Complexities and dangers of remembering and forgetting in Rwanda / Olivier Nyirubugara.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nyirubugara, Olivier.

Contributor:

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Series:

Memory traps ; 1.

Memory traps ; v. 1

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Collective memory.

History.

Atrocities.

Rwanda--History--1962-1994.

Rwanda.

Rwanda--History--Civil War, 1990-1993--Atrocities.

Collective memory--Rwanda.

Physical Description:

176 pages ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden : Sidestone Press, [2013]

Summary:

"Can a society, a culture, a country, be trapped by its own memories? The question is not easy to answer, but it would not be a bad idea to cautiously say: 'It depends'. This book is about one society - Rwanda - and its culture, traditions, identities, and memories. More specifically, it discusses some of the ways in which ethnic identities and related memories constitute a deadly trap that needs to be torn apart if mass violence is to be eradicated in that country. It looks into everyday cultural practices such as child naming and oral traditions (myths and tales, proverbs, war poetry etc.) and into political practices that govern the ways in which citizens conceptualise the past." -- Cover p. [4].

Contents:

Part 1 Memory Policing 31

1 Dual Interpretations 33

1.1 Earlier Times 33

1.2 The 'True Story' 38

1.3 Controlling Memory through Education 41

1.4 Inheriting a Heavy Past 43

2 Parallel Remembrances 47

2.1 Remember the 'Right' Past 47

2.2 Imposed Amnesia 48

2.3 Self-imposed Amnesia 53

2.4 Overcoming Amnesia through Language 54

3 Ethnic Guilt 59

3.1 The Gacaca Pedagogy 59

3.2 Collective Guilt 64

3.3 Some Are Guiltier Than Others 66

3.4 Scapegoating 69

Summary 71

Part 2 Memory Transmission 75

4 Oral Traditions and the Representation of the Past 77

4.1 Myths Are not Just Myths 78

4.2 Clue-Providers 80

4.3 Mapping Ancient Rwanda 83

4.4 Myths as Source of Divergence 86

5 The Reminders 89

5.1 The Drum Impasse 89

5.2 The Drum as a Symbol of the Golden Age 92

5.3 Memory Reminders in Independent Rwanda 93

6 Name as a Memory Keeper 97

6.1 Name is Man 98

6.2 Memory in a Nutshell 100

6.3 The Selective Character of the Name 102

6.4 Personal Name and Collective Memory 104

7 Name as Mission Statement 107

7.1 Sealing and Unsealing Fate 107

7.2 I Am My Past 110

7.3 The Name 'Rwanda' 113

8 Names as a Form of Dialogue 117

8.1 Coding the Message 117

8.2 Decoding and Responding to the Message 121

8.3 Language Subtleties 123

Summary 125

Part 3 Memory at Work 127

9 Memories, the Self, and the Collectivity 129

9.1 Autobiography as Memory 130

9.2 Society and Pursuit of Happiness 132

9.3 'We' and 'They' 135

9.4 Horizontality and Verticality 138

10 Backgrounding the Self 141

10.1 All In Common Except... 142

10.2 The Relevant Past 144

10.3 One Event, Two Perspectives 145

Summary 149

11 Concluding Remarks 151

11.1 Remembering 151

11.2 Forgetting 153

11.3 Conciliation 156

11.4 The Way Forward 159.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9088901104

9789088901102

OCLC:

865725675

Publisher Number:

99956940704