Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / In this dissertation, I problematize 'victim's justice' in post-genocide Rwanda. I argue that the kind of justice that was meted out in post-genocide Rwanda, namely victors' justice and complementary to it – victims’ justice, does not allow for the political reform required to break the cycle of violence in Rwanda. In the aftermath of the 1994-Rwandan Genocide, both state and society were faced with a moral and political dilemma, because the popular agency or mass participation of perpetrators derived from the Hutu majority, who targeted the Tutsi minority, with intent to annihilate them. There were massacres of both Hutus and Tutsis, but Hutus were targeted as individuals, whereas Tutsis were targeted as a group. It is the specific ‘intent to annihilate’ Tutsis as group, that makes this a Genocide against Tutsis. I draw and develop arguments made by Mahmood Mamdani, elaborating on the specific question of ‘victims justice’ for political reform in Rwanda. Both kinds of justice were outcomes of the logic of the Nuremburg Trials. Since its inception, the legacy of the Nuremburg Trial is demonstrated in how it was idealized at the end of the Cold-War by international law and human rights regime. In essence, the historical and political context of the Nuremburg trial has been removed, as it has been produced into a template- the 'Nuremburg-styled criminal trial'. 'Criminal justice' has come to define how we think of justice after mass violence, as the most morally acceptable form of justice for the victims, and the most politically viable response for constituting a 'new political order' after mass violence. This dissertation addresses the argument made, that victors' justice and victims' justice in Rwanda, has constituted two categories, which collectivise Tutsis as victims and Hutus as perpetrators. In the context of a genocide, where the perpetrators are derived from the Hutu majority and the victims from the Tutsi minority, this present both a moral and political dilemma for Rwanda’s state-building and national reconciliation project. Criminal justice also frames mass violence as being criminal, rather than addressing it as political violence. This has troubling consequences for intervening into the cycle of violence in Rwanda. The 'cycle of violence' in Rwanda, refers to the continuation of political violence, in which 'every round of perpetrators has justified the use of violence as the only effective guarantee against being victimised yet again. Thus, intervention into the cycle of violence would mean thinking out of the logic of victimhood and pursuing an alternative kind of justice. To think of the genocide as political violence, redirects the attention to the issues that made the genocide possible. I establish the importance and necessity of critically interrogating 'victims justice' in Rwanda, by placing the 1994-Genocide in its historical and political context, with a particular focus on the legacy of colonialism. The post-colonial regimes in Rwanda, inherited the colonial institutions of rule; and the politicisation of Hutu and Tutsi into racial categories, which have shaped particular meanings for power, justice and citizenship. I demonstrate in this dissertation that critical issues found in post-genocide Rwanda today, are symptomatic of the inherited colonial legacy. I address the prevailing political crisis through an analysis on post-genocide governance; national reconciliation; the 'land question'; and the Great Lakes refugee crisis. Furthermore, I found that it was critically important for my research question, to also adopt a regional perspective, because Rwanda lies at the epicentre of the Great Lakes regional crisis. This dissertation concludes with returning to the question of political reform, and breaking the 'cycle of violence'. My suggestion is that we need to think of Mamdani's concept of survivor's justice, rather than victims' justice or victors' justice, which assist in confronting the needs of political reform that address colonial legacies.

Women entrepreneurship has been well-studied, over the past 30 years, in OECD countries. However, women's roles as entrepreneurs advancing economic development in war torn and post conflict countries are under-studied. Recent research conducted in Africa, and within Rwanda, has focused on listening to the voices of women enterprise leaders, but there is a gap in understanding the best models of women entrepreneurship training to create sustainable entrepreneurship curriculum relevant to local culture. This research engages 30 graduates of the 2012 Peace Through Business program using a qualitative research approach reflective of feminist theory, post colonialism and empowerment studies relevant to women entrepreneurship. Participatory Action Research methodology has been applied through a combination of an in-country forum, an electronic survey and in-depth interviews. Using the simplified version of the Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen method of data analysis, findings address whether current, Western-based women entrepreneurship training smacks of failed development efforts of traditional 20th century aid.

Previous studies of post-genocide Rwanda illutrates how nation-building and the government’s urgency to break with the past results in aims to rearrange society in order to prevent further violence and hostility. Developmental aims are also embedded in the broader project of post-genocide nation-building, adapted to promote a new and improved way of life after the genocide. This thesis examines the local experiences of parents in post-genocide Rwanda, with the specific geographical focus on the capital city of Kigali. Based on an ethnographic data collection from spring 2022, this thesis deals with the local experience of top-down rearrangements among parents in “informal” settlements in Kigali. Governmental perceptions of informality highlight the issue of risk in the urban context of post-genocide Kigali. Characterized by lack of order and formality the neighborhoods are deemed as excluded from the new societal modes and norms in the post-genocide aims of social engineering. This thesis uses the theory social engineering by James Scott (1998) to highlight the top-down measures intended to rearrange the lives of parents in “informal” settlements in Kigali. Additionally, the theoretical perspective of parenting culture is applied in order to explore the targeted regulations of parenting, as a result of government’s special interest in children as “future members of the nation” in a post-genocide context. This thesis shows that parenting culture is especially targeted by top-down regulations as a risk preventing strategy to shape the future of the nation. Working with a bottom-up perspective on top- down measures of social engineering the thesis includes the theoretical perspective of governmentality described by Mitchell Dean (2010) and Tania Murray Li (2007). Through mechanisms of self-regulation and accountability the thesis shows how regulations of parents in “informal” settlements are contested by their lack of ability and willingness to integrate top-down social engineering as meaningful rearrangements in everyday life.

