The figure of the righteous individual in Rwanda

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4388263
AutoresValérie Rosoux (0000-0003-0506-8461, UCLouvain, autor correspondente)
Ano2006
Volume58
Fascículo189
Páginas491-499
Data de publicação2006-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Social Science Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0020-8701 • E-ISSN: 1468-2451
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-2451.2007.00647.x
OpenAlexW1675009488
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas4

This article examines the scope and limits of the figure of the righteous individual in Rwanda. To what extent does reference to such a figure promote national reconstruction? My reflections on this question are divided into three parts. The first examines the role played by the international community (non-governmental organisations, journalists, overseas academics) in the emergence of this figure. The second section attempts to delineate the figure's social depth, in its contradictory representations. What is the relationship between the public representation and living memory of the phenomenon? How do survivors, in particular, perceive this "figure of reconciliation"? The third and final section identifies a number of political uses for this figure. How do Rwanda's official representatives refer to those who perhaps personified Rwanda at the moment of its conflagration? My analysis shows that, far from eliciting even the slightest consensus from the population, this type of commemoration reveals the enduring rifts. Twelve years after the genocide, references to the past, whatever their nature, continue to cause divisions

Epistemology · Genocide · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Population · Representation (politics) · Section (typography) · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts