How has Public History been used in Post-Genocide Rwanda?

The 1994 Rwandan Genocide was one of the largest genocides in modern history, with over 800,000 people, representing 12% of the Rwandan population, murdered in an episode of mass violence. This essay will explore how, in the aftermath of extraordinary violence, Rwanda has used public history to foster unity, suppress ethnic divisions between the two major conflicting ethnic groups, Hutu (85%) and Tutsi (14%), and combat denial of the genocide. This essay will analyse three key sites: the Rwandan Genocide Memorial, the Campaign Against Genocide Museum and the Nyamata Church and study how embodied and vernacular memory help to reinforce a national Rwandan identity reliant on placing blame for the violence on external figures and forces. However, this essay will also critique aspects of Rwanda’s approach as promoting a “chosen amnesia” in which pre-colonial tensions and the complexity of ethnic relations are secondary to colonial guilt and the RPF-led4 “redemption” of the country. This narrative has since been co-opted to serve Rwandan geopolitical aims by portraying Rwanda as compelled to “prevent” genocide abroad, thus justifying military action in the DRC. It will be argued that the government’s approach to the genocide has also left various groups marginalised, not fitting into any standardised category. Finally, this essay will argue that the Rwandan government has actively undermined certain efforts to institute forms of memory that might threaten the legitimacy of its narrative.

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Post-genocide Rwanda provides a case study on how public history can be used to try and overcome collective trauma, and justify a government narrative. Since 1994, Rwanda has produced public history, such as memorials, museums and victim testimonies, to help unite conflicting ethnic groups and lower tensions. Public historian Jill Liddington defined public history as being, “concerned about how we require our sense of the past – through memory and landscape, archives and archaeology (then, of course, how those pasts are presented publicly).” In Rwanda, public history is actively being used as a tool to facilitate national reconstruction and foster unity. Rwandan culture now emphasises a shared national identity and the country has a constitution that states the “principle of equality of all Rwandans before the law.” However, some political scientists and psychologists, such as Susanne Buckley-Zistel, have argued that Rwanda has adopted a “chosen amnesia” in which the memory of past events has intentionally been forgotten or altered due to the collective shame associated with the genocide. While this has helped the country move on, it risks marginalising various groups who do not fit into the official narrative. This essay will argue that while public history in Rwanda has been used to promote a government narrative aimed at unification of the two major ethnic groups of Rwanda, it has also overpowered other contesting narratives, been used to downplay the role of Rwandans in the genocide and to legitimise geopolitical interests in the DRC. This government narrative thus has the potential to form long-term rifts in Rwandan society due to a lack of genuine “forgiveness”.

The various memorials throughout Rwanda are the most common method that the Rwandan Government has used to spread the state narrative of the events of the genocide. The Rwandan Genocide Memorial in Kigali is a salient example of Pierre Nora’s “Lieux De Mémoire” or “sites of memory,” in which certain places and objects gain special significance related to a shared memory. Traditionally, sites of memory are linked closely with tragedy and serve to anchor historical events in physical spaces as living memory fades. The Rwandan Genocide Memorial accomplishes this by housing 250,000 victims’ remains inside mass graves, and serves as a place for communal mourning. The Rwanda Genocide Memorial’s location on a hillside in Gisozi where over 250,000 people were murdered, incorporates elements of Jack Santino’s “Sacralisation of space.” This refers to the process by which ordinary secular spaces become sacred or spiritually significant through collective mourning or memorialisation. By turning the Gisozi hillside into an official memorial, the Rwandan government has “sacralised” a space of extreme trauma to construct a space for reflection and grievance. This echoes the government’s stated aim of, “promoting reconciliation and building peace through education.”

The Rwandan Genocide Memorial strictly prohibits photography inside, as it aims to force visitors to fully immerse themselves in the space rather than engage through a lens or screen. This links to aspects of Paul Connerton’s notion of “Embodied” memory, which he has defined as an active “presence of all the participants.” Memory, for Connerton, becomes an act of presence and interaction rather than observation. The interactive aspect of the memorial also includes participatory memorialisation, with boards where visitors can leave images and notes to family members who were lost in the genocide. This is an example of creating “Vernacular memory,” in which, contrary to an official, state controlled, structured narrative of history, memorialisation is, “derived from first-hand experience.” Central to the memorial is the display of physical artefacts and remnants of the genocide, employing “exemplary memory,” which “guarantees the relevance and vitality of the past.” This includes carefully curated artefacts such as skulls and clothing, constructing a powerful official narrative of the extreme brutality of the genocide. This technique was employed by this memorial specifically to combat growing genocide denialism, which is considered one of the final stages in the genocide. “Literal Denial” which “claims no genocide took place,” occurred immediately after the genocide as a defence strategy of genocide suspects, such as Rwanda’s UN representative, Jacques-Rodger Booh-Booh stated, “to claim that a genocide occurred is closer to the politics of surrealism than to the truth.” More recently, the rise of “Implicatory denial,” which, “acknowledges that a genocide took place, but involves explicit counter-accusations to blame the other ‘side’” is demonstrated by consistent exaggeration of Hutu victims, sometimes into the millions. The Rwandan Genocide Memorial thus has a role in challenging the emergence of denialism in Rwanda by using elements of public history to reinforce the reality and scale of the Rwandan Genocide.