[pt] Trabalhando na transversalidade entre memória e memorialização, esta tese propõe um engajamento com a materialidade a fim de explorar a memória como uma fusão de corpos (humanos e não-humanos se misturando), lugares (configurações espaço-temporais frágeis e provisórias) e práticas (ações sempre permeadas por performances e traduções), formando assemblagens mnemônicas (Freeman; Nienass; Daniell, 2016) em Ruanda no pós-genocídio. Como a memorialização em Ruanda está profundamente permeada por um tipo particular de matéria - restos humanos -, adotamos um foco corpóreo, olhando para os enredamentos entre pessoas e coisas, considerando seu embaçamento. Indo além das práticas de representação, exploramos os movimentos de fricção entre uma ampla gama de entidades que se agrupam (e desmontam) em memoriais, enfatizando seu caráter imprevisível e sublinhando suas configurações espaço-temporais provisórias. Com este movimento, esperamos energizar a paisagem com outras possibilidades além da concepção da matéria e do lugar como passivo ou estável e em direção a uma transformação mais fluida encenada no encontro entre essas entidades materiais-semióticas. Explorando encontros afetivos entre corpos e lugares, argumentamos que é apenas nesse processo que os lugares memoriais são encenados. Trabalhando sob a rubrica do novo-materialismo, sugerimos uma bricolagem de abordagens, dando conta do político em uma sensibilidade mais cooperativa-experimental (Thrift, 2008) em relação à materialidade generativa. Tal esforço nos permite lembrar e esquecer com e por meio de outros corpos, reconhecendo a importância das coisas/matéria e lugares nas práticas de memorialização em Ruanda, e convidando a participar do chamado para um envolvimento teórico e metodológico com a experiência vivida em Relações Internacionais. Mais especificamente, esta dissertação se engaja com o movimento e o fluxo dos lugares e da matéria por meio de memoriais como locais de fricção e da circularidade do corpo morto. Buscando compreender diferentes modos de agrupamentos de memória, oferecemos duas assemblagens para explorar essas diferenças: memoriais nacionais cuidadosamente projetados (Kigali, Murambi e Bisesero) e um lugar de memória espontâneo – o Rio Nyabarongo. A pesquisa destes espaços heterogêneos construídos como locais de memória é baseada em trabalho de campo realizado em Ruanda em 2011 e 2014. / [en] Working within the transversality of memory and memorialization, this dissertation proposes an engagement with materiality in order to explore memory as a fusion of bodies (human and nonhuman intermingling), places (fragile and provisional spatiotemporal configurations), and practices (actions always embedded in performances and translations), forming mnemonic assemblages (Freeman; Nienass; Daniell, 2016) in post-genocide Rwanda. As memorialization in Rwanda is deeply embedded in a particular type of matter – human remains –, we adopt a corporeal focus, looking into the entanglements between persons and things considering their blurriness. Going beyond practices of representation, we explore the movements of friction between a wide range of entities assembling (and disassembling) in memorials, stressing its unpredictable character and underlining their provisional spatiotemporal configurations. With this move, we hope to energize the landscape with other beyond the conception of matter and place as passive or stable and towards a more fluid transformation enacted in the encounter between these material-semiotic entities. Exploring affective encounters between bodies and places, we argue that it is only in this co-becoming that memorial places are enacted. Working under the rubric of new materialism, we suggest a bricolage of approaches, accounting for the political in a more co-operative-cum-experimental sensibility (Thrift, 2008) towards generative matter. Such effort enables us to remember and forget with and through other bodies, acknowledging the importance of things/matter and places in memorialization practices in Rwanda, and inviting to join the call for a theoretical and methodological engagement with the lived experience in International Relations. More specifically, this dissertation engages with movement and flux of places and matter through memorials sites as places of friction and through the circularity of the dead body. Trying to grasp different modes of memory gatherings, we offer two assemblages to explore these differences: carefully designed national-level memorial sites (Kigali, Murambi, and Bisesero) and a spontaneous place of memory – Nyabarongo River. The research on these heterogeneous spaces assembled as places of memory is based on fieldwork conducted in Rwanda in 2011 and 2014.