Conclusion

Abstract

Abstract This chapter revisits the core arguments and proposes opportunities for future research in Rwanda and beyond. An analysis of sources over the first two decades postgenocide shows that Rwanda’s approach to coming to terms with its violent past is characterized by contradictions. When it comes to Rwanda’s memory politics, especially current tense debates among memory actors in both Rwanda and among the diaspora, it is argued there are crucial spaces toto foster such debates into peaceful conversations. Proposed is an Agaciro approach from Rwandan philosophy that centers an understanding of dignity that is not only about the individual’s rights but also relating to another’s dignity and “utu” (or being). This makes space for compassionate discussion of what a dignity-centered approach in memory studies would mean for examining multiple narratives about past violent events, regardless of geography or a country’s (un)democratic status. Such an approach allows locating and studying interlinkages between memory forms emerging from mourning experiences from the Global South and those in the Global North. It also allows interrogating the power dynamics between these different approaches when actors crafting narratives about recent or distant violent histories. A relational dignity turn advocates for each context to first look within its own history and philosophy for coming to terms with the past while recognizing other approaches in circulation in other contexts but without insisting on one being superior than than the others. The localized forms of remembering should be included in universal or international practices of mourning.