Healing Rwanda’s Genocide Trauma: A Re-construction of Painful Oral Historical Narratives

April to June every year, Rwandans commemorate the 1994 genocide. Extensive oral historical narratives are brought to life. Under the Aegis Trust for the prevention of genocide and crimes against humanity, stories are re-enacted and shared. Narratives of memories are seen as instruments to heal historical trauma. Rwanda has since moved from ravages of the genocide to political and economic stability. Although, Rwanda records a history of ethnic killings and near genocide from 1950s, it is the 1994 genocide that rocked its fabric of peace. Des Forges (2007) argues the genocide was not an outburst of uncontrolled rage of ethnic hatred, but a discontent to historical grievances and widening economic disparities between the Hutu elites and Rwandan poor. To suppress dissent, state and militia extremists planned and orchestrated the genocide. After the genocide, an International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was set up to try suspects. It was supplemented with Gacaca courts - a modified traditional conflict resolution system. In this paper, I aim to analyse oral history as a qualitative methodology. The narratives archived on video recount how Rwandans heal the genocide trauma through remembering. According to Moyer, 1993, oral history involves a systematic gathering of testimonies of people who have experienced a significant event. It is not based on non-factual information, rather on verifiable facts that can be analyzed and placed in accurate historical contexts. This paper will adapt an oral historical narrative analysis of video testimonies from the Aegis Trust.