Abstract:

The year 2019 marks the 25^th anniversary of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. As this milestone anniversary approaches, commemoration of the genocide takes on increasing significance within the Rwandan diaspora. This paper will examine the forms of commemoration taking place among Rwandan diasporic communities in Europe, communities whose experiences are often overlooked in existing scholarship. Based on fieldwork conducted in Belgium and the UK in 2018, it will investigate a range of cultural and creative responses to the genocide, focusing in particular on the involvement of children of survivors in commemorative events. Initial research shows that the younger generations are often a driving force behind these activities, playing an active role in keeping the memory of the genocide alive and transmitting this memory to the host community through art, music, poetry and other cultural forms. Yet what is the cost of shouldering the weight of this traumatic memory? How to strike a balance between imposing a heavy burden on the younger generations and building a sense of resilience and responsibility for the future? How can creative practices help the younger generations to come to terms with their difficult heritage? This paper will argue that commemoration plays a crucial role not only in transmitting this traumatic historical past and fighting for justice and recognition for survivors, but also in negotiating the impact of the painful legacies of the genocide on the younger generations and building a valuable cultural legacy for future generations.

Biography:

Dr Catherine Gilbert is a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Literary Studies at Ghent University, Belgium. Her project, ‘Genocide Commemoration in the Rwandan Diaspora’, investigates the impact of place and displacement on commemorative practices within diasporic communities. She recently published her first monograph, From Surviving to Living: Voice, Trauma and Witness in Rwandan Women’s Writing (Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2018). Other recent publications include an article in the Australian Journal of French Studies (2018), as well as chapters in the edited volumes Translating the Postcolonial in Multilingual Contexts (Pulm, 2017) and Rwanda Since 1994: Stories of Change (forthcoming, Liverpool University Press, 2019).