‘Forgiveness is something that can be seen from behind’. Visualizing a conversation with a perpetrator and a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide in a reconciliation village

Abstract

ABSTRACT In November 2018, the authors spent five days in Rwanda, visiting the Kigali Genocide Memorial (KGM) and undertaking a paid tourist day trip to regional memorials and a ‘reconciliation village’ near the border with Burundi, to conduct creative research by using the established, institutional network of post-genocide and reconciliation education and tourism in Rwanda. The authors collaborated to produce a visual essay that would focus purely on peripheral visual and aural impressions. They refrained from attempting to photograph exhibits or interview witnesses but rather took still images around external areas of the memorials as well as street views around Kigali. They were granted permission to audio record a conversation with a survivor and a perpetrator of the 1994 Rwandan genocide at the reconciliation village. This visual essay is presented as an assemblage of incidental photographs and fragments of the verbatim text of the taped conversation with the villagers. KGM workers explained that reconciliation villages exist throughout Rwanda as part of a state-sponsored reconciliation and peace building programme by virtue of which selected genocide perpetrators serving prison terms receive an official pardon, are trained in peace building, and are given resources to join genocide survivors in the construction of village infrastructure and community.