dc.contributor.advisor | Marsland, Rebecca | en |
dc.contributor.advisor | Harries, John | en |
dc.contributor.advisor | Fontein, Joost | en |
dc.contributor.author | Major, Laura | en |
dc.date.accessioned | 2017-11-17T11:32:29Z | |
dc.date.available | 2017-11-17T11:32:29Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2016-11-28 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/25668 | |
dc.description.abstract | In Rwanda, graves containing the bodies of those killed during conflict and the 1994
genocide hold great significance both for the Rwandan state and for individuals caught
up in the violent conflicts that have troubled the country over the last century. The
ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has initiated a national exhumation program,
unearthing thousands of genocide victims. The exhumations are undertaken by
genocide survivors and local community members who unearth the bodies,
disarticulate the corpses, wash and layout the bones for re-internment together. The
destruction of graves and/or the reconstruction of memorials takes place alongside this
process, a transformation into collective spaces of genocide ‘remembrance’.
My thesis interrogates these processes and considers a conundrum: in as much as
these are revealing acts, making visible the horrors of a violent death, that also
conceal and complicate. Understanding the multiple intentions behind this work
requires a delicate unpacking of the everyday presence of uncertainty within Rwanda
post-genocide and a careful consideration of the properties of materials through which
troubling memories are made visible. These are inherently risky projects and thinking
through the transformations that are enacted upon the recovered items invites fresh
review of the potential for material remains of the dead to evoke destabilizing pasts or
assist in the imagining of the future at a salient moment for Rwanda. | en |
dc.contributor.sponsor | Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) | en |
dc.language.iso | en | |
dc.publisher | The University of Edinburgh | en |
dc.relation.hasversion | Major, Laura. 2015. “Unearthing, untangling and re-articulating genocide corpses in Rwanda.” Critical African Studies, 7 (2): 164-181. | en |
dc.relation.hasversion | Major, Laura and Joost Fontein. 2015. “Introduction: Corporealities of violence in southern and eastern Africa.” Critical African Studies 7 (2): 89-98. | en |
dc.subject | Rwanda | en |
dc.subject | bodies | en |
dc.subject | genocide | en |
dc.subject | memorialisation | en |
dc.subject | mass graves | en |
dc.subject | exhumation | en |
dc.title | (Re)articulating remains: mass grave exhumation and genocide corpses in Rwanda | en |
dc.type | Thesis or Dissertation | en |
dc.type.qualificationlevel | Doctoral | en |
dc.type.qualificationname | PhD Doctor of Philosophy | en |