The land of a thousand broken hearts : trauma and reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda

Following years of ethnic strife between the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority, tensions escalated immediately after the plane of president Habyarimana was shot down on April 6, 1994. The Tutsi were designated scapegoat by Hutu extremists and subjected to a systematic and barbaric genocide. Within a hundred days, approximately 800.000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were slaughtered. The killings only grinded to a halt when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a Tutsi rebel militia, seized the last stronghold of the regime on July 17 that same year.

To what extent have traumas acquired during the Rwandan genocide (1994) posed an impediment to the inter-ethnic reconciliation process in post-genocide Rwanda (1994-2015)? To answer this question I will address the following sub-questions: 1) How is the reconciliation process conceived in Rwanda and what role does trauma play within this process? 2) How does trauma manifest itself in Rwanda and how does this affect social dynamics? 3) How has trauma been addressed since the aftermath of the genocide and what does this mean for the reconciliation process?