Navigating Cultural Memory

Abstract

Abstract This book analyzes how a master narrative of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi evolved into a hegemonic narrative. It identifies key actors of the evolution and enforcement of the master narrative in the first two decades after the genocide and civil war ended. Primary and secondary sources and rarely analyzed Rwandan folklore examine how Rwandans—identified as Champions, Antagonists, and Fatalists of the master narrative—responded through language; physical symbols of memory and art; and traditional and new media. It is argued that what has emerged as the master narrative and, over time, as the hegemonic narrative of the Genocide Against the Tutsi, was created from plural and fluid memorialization approaches, debates, tensions, and contradictions among mnemonic actors in Rwanda and beyond. It indicates that Champions struggle to maintain power to shape and classify responses to the master narrative, Antagonists and Fatalists equally mobilize tools to contest that power. The transmission of these debates within online “conversable spaces” potentially can fuel further tensions or present an opportunity for compassionate transformation. A relational approach to dignity and its significance is needed to transform polarizing narratives away from sources of competition, exclusion, and silence toward facilitating the construction and more peaceful relationships. Political conversations around the master narrative and violent histories are important for not only contemporary politics but also the key to Rwanda’s present and future peace and stability. The book contributes to postgenocide literature and policy debates on memory politics and scholarship on meanings of dignity.