Performing cultural memories in post-genocide Rwanda: interlacing genocide with tradition

In this presentation I argue that the communication and interaction between memories of Rwanda’s pre-colonial past and memories of the genocide are scarce and difficult, and I demonstrate that embodiment is key to the actualization and interweaving of those memories. I look at the National Museum of Butare’s organization of Rwanda’s crafts and heritage, and I suggest that the museum’s mission of preservation mostly keeps that heritage in the past. I then approach the National Genocide Memorial in Gisozi and the week of commemoration through the lens of a theater piece I worked on in 2009. I qualify the memorial as a space of exception, in direct relation to the concept of “state of exception” that Giorgio Agamben linked to public mourning and which I apply to the commemoration week in April. Finally, I argue for the ability of Rwandese artists to interlace both memories by embodying, drawing inspiration from, and bringing flexibility to them