"Ancient Tribal Warfare": Foundational Fantasies of Ethnicity and History

Narratives of the genocide in Rwanda, counternarratives denying one version or another, return to the foundation fantasy, to the objectification of the other, and to historicist constructions that obscure as they reveal their perspective on the events: the more the commemoration of the genocide focuses our attention on the horrific events of 1994, and restricts the boundaries of time to that period, the more our attention is diverted from the events in the DRC and the involvement of the Rwandan government; and the more the spatial divisions and objectification of others will be served, providing the conditions of possibility for genocides and atrocities that would seem to have no end.