The micro-politics of remembering “the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi” in Rwanda

This chapter complicates many of the assumed benefits of commemorative sites in post-conflict contexts by analysing people’s perceptions of spiritual violence associated with state-funded genocide memorials in Rwanda. Genocide survivors have collaborated in the creation of these sites to remember loved ones who were murdered during the “1994 genocide against the Tutsi”, as it is referenced in official discourse. However, these sites have been increasingly politicised by the government’s efforts to provide irrefutable evidence of the genocide, central to which is the amassing of anonymous human remains of alleged victims. Based on qualitative research conducted among memorial staff, survivors, bystanders, and other conflict-affected Rwandans since 2007, this chapter suggests that the politicisation of the anonymous dead has transformed these sites into sources of political tension and spiritual violence that can have negative mental and physical health consequences. It explores these tensions as they pertain to memorials in Karongi district in western Rwanda. This region, which endured not only the 1994 genocide, but was also hard hit by related mass atrocities throughout the 1990s, is especially relevant for revealing the potential challenges of commemoration in authoritarian contexts where state interests take precedence over the needs of survivors and other conflict-affected cohorts