Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Remembrance and Genocide in the Contemporary German historical Africa-Novel In view of the role that literature plays in the remembrance of the Holocaust and in consideration of postcolonial approaches to interpreting the present in relation to the past, this study investigates the questions of remembrance and genocide in the contemporary German historical novel set in Africa. For this purpose, five historical novels will be analyzed. Three of them portray the colonial extermination of the Herero and Nama in German South-West Africa (1904-1907). These are: Gerhard Seyfried’s Herero (2003), Jürgen Leskien’s Einsam in Südwest (1991) and Uwe Timm’s Morenga (1978). The other two novels, Lukas Bärfuss’ Hundert Tage (2008) and Hans Christoph Buch’s Kain und Abel in Afrika (2001) deal with the Rwanda genocide of 1994 and its aftermath. Except for Jürgen Leskien’s Einsam in Südwest, the other novels have been analyzed before, but not from the perspective of ‘literary witnessing to genocide’, as this study will show. Using theoretical approaches of cultural and social memory studies as conceptualized by Jan and Aleida Assmann and adapted by other theorists, the study aims to assess the capacity of the novels as sites of memory. The textual analysis separately explores the question of genocide and that of remembrance and then links the two in a threefold manner. Firstly, it will be shown that genocide results in a myriad of memory constellations which correspond to the different participants’ need to come to terms with their actions and situations e.g. trauma on the part of the victims, guilt on the part of the aggressors and bystanders etc. Secondly, in this study the two genocides in Rwanda and Namibia open up the question of their relation to the Holocaust. It will be shown how the three genocides could be connected by investigating structural aspects, continuities and participants’ constellations. Generally, the fictionalized history this study explores is written from the perspective of guilt and trauma memory. The third aspect of this study will take into consideration recent debates about the German memory culture, including discussions about colonial history, focussed on the institutionalized atrocities committed against inhabitants of colonized territories in Southwest Africa and their claim for compensation. These discussions bring into focus the need to come to terms with an unresolved past, and the possible role of literature in this regard. By analyzing the selected novels, this study will explore the above considerations against the interpretations of historical occurrences as (re)constructed in the narrations. This study’s point of departure is that the historical Africa-Novel functions as an archive of memories of historical events that inspired their writing. The texts will be analysed as performing memory, incorporating memory, interpreting memory and revitalising historical consciousness. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Herinnering en Volksmoord in die kontemporêre Duitse historiese Afrika-roman In die lig van die rol wat letterkunde speel in die herinnering aan die Holocaust en met inagneming van postkoloniale benaderings tot die interpretasie van die hede in verhouding tot die verlede, stel hierdie studie ondersoek in na die vrae rondom herinnering en volksmoord in die kontemporêre Duitse historiese roman wat in Afrika afspeel. Vir hierdie doel sal vyf historiese romans geanaliseer word. Drie daarvan beeld die koloniale uitdelging van die Herero en die Nama in Duits-Suidwes-Afrika (1904-1907) uit. Hierdie romans is Gerhard Seyfried se Herero (2003), Jürgen Leskien se Einsam in Südwest (1991) en Uwe Timm se Morenga (1978). Die ander twee romans, Lukas Bärfuss se Hundert Tage (2008) en Hans Christoph Buch se Kain und Abel in Afrika (2001) handel oor die 1994 Rwanda volksmoord en die nasleep daarvan. Met die uitsondering van Jürgen Leskien se Einsam in Südwest is al die ander romans reeds voorheen geanaliseer, maar nie vanuit die perspektief van ‘letterkunde as getuie tot volksmoord’ nie, soos wat in hierdie studie aangetoon sal word. Deur die toepassing van kulturele en sosiale herinneringstudies soos gekonseptualiseer deur Jan en Aleida Assmann en aangepas deur ander teoretici, is dit die doel van hierdie studie om vas te stel tot watter mate hierdie romans optree as plekke van herinnering. Die tekstuele analise ondersoek die kwessies van volksmoord en herinnering afsonderlik en voeg dit dan saam op ’n drievoudige manier. Eerstens sal daar getoon word dat volksmoord lei tot tallose herinneringskonstellasies wat ooreenstem met die verskillende deelnemers se behoefte om hulle te berus by hulle aksies en situasies, byvoorbeeld trauma aan die kant van die slagoffers en skuld aan die kant van die aanvallers en omstanders, ens. Tweedens, in hierdie studie oor die volksmoorde in Rwanda en Namibië, kom die vraag na die Joodse volkslagting na vore. Daar sal getoon word hoe hierdie drie volksmoorde verbind kan word deur ondersoek in te stel na strukturele aspekte, kontinuïteit en deelnemers