Authoritarian vernaculars of the right to truth. Exhuming mass graves in Rwanda and Burundi

Astrid Jamar; Laura Major; Gerhard Anders

Astrid Jamar (SOAS) and Laura Major (University of Strathclyde) will present on ‘Authoritarian vernaculars of the right to truth. Exhuming mass graves in Rwanda and Burundi’. Gerhard Anders (University of Edinburgh) will act as discussant.

When: 7 May 2021 / 2.00-3.30 pm CET

Link: https://zoom.us/j/93210372616pwd=dTZZ…

ID: 93210372616
Password: 4JzWZ6

Abstract

The national governments of Rwanda and Burundi are exhuming mass graves with the promise of revealing truths about the contested histories of past conflict and genocide. In Rwanda, exhumations have been conducted by Rwandan volunteers under the auspices of a government programme to recover and conserve the bodies of victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi. Since December 2019, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Burundi have also begun mass exhumations; these efforts are motivated by truth-seeking and reconciliation aspirations but also help to articulate a specific narrative of victimhood and state legitimacy. In both cases, the state employs a vernacularised form of forensic practice with techniques that differentiate remains and prepare them for public display but with much other forensic intention and method absent. In this article we draw upon and then extend Merry’s work on the vernacularisation of human rights principles (1996; 2006) in assessing the articulation between these efforts, the global rise of discourse and mobilisation of the ‘right to truth’ and the associated practice of forensic exhumation. Drawing upon our ethnographic fieldwork in Rwanda and Burundi, we argue that the ambiguities of the ‘right to truth’ and the political nature of truth-making render these exhumations powerful political tools that in these settings allow the mobilization and consolidation of particular authoritarian vernaculars.

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Cite this article as: Jamar, Astrid, Laura Major & Gerhard Anders. May 2021. 'Authoritarian vernaculars of the right to truth. Exhuming mass graves in Rwanda and Burundi'. Allegra Lab. https://allegralaboratory.net/authoritarian-vernaculars-of-the-right-to-truth-exhuming-mass-graves-in-rwanda-and-burundi/

About The Authors

Astrid Jamar

Dr Astrid Jamar is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow within the Drugs & (dis)order Programme, at SOAS – where she undertakes comparative research on peace processes, drugs, and development issues. For over a decade, her research has focused on transitional justice and international aid in the African Great Lakes region. She is particularly interested in feminist and postcolonial perspectives on knowledge production in peacebuilding and the interplay of actors, institutions and norms. She is fascinated by the potential that an anthropology of dreams holds to explore pluriversal and cross-cultural experiences of violence. Prior joining SOAS, she was a Lecturer in Development at The Open University (2019-2021), and a researcher at the Law School at the University of Edinburgh (2015-2019).

Laura Major

Laura Major is a social anthropologist currently affiliated to Strathclyde University Law School in Scotland. Her interests include politics and law which she often examines through the lens of material culture and landscape. Laura continues to publish on her established research on conflict, governance, and heritage in East-Central Africa alongside her emerging work on environmental and marine affairs.

Gerhard Anders

Gerhard Anders is Senior Lecturer in African Studies and International Development at CAS. He is trained in both, law and anthropology, especially legal and political anthropology. He has conducted extensive field research in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Malawi. Gerhard’s research focuses on globally circulating ideas about development, good governance, international criminal justice and the rule of law, tracking the everyday experiences of government officials, lawyers and others involved in the production and diffusion of administrative and legal knowledge. Currently, he is leading an anthropological research project on law enforcement and grand corruption funded by the FCDO and the European Joint Doctorate ANTHUSIA (Anthropology of Human Security in Africa) funded by the EU. He is the author of 'In the Shadow of Good Governance: An Ethnography of Civil Service Reform in Africa' (Brill 2010) and co-editor of 'Corruption and the Secret of Law: A Legal Anthropological Perspective' (Ashgate 2007) and 'Transition and Justice: Negotiating the Terms of New Beginnings in Africa (Wiley-Blackwell 2014).