Known for its breathtaking scenery, the central-east African country of Rwanda lived through one of the worst episodes of violence of the late 20th century, the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, in which over a million people were brutally murdered in 100 days.This book recounts the personal story of Claver Irakoze who survived the genocide as an eleven-year-old child and, like other Rwandans of his generation, is now grappling with the heavy responsibility of raising children in the post-genocide context.Tracing the various stages of Irakozeâs life experiences, each chapter teases out issues surrounding childhood, parenting and the transmission of memories between generations. The final chapter draws on Irakozeâs personal and professional experience to provide some reflections on managing memories of genocide within the family.
Claver Irakoze is the author of the childrenâs book That Child Is Me (Imagine We, 2019), and producer of the song and music video âUmurage wâamatekaâ (The Legacy of History). Irakoze worked for the Aegis Trust, developing the Genocide Archive of Rwanda (www.genocidearchiverwanda.org.rw) and Peace and Values Education Digital Learning Platform (www.ubumuntu.rw).
Caroline Williamson Sinalo is Lecturer in World Languages at University College Cork and the author of Rwanda after Genocide: Gender, Identity and Posttraumatic Growth (2018). She has published widely on the lives and experiences of survivors of violence.
Foreword
Acknowledgement
Maps
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
â1 Background to the Collaboration
â2 A Project Founded on Empirical Research
â3 Functions of Testimony
â4 Testimony as an Educational Tool
â5 The Challenges of Testimony
â6 Collaboration and Ethics
â7 Publishers and the Readership
â8 Moving Forward
â Prologue
1 Life Today
2 To Burundi and Back Again
3 School and the Discovery of a New World
4 Deterioration of Community Life
5 The Genocide against the Tutsi
6 The Aftermath
7 Growing up an Orphan
8 Working on a New Identity
9 Getting Married and Becoming a Parent
10 Raising Rwandaâs Next Generation
â1 Principle 1: Parenting Should Include the Full Participation of All Family Members
â2 Principle 2: Put on Your Own Oxygen Mask First
â3 Principle 3: We Should Lay Down Strong Foundations
â4 Principle 4: We Must Trust Our Children with the Truth
â5 Principle 5: It Takes a Village to Raise a Child
Bibliograhie
Index
The book is an autobiography with a focus on memory transmission, parenting and intergenerational trauma. It is aimed at a broad audience of academic, student and non-academic readers. Among academic readers, it will be of particular interest for Arts and Humanities scholars and students working on conflict and trauma studies; (e.g. Holocaust studies, genocide studies); Africanist scholars and students; Scholars and students in the Psychological Sciences with an interest in psychological trauma, childhood, parenting, intergenerational trauma, identity.