se konstellasies. Die gefiksionaliseerde geskiedenis wat in hierdie studie ondersoek word is oor die algemeen geskryf vanuit die perspektief van skuld- en traumaherinnering. Die derde aspek van hierdie studie neem onlangse debat in ag wat handel oor die Duitse herinneringskultuur. Dit sluit in besprekings oor koloniale geskiedenis wat fokus op die geïnstitusionaliseerde gruweldade gepleeg teen inwoners van gekoloniseerde grondgebiede in Suidwes-Afrika en hulle eis vir vergoeding. Hierdie besprekings neem die behoefte om die onopgeloste verlede te aanvaar onder die loep, asook die moontlike rol wat letterkunde kan speel in hierdie verband. Deur die analise van die gekose romans sal hierdie studie bogenoemde oorwegings ondersoek in die lig van verskillende interpretasies van historiese gebeure soos ge(re)konstrueer in die vertellings. Die vertrekpunt van hierdie studie is dat die historiese Afrika-roman funksioneer as ‘n argief vir herinneringe aan die historiese gebeure wat die skryf daarvan geïnspireer het. Die tekste sal geanaliseer word as uitvoering van herinnering, inkorporasie van herinnering, interpretasie van herinnering en die proses om nuwe lewe te blaas in historiese bewustheid.

Rwanda is a small resource poor country in East Africa that has experienced almost two decades’ worth of significant growth following a genocide that claimed almost 10% of the country’s population. This paper explores the role of positive autonomy in the countries path to development hoping to demonstrate that countries that are ready to pursue independent policy initiatives ought to be encouraged to do so by their international partners. Positive autonomy has three defining characteristics; the ability of a country to pursue its own internally driven policy choices, especially in the face of external opposition but not necessarily in the face of opposition, “ownership” of a community over policy developments that affect them, i.e. their involvement in the administration of policy, and lastly, the ability of a country to reject policy propositions from the outside. Negative autonomy would be a lack of two or more of those conditions. Using this model, I seek to show that these three characteristics have been pursued by Rwanda as a result of its pre-genocide history. I also seek to show that these three characteristics have played a vital role in the development of Rwanda by allowing the government to pursue innovative strategies outside of international norms. To demonstrate this conclusion, I first look to the pre and post-colonial histories of Rwanda in order to examine the role of negative autonomy, seeking to build a case that demonstrates its lasting impact in Rwanda’s political character. I then examine an extreme case of negative autonomy in the case of the CFA monetary union followed by an extended examination of a clear case of positive autonomy in Rwanda and the benefits and failures it has produced. I then briefly examine the relationship between development aid and influence also demonstrating that Rwanda’s position on development aid mirrors its position on positive autonomy in general. Finally, I briefly examine three different examples of positive autonomy in Rwanda as a supplement to the extended example to demonstrate that some of the biggest policy initiatives undertaken by the Rwandan government are either the result of positive autonomy, are successful because of positive autonomy or can be drastically improved by a better implementation of positive autonomy. I hope that this research can be seen as a fresh lens for examining the relationship between weak and powerful states to validate the position that more autonomy for weaker states in their decision-making processes can produce much more successful results in their development drives.

(in English): My goal is to demonstrate that witnesses of certain historical events can describe their experiences in a variety of ways without distorting actual facts. The subject of my research is a reflection of the Czech Jewry Genocide through the eyes of a generation born during the so-called first Czechoslovak Republic. On the day of their liberation, Czech Jews who had survived Shoah were mainly unified in the fundamental aspects of the perception of their past in Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camps, regardless of whether their native tongue was Czech or German. What's more, any ideological differences that could have possibly existed between them in pre-war years, ceased being important under the influence of a common fate. It is fair to say then, that from the viewpoint of Czech Shoah Survivors in 1945, they constituted a relatively unified group but not for much longer. After the end of WWII, these people returned to the newly established Czechoslovak Republic and the point of view within the groups gradually began to vary. For some, the new regime had fulfilled their expectations. The majority of Czech Jews however, chose to emigrate after the Communist Coup d'etat and in time began to share their war experiences. The Jews in the Czech Republic began telling their stories as well....

