no. 50 | december 2008 Revisiting the heart of darkness – Explorations into genocide and other forms of mass violence The history of mass violence since colonial times – Trying to understand the roots of a mindset Jacques Depelchin .................................................................................................................13 Violence, legitimacy and dynamics of genocide – Notions of mass violence examined Reinhart Kössler ....................................................................................33 Contextualising violence in colonial Africa – European national development, empire and lineages of conflict Gerold Krozewski ............................................................................................53 Colonialism and genocide – Raphael Lemkin’s concept of genocide and its application to European rule in Africa Dominik Schaller ..........................................................................................................75 Colonialism and the holocaust – Towards an archeology of genocide Jürgen Zimmerer ...................................95 Do we need an alternative to the concept of genocide? Anthony Court .........................................................125 Lineages of racism in genocidal contexts – Lessons from Hannah Arendt in contemporary African genocide scholarship Ulrike Kistner .................................................................................................. 155 Hotel Rwanda – The challenges of historicising and commercialising genocide Mohamed Adhikari ................173 The makings and meanings of the massacres in Matabeleland Ian Phimister ..................................................199 Mass violence in Zimbabwe 2005 – Murambatsvina Mary E. Ndlovu ............................................................219 A luta continua! – South African HIV activism, embodiment and state politics Elina Oinas and Katarina Jungar ....................................................................241 ‘The Unpredictable Past and Future of Genocide’ – A Genocide Dialogue Conference at Voksenåsen, Oslo, 16-17 November 2007 Colonialism, genocide and mass violence – Integral parts of modernity Henning Melber ....................................265 Behind most mass violence lurk economic interests Charles Abugre ................................................................273 Is there a south perspective on genocide ? Alejandro Bendaña ..........................................................................281 Report from the panel debate on ‘What is Genocide?’ John Y. Jones ..............................................................294 The Voksenåsen statement ..............................................................................................................................297 Editor of this issue Subscribers are kindly requested to Henning Melber with inform the Dag Hammarskjöld Centre John Y. Jones (sub-editor) of any changes of address or subscrip- tion cancellations. Series editor Henning Melber Editorial office The Dag Hammarskjöld Centre Language editor Övre Slottsgatan 2 Wendy Davies SE-753 10 Uppsala, Sweden Fax: +46-(0)18-12 20 72 Production, design and layout E-mail: [email protected] Mattias Lasson Website: www.dhf.uu.se Printers The opinions expressed in the journal Mediaprint are those of the authors and do not Uddevalla, Sweden, necessarily reflect the views of the November 2007 Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation. ISSN 0345-2328 ISBN 978-91-85214-49-5 Development Dialogue is a forum provided by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation since 1972 for critical discussions of international development priorities and challenges. Its main focus is on North-South relations and alternative perspectives to dominant paradigms. Development Dialogue is published in consecutive numbers on average once or twice a year. This issue was produced in cooperation with Networkers South North. development dialogue no. 50 december 2008 Revisiting the heart of darkness – Explorations into genocide and other forms of mass violence 60 years after the UN Convention Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ 3 Poem by Dennis Brutus .....................................................................................................4 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 7 Henning Melber The history of mass violence since colonial times – Trying to understand the roots of a mindset ..................................................................13 Jacques Depelchin Violence, legitimacy and dynamics of genocide – Notions of mass violence examined ...............................................................................33 Reinhart Kössler Contextualising violence in colonial Africa – European national development, empire and lineages of confl ict ...................................53 Gerold Krozewski Colonialism and genocide – Raphael Lemkin’s concept of genocide and its application to European rule in Africa .........75 Dominik Schaller Colonialism and the holocaust – Towards an archeology of genocide .............................................................................. 95 Jürgen Zimmerer Do we need an alternative to the concept of genocide? ...................................................125 Anthony Court Lineages of racism in genocidal contexts – Lessons from Hannah Arendt in contemporary African genocide scholarship ............. 155 Ulrike Kistner Hotel Rwanda – The challenges of historicising and commercialising genocide ...............173 Mohamed Adhikari The makings and meanings of the massacres in Matabeleland ........................................197 Ian Phimister Mass violence in Zimbabwe 2005 – Murambatsvina .......................................................217 Mary E. Ndlovu A luta continua! – South African HIV activism, embodiment and state politics .............239 Elina Oinas and Katarina Jungar The Voksenåsen Conference ‘The unpredictable past and future of genocide’: A Genocide Dialogue Conference at Voksenåsen, Oslo, 16-17 November 2007 ..............259 John Y. Jones Colonialism, genocide and mass violence – integral parts of modernity .............................263 Henning Melber Behind most mass violence lurk economic interests .........................................................271 Charles Abugre Is there a south perspective on genocide? .........................................................................279 Alejandro Bendaña Report from the panel debate on ‘What is Genocide?’ ....................................................293 John Y. Jones The Voksenåsen Statement.............................................................................................. 297 Biographical notes on authors ......................................................................................... 299 Acknowledgements The larger part of this volume is based on revised versions of papers originally presented to a conference on ‘Mass Violence in Africa’. Funded by Sida, this conference was jointly organised by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and the Nordic Africa Institute and took place in Uppsala in early December 2006, with the International Net- work of Genocide Scholars (INoGS) as a collaborating partner. The administrative and organisational support provided by Nina Klinge- Nygård and Kajsa Övergaard before, during and after the conference is gratefully acknowledged. The second part of this volume presents revised inputs and results from the ‘Dialogue Conference on Genocide’ at the Voksenåsen con- ference centre near Oslo in mid-November 2007. This was organised by Networkers SouthNorth in collaboration with Voksenåsen and the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, and supported by Norad, Fritt Ord and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. The editor of the volume is Henning Melber and the co-editor of the Voksenåsen part is John Y. Jones. We are grateful for the support received from all those contributing in their various ways so compe- tently to this publication. Poem by Dennis Brutus (First performed by the author at the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation during the conference on Mass Violence in Africa, 2 December 2006.) Birches emerge from dawn mist, evoke shades from Quondam-existing purgatory (inferno, too, perhaps has been abandoned?) We stumble towards a possible alternative world fi nd nerve to speak truth to power better, perhaps, fi nd power within ourselves to confront ourselves, our innate hypocrisy; mankind, from strangling umbilicals wrestles goaded by inexorable peristaltics moves to alternative possible worlds guesses, through mists, a planet, fi delity. Shiphol/Arlanda/Uppsala, 30 November–2 December 2006 Dennis Brutus, born 1924 in then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), was raised in South Africa. After completing his university studies he taught in South African high schools. As founder and relentless campaigner of SANROC (South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee) he achieved the banning of South Africa and Rhodesia from Olympic sports for decades. Under ban he tried to leave South Africa for a boycott campaign and was arrested in Mozambique. In 1963 while in custody in Johannesburg he attempted to escape and was shot in the back. After 18 months’ imprisonment on Robben Island he was sent into exile, where he settled as a political refugee in the United States of America. An eff ort by the Reagan administration to deport him failed after