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47 2 The His­ tor­ i­ cal Role of the State in Every­ day Life I don’t under­ stand why the govern­ ment is al­ ways tell­ ing us to for­ give those who ­ killed and to rec­ on­ cile with those who are not like us. We can de­ cide who to for­ give and with whom to rec­ on­ cile. ­ Things hap­ pened here dur­ ing the gen­ o­ cide. But ­ things [vi­ o­ lence] hap­ pened be­ fore and ­ things have hap­ pened more and more since the ga­ caca ­ courts ­ started send­ ing peo­ ple to ­ prison. Be­ fore 1994, we heard about this prob­ lem or that prob­ lem in Ki­ gali when the bur­ go­ mas­ ter [mayor] would come and tell us there were prob­ lems. When pol­ i­ tics even­ tu­ ally comes to our door like it did dur­ ing the gen­ o­ cide, we have prob­ lems be­ cause the govern­ ment al­ ways likes to pre­ tend that we [poor] will do what they tell us to do. The govern­ ment gives or­ ders to show us they are in ­ charge. Be­ fore the gen­ o­ cide, I was a Hutu who lived in the same com­ mu­ nity as Tutsi, and we­ shared some­ times. But ­ mostly ­ within fam­ i­ lies, not with peo­ ple we ­ didn’t know. Or if some­ one got ­ wronged, we ig­ nored that fam­ ily too. But now it is dif­ fer­ ent. Every­ one is dif­ fer­ ent since the gen­ o­ cide. Some of us lived, some of us died. Some are still liv­ ing, but they say they are dead in­ side. We­ hardly share at all now be­ cause we don’t know whom to trust to keep our­ safety. Now, I am a for­ mer Hutu be­ cause the new govern­ ment says that we have to get uni­ fied. I never ­ thought about being a Hutu be­ fore, but now I won­ der why they want to wipe that idea out of our heads. We were uni­ fied be­ fore; we were poor then and we are poor now. But now our prob­ lems in­ clude for­ giv­ ing and rec­ on­ cil­ ing with peo­ ple we don’t even know or talk­ ing about ­ things we never saw. [Be­ cause I am a for­ mer Hutu,] they [the govern­ ment] ex­ pect me to go and “tell my truth.” As a Hutu [man] 48 The Historical Role of the State who was just in ­ prison, I just want to keep quiet. I would say some­ thing [to the local of­ fi­ cial], but I have kids and I want them to grow up with­ out inter­ fer­ ence so it is best that I just keep quiet about my frus­ tra­ tions. I have seen what hap­ pens to oth­ ers who speak out. I just want to live in peace with­ out inter­ fer­ ence. (Inter­ view with Thar­ cisse, a des­ ti­ tute Hutu man, 2006) Thar­ cisse is a very poor “for­ mer Hutu” with lim­ ited op­ tions to ex­ er­ cise his­ agency, yet his nar­ ra­ tive shows po­ lit­ i­ cal acu­ men. He was ac­ cused of acts of gen­ o­ cide in his home com­ mu­ nity in 2001. He spent al­ most two years in ­ prison and was re­ leased for lack of ev­ i­ dence in 2003. His strug­ gle to re­ es­ tab­ lish the sem­ blance of a nor­ mal life has been com­ pounded by con­ stant re­ min­ ders from­ RPF-appointed local of­ fi­ cials to rec­ on­ cile with his neigh­ bors. His is a “small state­ ment of dis­ sent” (Scott 1990, 192), as he and oth­ ers in his mar­ gi­ nal so­ cial po­ si­ tion are ­ hardly able to ­ openly chal­ lenge the post­ gen­ o­ cide order of na­ tional unity and rec­ on­ cil­ i­ a­ tion. In­ stead, he shows us the ways that the power of the Rwan­ dan state, ­ through its ap­ pointed ­ agents, en­ ters into the every­ day lives of or­ di­ nary peas­ ant Rwan­ dans as he ques­ tions the ­ state-imposed need to “for­ give,” “rec­ on­ cile,” and “get uni­ fied.” The ex­ cerpt also high­ lights the inter­ sec­ tion of eth­ nic­ ity and socio­ economic lo­ ca­ tion...

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