Au Rwanda, d'avril à juillet 1994, les photographes et les cameramen des agences d'information internationales eurent de grandes difficultés à documenter le génocide des Tutsi, recouvert par la guerre civile entre les Forces armées rwandaises et le Front patriotique rwandais et par l'exil massif des civils Hutu dans les camps de réfugiés des pays voisins. Les reporters rencontrèrent de nombreux obstacles pour prendre, envoyer et diffuser leurs images en Occident : avaries techniques, censure militaire et politique, relative indifférence des rédactions, etc. Après l'événement, quelques photojournalistes et cameramen décidèrent de rompre avec le système des mass-médias. Ils ont ainsi entamé une déconstruction de leurs images par la représentation artistique, plus apte à incarner le génocide et à rendre au spectateur l'autonomie de son regard. En parallèle, d'autres artistes ont entrepris d'élaborer la mémoire du génocide des Tutsi, recueillant les visages et les témoignages des rescapés et des génocidaires, filmant ou photographiant les sites de l'extermination devenus mémoriaux. En l'espace de dix-huit années, la somme des représentations du génocide des Tutsi est donc conséquente. S'inscrivant dans une histoire visuelle dont la Shoah constitue le paradigme, ces œuvres entendent poser les jalons d'une réflexion historique, politique et esthétique sur l'extermination des Tutsi et ses conséquences dans la société rwandaise post-génocide. / In Rwanda, from April to July 1994, photographers and cameramen from international news agencies had big difficulties to document the genocide of the Tutsi, blurred by the civil war between the Armed Forces of Rwanda and the Rwandan Patriotic Front, and by the exile of the Hutu civilians in the refugee camps of the neighboring countries. Reporters found many impediments on their road, to take, to send and to spread their images in the Western world : technical damages, military and political censoring, lack of interest from editors, etc. Soon after the event, some photojournalists and cameramen decided to break with the mass-media system. They began to deconstruct their images by artistic representation, more suited to incarnate the genocide and to help the viewer recover the primacy of his look. Concurrently, other artists undertook to elaborate the memory of the genocide, collecting faces and testimonies of survivors and perpetrators, filming or photographing the places of the killings that became memorials. Within 18 years, the amount of artistic representations of the Tutsi genocide is important. Placed in a visual history which paradigm is the destruction of the Jews, these works show the way of a historical, political and aesthetical reflection on the extermination of the Tutsi and its consequences in the Rwandan society after the genocide.

The theme of this thesis is the history of two transports, transports Dl and Dm dispatched september 6 1943 from ghetto Terezín to Auschwitz. It is possible to find a lot of information in many publications, but this thesis introduces this subject throught testimonies of eyewitnesses. Starting with the family background, continuing with deportation to Theresienstadt from where the transports were dispatched. Concerning the transport to Auschwitz, I elaborated its characteristics looking at the age and sex of the transported inmates. Due to the witness's testimonies, I tried to concentrate on the history of two day's journey to the biggest extermination camp during the second world war. And the eyewitness's testimonies are illustrating all the welcoming ceremony, the desinfection, tattoo and dormitory allocation. In my thesis, I would like to describe the Terezin inmates' biannual stay in family camp B IIb, tragical death of 3 792 of them at night of 8 to 9 March 1944, seeking to recreate the Dr. Mengele's list of medical personnel and twins. Finally, I would like to emphasise the fate of 41 survivors of those transports.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Political Studies))--University of the Witwatersrand, Graduate School for Humanities and Social Sciences, 2016 / This study comparatively interrogates the representative parliamentary politics of women political elites in the subSaharan African states of posttransition Rwanda and South Africa. It analyses the relationship between women political elites and gender equality outcomes through the theoretical framework of the presupposed positive relationship that is said to exist between high levels of women’s descriptive representation and women’s substantive representation. It specifically explores this relationship through the lens of legislative outcomes passed in each state. In South Africa, this legislation takes the form of the 1998 Recognition of Customary Marriages Act and in Rwanda, the 2008 Genderbased Violence Act. This study locates the outcomes of women’s parliamentary politics in these states to the different articulation of elite patriarchal bargains negotiated by women political elites within the opportunities and constraints of parliamentary institutional contexts and the political parties represented in these regimes. I show that the higher the degree to which a ruling political party needs to privilege and emphasise women’s interests in the reproduction of political power and legitimisation of its own authority, the more favourable the terms of the elite patriarchal bargains that women political elites tacitly negotiate within political parties will be for pursuing gender equality legislative outcomes in patriarchal institutional contexts. I illustrate how political institutions located in the state never present conclusive gains or losses for women and gender equality but are contextually ambiguous and contradictory in the ways that they foster representation and locate gendered political accountability. / WS2016

