CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Ndayisaba, Alphonse |
|---|---|
| Title | The Ritual of Gacaca in Post-Genocide Rwanda: Restorative Justice and the Path to Reconciliation |
| Summary | This thesis explores how Gacaca's ritual contributed to the justice delivery and ongoing reconciliation course in post-genocide Rwanda. It does so by looking at Gacaca’s institutionalized courts through the lens of a homegrown substitute solution to the complexity of pursuing justice and reconciliation in the aftermath of the Rwandan 1994 genocide against Tutsi. This indigenous-based approach appeared to respond to the genocidal consequential setbacks of Western-modeled legal system destruction. It delves into the significant societal transformation achieved by post-genocide Rwandan society, often claimed to have remarkably re-unified after the genocidal tragedy. Every society possesses the potential and capabilities to resolve its societal issues if it decides to be bold, courageous, optimistic, and introspective about its culture, social framework, and ritual practices. Generally, genocide symbolizes the most evident division among citizens, while unity and reconciliation paradoxically serve as crucial foundations for a post-crisis society to reconstruct and prosper. The Gacaca ritual, a community-based justice system, was reintroduced into courts specifically prosecuting genocide-related crimes. Findings underscore optimism, resilience, and a focus on indigenous solutions to achieve justice, reconciliation, and unity. The Gacaca ritual, in particular, stands out as a unique and practical approach, offering insights into how societies can effectively address their problems rather than relying on external solutions, which have consistently demonstrated numerous inefficiencies in problem-solving. I did ethnography for three months in the Reconciliation village of MBYO and conducted fifteen comprehensive interviews with lived experiences interviewees. |
| Supervisor | Andreaas Dafniger, Qiong (Miranda) Wu |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/ndayisaba_alphonse.pdf |
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