Localizing Commemoration and Individual Responses to the Master Narrative

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 5 examines how Rwandans have responded to the creation of the hegemonic master narrative. It looks at how Champions, Antagonists, and Fatalists emerged in response to public ceremonies such as the one I attended at the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali, in community commemorative events where survivor testimonies were shared around the country, and among the diaspora. It also examines how politicians and military officials played key roles in transmitting the master narrative of the Genocide Against the Tutsi. In addition, I discuss how attendance at commemorations was enforced among Champions, Antagonists, and Fatalists. I analyze commemorations organized at the family level and observe that while changes occurred at both the micro and macro levels, it is the micro-level commemorations that often produced the dissident narratives of Antagonists. These dissident narratives circulated, and sometimes the dissidents were severely punished. The chapter relies on transcultural literature in memory studies to show how the master narrative gained mobility using carriers, including not only physical symbols of memory, but also through Champions, Antagonists, and Fatalists who develop memory narratives of events that happened within Rwanda and beyond its borders.