A presente dissertação de mestrado analisa a atuação do Tribunal Penal Internacional para Ruanda, corte com sede na Tanzânia, criada sob os auspícios da ONU e encarregada de processar as pessoas responsáveis por sérias violações ao Direito Internacional Humanitário cometidas durante o genocídio da população tutsi organizado por membros do governo e do exército de Ruanda em 1994, e que vitimou mais de 800.000 civis. Estuda-se a evolução do Direito Internacional Penal ao longo do século XX até a criação do Tribunal e a história e a organização política de Ruanda até a eclosão da guerra civil e do genocídio. Apresenta-se a estrutura, a competência e a dinâmica dos julgamentos, promove-se o estudo de quatro casos paradigmáticos julgados, e verificam-se os resultados concretos alcançados pelo Tribunal para impedir a impunidade, apontando este órgão judicial como importante precursor do Tribunal Penal Internacional criado pelo Estatuto de Roma em 1998. O trabalho também ambiciona perpetuar a lembrança de um dos maiores massacres da história, comparável ao próprio Holocausto, e o tratamento dado pelo Direito e pela comunidade internacional ao episódio / This dissertation examines the performance of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Tanzania-based court, created under the auspices of the UN, in charge of prosecuting people responsible for serious violations of International Humanitarian Law committed during the genocide of the Tutsi population, organized by members of the government and the army of Rwanda in 1994, which killed over 800,000 civilians. It is studied the evolution of International Criminal Law over the twentieth century until the establishment of the Court, and also the history and the political organization in Rwanda until the outbreak of civil war and genocide. This dissertation presents the structure, competence and dynamics of the trials, promotes the study of four paradigmatic cases tried, and verifies the concrete results achieved by the Court to prevent impunity, pointing this judicial body as an important forerunner of the International Criminal Court created by the Rome Statute in 1998. The study also aspires to perpetuate the memory of one of the greatest massacres in history, comparable to the Holocaust itself, and treatment given by the law and by the international community to the episode

[pt] A partir de uma abordagem pós-moderna/pós-estruturalista em Relações Internacionais, esta dissertação apresenta uma análise crítica de algumas narrativas sobre o genocídio ruandês de 1994. Nosso objetivo é desvelar as suposições de verdade implícitas nesses discursos; mostrar como essas suposições contradizem e questionam o caráter político/histórico declarado dessas narrativas; e discutir as implicações dessas suposições para a prática, no que diz respeito às políticas de pacificação e de resolução de conflitos. Apesar de considerarem o genocídio como um evento político e afirmarem o caráter cambiante dos termos Tutsi e Hutu na história, as principais narrativas correntes sobre o genocídio ruandês são despolizantes, essencialistas e a-históricas. Isso se deve à sua concepção moderna de história, à metafísica da subjetividade moderna que lhes subjaze e à sua noção de política em termos de poder e Estado. Por sua vez, esses traços se refletem na prática por meio de um tratamento aético, apolítico e irresponsável em relação à alteridade. Além disso, a intervenção humanitária baseada no princípio do Estado-territorial-soberano tem seu leque de opções políticas restrito pela compartimentalização dicursivo/territorial expressa nas dicotomias soberania/intervenção, guerra civil/genocídio, doméstico/externo. Nossa conclusão é de que essas conseqüências devem ser resistidas em termos, por um lado, da rearticulação radical entre subjetividade, responsabilidade e ética proposta por Emmanuel Levinas e, por outro lado, da formulação de uma nova relação entre os conceitos de fronteira, responsabilidade e intervenção humanitária, como esboçada por Michel Foucault. / [en] Drawing on a post-modern/post-structuralist approach on International Relations, this dissertation presents a critical analysis of some of the narratives about the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Our objective is to reveal the truth assumptions implicit in these discourses; to show how these assumptions contradict and challenge the political/historical character declared in these narratives; and to discuss the implication of these assumptions for practice, in what regards politics of pacification and conflict resolution. Although the narratives under analysis consider the genocide as a political event and affirm the changing character of the terms Tutsi and Hutu in history, they are depoliticizing, essentialist, and ahistorical. This is due to their modern conception of history, to the modern metaphysic of subjectivity that underlies them, and to their notion of politics in terms of power and state. This is reflected in practice through the a-ethical, apolitical and irresponsible treatment towards alterity. Besides, the humanitarian intervention based on the principle of sovereignterritorial- state has its range of political options restricted by the discursive/territorial compartmentalization expressed in the dichotomies sovereignty/intervention, civil war/genocide, domestic/external. Our conclusion is that these consequences must be resisted in terms of, on the one hand, the radical rearticulation of subjectivity, responsibility and ethics proposed by Emmanuel Levinas and, on the other hand, a rearticulation of the concepts of boundary, responsibility and humanitarian intervention, as sketched by Michel Foucault.

