Attempting intelligibility with the seemingly incomprehensible: Murambi, human remains and the Labour of Care

In this article, I discuss the work carried out by the employees of the MurambiMemorial, a site commemorating Rwanda’s genocide, to highlight how theirwork-related responsibilities creates an opportunity for the memorial’s visitors tohave an intelligible encounter with the seemingly incomprehensible presence ofhuman remains. I introduce the concept of the Labour of Care, which provides abasis to think about how the work carried out by Murambi’s employees bestowsupon the human remains their interpretable qualities. From this basis, I examinehow this concept provides a means to think about human remains not simply asmaterial objects, but rather, better understood as subject-come-objects. By doingso, visitors can move beyond idealized notions of redemption and think abouthumanity’s unsettling capacity for violence