-
2. The Historical Role of the State in Everyday Life
- University of Wisconsin Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
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...