Cette thèse porte sur les mémoires de dirigeants du Comité Union et Progrès, une société secrète formée d’officiers, de bureaucrates et d’intellectuels qui ont tenu les rênes de l’Empire Ottoman de 1913 à 1918. Au-delà des évènements relatés dans ces documents, cette étude explore la construction d’un discours public sur la période du « Deuxième Régime Constitutionnel » (1908-1918) par la publication de ces mémoires en Turquie. L’analyse associe deux dimensions, synchronique et diachronique. D’une part, l’analyse du discours met en lumière trois grands thèmes sur lesquels s’expriment et se reflètent les subjectivités des auteurs – eux-mêmes (le Comité), la révolution et la guerre. D’autre part, des variations sont repérées au sein de ces trois thèmes, et interprétées au moyen d’une contextualisation de l’écriture et de la publication des mémoires. Les ruptures majeures dans les écrits des Unionistes permettent ainsi de considérer l’existence de trois « régimes mémoriels » (Johann Michel) – kémaliste, unioniste, islamiste – apparus successivement en Turquie au cours du vingtième siècle. La thèse met ainsi en évidence la convergence de ces régimes mémoriels sur la négation du génocide arménien de 1915-1916. Au-delà du cas d’étude, elle interroge l’immuabilité et la permanence d’un discours négationniste sur une violence exterminatrice, lorsqu’il est élaboré par les auteurs de cette violence, et le phénomène de pétrification discursive qu’il provoque dans la société qui en est réceptrice. / This dissertation deals with the memoirs of the Union and Progress Committee leaders, a secret society of officers, bureaucrats and intellectuals who ruled over the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1918. Going beyond an analysis of the events reported in these documents, this study explores the construction of a public narrative on the “Second Constitutional Era” (1908-1918) by the publication of these memoirs in Turkey. The analysis combines two dimensions, a synchronic one and a diachronic one. On the one hand, the discourse analysis highlights three major themes expressing and reflecting the subjectivities of the authors: themselves (the Committee), the revolution and the war. On the other hand, this analysis identifies variations within these three themes, and interprets them through a contextualization of the writing and publication of the memoirs. The major discontinuities in the Unionists’ writings thus make it possible to consider the existence of three “memorial regimes” (Johann Michel) – Kemalist, Unionist, Islamist – that appeared successively in Turkey during the twentieth century. The thesis highlights the convergence of these memorial regimes on the denial of the 1915-1916 Armenian genocide. Beyond this case study, it questions the immutability and the permanence of a negationist discourse on exterminatory violence, when developed by the perpetrators of this violence, and the phenomenon of paralysis that it provokes at the discursive level in the receiving society.

Esta tese analisa os processos de transições à democracia e os debates referentes à luta pela educação sobre/para os direitos humanos, em três países distintos (Argentina, Paraguai e Uruguai). Utilizando-se de uma metodologia transnacional, na qual o pano de fundo é o fluxo de conhecimento sobre violações cometidas pelos Estados, durante as ditaduras destes países, conectadas pelo Sistema Condor, ela procura delinear a construção de uma identidade conformada pelo território imaginado do Río de la Plata. Esta identidade se baseia nas memórias sobre a violência e nas lutas pela consolidação das memórias das vítimas em um espaço público, sob a pretensão da construção de conhecimento para a não repetição de histórias de catástrofes. Desta forma, as discussões trabalhadas abrangem debates sobre os direitos humanos de níveis locais, regionais e globais, em diferentes contextos. E elas trazem para o debate rio-platense dois conceitos essenciais dentro dos direitos humanos, que marcam a identidade regional: a prática social genocida e o desaparecimento forçado. / This thesis analyzes the processes of transitions to democracy and the debates concerning the struggle for education about/for human rights in three different countries (Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay). Using a transnational methodology, in which the background is the movement of knowledge about violations committed by the states, during the dictatorships of these countries, connected by the Condor System, it seeks to delineate the construction of an identity conformed by the imagined territory of the River Plate. This identity is based on memories of violence and struggles to consolidate the victims memories in a public space, under the pretense of building knowledge for non-repetition of catastrophic stories. In this way, the discussions include human rights debates at local, regional and global levels in different contexts. And they bring to the River Plate debates two essential concepts within human rights that mark the regional identity: genocidal social practice and forced disappearance.