“There Was No Genocide in Rwanda”

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Hedlund
Keyword(s):  
Second Generation ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Rwandan Genocide ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Rebel Group ◽  
Military Control ◽  
Political Demonstrations

This article analyzes how the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is recalled and described by members of a Hutu rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) whose leadership can be linked to the 1994 atrocities in Rwanda. The article explores how individuals belonging to this rebel group, currently operating in the eastern territories of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), articulate, contest, and oppose the dominant narrative of the Rwandan genocide. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with members of the FDLR in a rebel camp, this article shows how a community of exiled fighters and second-generation Hutu refugees contest the official version of genocide by constructing a counterhistory of it. Through organized practices such as political demonstrations and military performances, it further shows how political ideologies and violence are being manufactured and reproduced within a setting of military control.

UN Peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Reflections on MONUSCO and Its Contradictory Mandate

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 363-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine Natalya Clark
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Rwandan Genocide ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Important Test

Both because the United Nations (UN) spectacularly failed in Rwanda and because of the close links between the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the continuing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) – formerly the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) – constitutes an important test-case for UN peacekeeping. However, since MONUSCO is ongoing, it is too early to assess whether or not it has passed this test. This article, however, focuses on a particular issue that may ultimately cause the mission to fail, namely contradictions within its ever-expanding mandate. It argues that MONUSCO itself is helping to fuel these tensions through its flawed approach to one of the key components of its mandate, namely DDR (disarmament, demobilization and reintegration) and DDRRR (disarmament, demobilization, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration). It thus suggests how MONUSCO might revise its approach to these processes, particularly through a more ‘bottom-up’ focus that engages directly with local communities and with former combatants as individuals.

Writing ‘Parrhesia’, Narrating ‘the Other Rwandan Genocide’

Matatu ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 418-434
Author(s):  
Nick Mdika Tembo
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
The Other ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Testimonial Literature ◽  
Rwandan Genocide ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Rhetorical Narrative

At the end of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, close to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been murdered, and over 1.5 million people were either internally displaced or had fled over the borders into neighbouring countries and beyond for fear of reprisals from the advancing Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). This article places Marie Béatrice Umutesi’s Surviving the Slaughter (2004) and Pierre-Claver Ndacyayisenga’s Dying to Live (2012) within the context of post-1994 Rwandan testimonial literature that writes what is feared to be “the other Rwandan genocide,” particularly against those who fled to eastern Zaïre (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). In the two narratives, I argue, Umutesi and Ndacyayisenga destabilise and deconstruct the claim of genocide to create a literature that captures the anxieties of genocide memories in Rwanda. Specifically, Umutesi and Ndacyayisenga deploy a rhetorical narrative form that employs cynicism, bitter humour and a harsh tone to suggest that the suffering of Rwandans must not be seen, or even told, from a single perspective, and that only a balanced engagement with extant issues would lead to genuine reconciliation in Rwanda. To illustrate the ideological purpose at work in the two texts, I reference Michel Foucault’s parrhesia as a framework for understanding how the authors contest genocide memories in Rwanda.

‘Making men fall’: queer power beyond anti-normativity

Africa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 91 (3) ◽  
pp. 398-417
Author(s):  
Thomas Hendriks
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Social Thinking ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork

AbstractIn modern social thinking, norms are generally thought of in opposition to a space of freedom that is more or less curtailed by and through processes of normalization. ‘Transgression’ thereby becomes an implicit or explicit act of resistance against the norm. This is particularly clear in Western Queer Theory, where a political and analytical investment in anti-normativity has – paradoxically – become a field-defining norm. Yet such strong anti-normativity can become a liability when trying to do justice to actually existing queer dynamics in past and present African realities. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork among sexually dissident young men who call themselves ‘fioto’ in urban Democratic Republic of Congo, this article shifts the always already oppositional relationship between queerness and normativity – not by arguing that queer is normal too or by showing that queer lives produce their own norms alongside heteronormativity, but by suggesting that queerness is a potential of normativity, rather than an opposition to it. It specifically thinks with two groups of fioto friends in Kisangani to show how and why norms generated their own queerness – as something that was already there as an inherent dimension of their own dynamism and multiplicity.

Regional Political Leadership and Policy Integration in Great Lakes Region of Africa

2018 ◽  
pp. 267-277
Author(s):  
Yvan Yenda Ilunga
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Policy Integration ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Rwandan Genocide ◽  
The Past

For the past two decades, following the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the Great Lakes Region of Africa has become a conflict-ridden zone marked by mass violations of human rights and political instabilities. Part of these instabilities and violence is due to the lack of strong and stable political leadership and institutions in many of the countries in the region. In 1996, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was plagued by the uprising of the rebel movement called the Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre. This movement was a coalition of Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda, along with Congolese people. However, the AFDL victory was short-lived since the coalition parties broke up their alliance in 1998, which led to a new cycle of conflict which continued to destabilize the DRC to date with its Eastern provinces being most affected. In addition to conflict within the DRC, political instability and crisis of legitimacy of political leadership in South Sudan, Burundi, and the Central African Republic have also exacerbated the instability in the region. In this chapter, the author argues that peace and stability in the Great Lakes Region of Africa would depend on how best several facets of policies are integrated into one operational framework for peace and stability.

Uncovering the Legitimacy of Possible Causes of Conflict in African States

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Mastrocola
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Causal Factors ◽  
Rwandan Genocide ◽  
The Past ◽  
Causal Mechanisms

There has been prominent conflict and intense violence throughout African countries in the past and recent years. This paper will present research regarding the effectiveness of proposed causal mechanisms contributing to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The plausible causes which may have led to the escalation of conflict in Rwanda during the 1990’s will be discussed. However, a key concept which seemed to lack further analysis when discussing the origin of conflict in Rwanda was the “why” aspect. As my research discusses, there has been similar causal mechanisms outlined and prevalent among various case studies in Africa. Therefore, an imperative question to ask is: Why has the intensity of violence differed between certain African countries that share the existence of similar causal factors? Specifically, I focus on the effectiveness of Belgian colonialism as a contributing factor to the Rwandan genocide and the lack of legitimacy of primordial classification (traditional and static claims depicting similar characteristics which are shared among groups and people). I compare the effects of these possible causes by analyzing the case studies of Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, in an attempt to explain the differences in the levels of violence witnessed in all three countries which were significantly affected by Belgian colonialism and ethnic classifications of people.

scholarly journals Forced, coerced and voluntary recruitment into rebel and militia groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne Richards
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
International Community ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
Rebel Group

ABSTRACTWhy do non-state armed groups forcibly recruit civilians? To address this question I develop a conceptual framework distinguishing voluntary, coerced and forced recruitment. I then compare the recruitment tactics employed by ‘Mai-Mai’ militias and the RCD-Goma rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in order to inductively develop a theory explaining why groups with different initial economic and social endowments resort to force. This comparison draws on interviews with 41 former militia members and 11 former members of RCD-Goma. The theory suggests that forced recruitment is most likely to occur when non-state armed groups experience manpower deficits and when accountability (to local communities, government sponsors and/or the international community) is low. High levels of popular support will not necessarily prevent recourse to force under these conditions, but may mean that force is less necessary because voluntary and coerced recruits come forward to fill manpower gaps.

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