi warrior, Rwabugiri. The Inkotanyi [RPF fighters] want to replicate his bravery. Rwabugiri fought in Uganda, [and] here in the country… and at Ijwi Island [in the middle of Lake Kivu]. I also hope that you remember the story of Kabego. One day, Rwabugiri was informed that white men had attacked, and that they were carrying thunder-bows [Imiheto irimo inkuba]. He resolved to fight them, and you know how that all ended. It was exactly like the [current] suicide of the Inkotanyi. I hope that you have heard about the Shangi attack… This attack brings to mind the stories of [General Fred] Rwigema [the first RPF Commander-in-Chief killed on the battle field on the second day of the war on 2nd October 1990] and [Paul] Kagame; … Rwabugiri gathered 10 battalions, placed them under the command of his own sons, with Muhigirwa, Sharangabo, Inyonza, and another one who grew up at the court, namely Bisangwa son of Rugombituri… All Rwabugiri’s sons were killed together with all the combatants. All those Tutsi were exterminated… Let me remind you dear [colleague] Kantano, that the Inkotanyi against whom we are fighting, have been through all those countries that Rwabugiri had conquered: Ijwi, the Bwisha – you know that Rwabugiri had occupied a considerable part of Zaire [now Democratic Republic of Congo] – and a large territory of the Bufumbira. They [Inkotanyi] have gone there to tell the Rwandans living in those areas: “you should know that we are all Rwandans and that we are preparing a war to liberate Rwanda. You are all Rwandans and you should help us liberate Rwandans [Emphasis added].2 Rwanda was a hereditary monarchy until 1961 when the Republic of Rwanda was proclaimed. Until that time, the King of Rwanda –umwami – came exclusively from the Tutsi clan of Abanyinginya. Each King had a dynastic name that conferred to him a special mission.