The Campaign Against Genocide Museum, also located in the capital Kigali, is dedicated to the prevention of genocide globally and aims to unify Rwandans through awareness of the conditions that enabled the genocide to take place. The museum was created within the parliament building due to its historical significance as the site where 600 Rwanda Patriotic Soldiers fought against over 8,000 Rwandan Army soldiers in a defence of the parliament. Inside, the movie The 600 is displayed, as “film is an important complement to the development of historical memory,” forming an, “integral part of the collective memory.” Additionally, the bullet holes throughout the building exterior, as well as the display of original weapons used to defend the building, are examples of “Lieux De Mémoire” in which the history is physically inscribed or remembered. Inside, images as well as dioramas make up the primary form of communication, an example of a modern “interpretive display”. These three-dimensional models also seek to “bridge the gap,” by making history accessible to audiences in Rwanda, where visual forms of communication are arguably more effective than written text – given that the literacy rate is 70.80% and there are 4 national languages.

The Nyamata Genocide Memorial Centre, using the structure of the former Nyamata Church, is the site of the murder of over 10,000 Tutsi from 14 April to 19 April 1994. The site is one of the only genocide memorials that combines religion with memory and public history in Rwanda. The brutality of the crimes committed at the Nyamata Church has resulted in the development of “thanatourism,” a type of tourism involving visiting sites associated with death and suffering, especially by international tourists. Specific tourist sites dedicated to thanatourism note that the Nyamata Church is “one of the darkest sites anywhere in this world.” Thanatourism also serves the Rwandan Government’s agenda by directing visitors to state curated sites that show president Kagame’s “Salvation” of Rwanda. The Nyamata Church serves as an effective instrument in constructing and expanding the government narrative about the events of the genocide, displaying evidence of mass murder in the form of visible bullet holes, bloodstains and grenade fragments.

One key aspect of public history in Rwanda has been the ongoing attempt to identify the victims of the genocide, which is a public project involving the work of thousands of experts who are paired with victim testimonials to locate burial grounds. It is described as a way to “help families close the book on that chapter in their lives,” and a way to help commemorate and mourn the loss of family and friends. In Ngoma, the site at which multiple mass graves, (containing the remains of over 600 victims) were recently discovered, over 100 volunteers assisted scholars and forensic scientists in unearthing new mass graves, displaying the communal approach that makes it a particularly “public” form of public history. Many of the bones and other items found on the bodies were able to be returned to communities and families, demonstrating with graphic immediacy how public history has successfully been employed by the state to bring closure to families.

A feature of this public history has been the focus on the colonial past, arguably in part to distract from historic and remaining internal conflict. Public history in Rwanda is aimed at promoting unity. The official stance of President Paul Kagame (since being sworn into office in 2000) has been that “We have to bear in mind what caused the genocide - the politics of division and tribalism. That’s why we chose to stay together and put the interests of all Rwandans first.” The museums of Rwanda, in their mission to unite, have focused on the role of European colonial powers in creating tensions that fuelled the violence. Colonial powers certainly promoted ethnic segregation between Tutsi and Hutu. Beginning in 1897, Germany, and later Belgium from 1916, perpetuated pro-Tutsi policies creating long term resentment between the Hutu and Tutsi. Pro-Tutsi Policy was due in part to the pseudoscientific theory that the Tutsi had descended from Ethiopian populations distantly related to modern Europeans, but had also been a “divide and conquer” strategy in which “differences were augmented by education,” as the Tutsi received exclusive access to education and administrative roles, creating Hutu resentment. The Belgian observations of distinct ethnic features between Tutsi and Hutu resulted in the creation of “identity papers,” that affirmed differences between groups and enabled far stricter segregation than was previously possible. A focus on the colonial, however, fails to account for the relevance of the pre-colonial social and power relations. Currently, pre-colonial Rwanda is portrayed as primarily harmonious, with the classification of “Tutsi” being more an indication of social wealth and status based on “cattle ownership.” However, this representation by the Rwandan Genocide Memorial overlooks that, by 1700, systems such as “uburetwa,” a form of slavery that mandated the Hutu work for Tutsi chiefs had already been established, which undermines the “harmony” of the precolonial past and demonstrates that ethnic tensions were not solely Colonial constructions. In addition, before German colonisation in 1895, Tutsi-led kingdoms had systematically implemented “increasingly anti-Hutu policies,” such as the “Igikingi” system of land reform that reallocated land to Tutsi elite and stripped Hutu of land ownership. While “Kwihutura” was theoretically possible, it had become extremely rare and created considerable rifts between groups, which was exploited by the colonial powers. In addition to a colonial focus, Rwanda’s public history has also shifted much of the blame to the failure of international forces to respond in 1994, with the French President, Emmanual Macron, acknowledging the “overwhelming responsibility” of France in failing to prevent the genocide. This admission is cited in the Museum Against Genocide as evidence of a need for international accountability. Another example of accountability, displayed in the Museum Against Genocide is from UN Secretary Ba Ki-Moon’s admission that, “we failed in Rwanda.”

