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ABSTRACT
This article situates itself in the theoretical space between the field of genocide, and postcolonial studies, advocating for a closer relationship between the two, particularly in relation to the emerging field of postcolonial genocide. The Rwandan genocide is illustrative of this need, as a case which remains firmly rooted in identity categories that have been imposed on the native populations during the colonial era. The article traces the persistence of the colonial racial hierarchies in Rwanda and the role they played in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. It fosters a particularly significant focus on modernity as the symbolic line that divides the imagined racial categories in the colonial gaze, resulting in a crucial impact of nesting colonialisms in the genocidal rhetoric of the late twentieth century. The Rwandan genocidal project contains within it a desire to fulfil the promise of modernity by facilitating the emergence of an ethnically cleansed nation state, while simultaneously rejecting it as the heritage of violence ridden exploitation colonialism. This paradox of ambivalent modernity presents itself both as a crucial characteristic of the Rwandan genocide as well as a persistent rupture in the formation of contemporary Rwandan identities.
Acknowledgements
The author expresses her gratitude to the School of Social Sciences, Liverpool Hope University and Dr Steven Corbett for his unwavering support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
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Jasna Balorda
Dr Jasna Balorda is a senior lecturer at Liverpool Hope University. Her area of research is focused on the complex relationships between modernity and violence, including modern genocide, colonial, and postcolonial influences and identities as well as the racialized neo-liberalisms of contemporary Europe and the West. She worked previously as a research assistant at the Institute for Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo and holds a doctorate from the University of Leeds. She is widely published within the fields of Sociology, Criminology and Social Policy and holds several awards for innovative research. Her latest publication ‘The Role of Past Victimisation in Genocidal Mythologies: Bosnian and Rwandan Experiences’ has been published in 2020 by Routledge.