The Rwandan government has clearly used public history to encourage reconciliation; however, some political scientists and psychologists argue that this insistence on unity is ultimately detrimental to individual and communal memory of the genocide - that the state sponsored “hegemonic narrative,” may constitute a “chosen amnesia,” that has damaged attempts at true reflection and memory. Brandon Dickson has argued that “national genocide memorials in Rwanda are detrimental to the very objectives they claim to work towards.” This is because they perpetuate a single reality that must “Denounce Rwanda’s past and encourage future development,” overshadowing and often undermining alternative personal attempts at remembrance by focusing instead on the Banyarwanda, which discourages individual expression of the identity of Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. Janine Natayla Clark acknowledges that the current attempt at reconciliation, “relies upon a negation of ethnicity,” which fails to recognise the diverse experience of various ethnic groups, limiting how individual memory is expressed and remembered.

Additionally, Judi Rever’s investigative journalism uncovered government attempts to suppress alternative narratives, particularly around the alleged war-crimes committed by the RPF, which has limited the scope of public and communal discourse around the genocide, and its complexities. Susanne-Buckley Zistel, a political scientist specialising in postcolonialism and memory, argued that, “this chosen amnesia about past divisions, is less a mental failure than a conscious strategy to cope with living in proximity to 'killers' or 'traitors'.” Moreover, she also acknowledges that this chosen amnesia, “May be essential for enabling community cohesion.” In victim testimonials in the Rwandan Genocide Museum, there is a recurring theme that almost all people were either victims or perpetrators, and that many seemingly “normal” people turned into murderers overnight. This leaves some groups marginalised, such as Hutu women married to Tutsi men who, “don’t fit in any place, they are not embraced by survivors as being one of them.” Liddington suggested that public history shapes collective consciousness by determining what is remembered and how it is remembered. By presenting the genocide as a spontaneous act of mass violence largely inspired by resentment manufactured by colonisation, the Rwandan government has been able to suspend national guilt and promote coexistence, often at the expense of an honest reckoning with the past and the experience of those who defied the major categories throughout the conflict.

Finally, it should be noted that the Rwandan Government has also used public history as a means of supporting geopolitical interests in the region, with the narrative of “Tutsi Protection” underpinning territorial ambitions in mineral rich provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The exhibits featured in Rwandan public history depict Rwanda as both a victim and a nation that is compelled to prevent future atrocities. The Rwandan backing of M23 (23 March Movement) has been justified as a “defensive war” that is, “fighting for the rights of ethnic Tutsis in the DRC,” using the narratives of the Rwandan Genocide to support geopolitical aims in the region. In an interview with France 24, Kagame asserted there are, “relatives and friends who have been killed for who they are in Eastern Congo,” a claim that is largely unsubstantiated in the modern state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. During the 31st commemoration of the genocide in April 2025, an example of ritualistic public history, Kagame made explicit the link between the genocide and modern Rwandan geopolitics: “Our challenges today are siblings of our past. We must confront them with the same resolve,” framing the FDLR as the carriers of a “genocide ideology.” The Rwandan Genocide Memorial’s introductory video, including footage of FDLR attacks in Congo, reinforces this connection. The Rwandan government thus justifies military action against groups that threaten their authority through public history, which perpetuates a link between the past genocide and current actions, justifying Rwandan geopolitical goals.

Ultimately, Rwanda’s employment of public history has been a significant tool in the successful unification of the country, with Rwanda rated the safest country in Africa in 2024, having not recorded any significant violence between Tutsi and Hutu since 1994. Tutsi and Hutu have been merged into a single Bantu ethnolinguistic supraethnicity.72 However, while public history in the form of museums has certainly promoted reconciliation, scholars have argued that much of the public history is an attempt by the government to invoke a necessary “chosen amnesia,” which has neglected the root cause of the conflict and expanded a dominant state narrative that simultaneously suppresses or ignores unique individual or communal ways of continuing memory in Rwanda.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Websites

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Books:

Connerton, P. (2007). How societies remember. Cambridge Cambridge Univ. Press.

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Encyclopedias:

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WorldAtlas. “What Languages Are Spoken in Rwanda?,” n.d. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-languages-are-spoken-in-rwanda.html. (Accessed 15 April 2025)

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Memorials:

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Nyamata Church. “Nyamata Genocide Memorial Church.” Nyamata, Rwanda. [visited 18/12/24]

Author: Shay Chai