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"What Do We Do When Things Fall Apart?" Rwanda's Attempt at Restorative Justice Through the Gacaca Courts
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within one generation…How does that happen? What communication processes and structures are necessary for a society to recover? What best communication practices contribute to a nation’s recovery? What communication practices hinder its recovery? What critical communication interventions are still possible in Rwanda, with regard to the Gacaca courts as they develop? What role does dialogue play? How can identity, particularly cultural identity be reconstituted and renegotiated in Rwanda instead of silenced? How can communication in the Gacaca courts make that possible? What kinds of communication practices are possible within the legal framework of the Gacaca courts? How can limits to speech be resisted or subverted within those court systems to provide better outcomes for sustainable reconciliation? These are all questions central to theories of dialogue, utterance, culture and communication. If given the opportunity to ponder these questions and the unique framework of the Gacaca courts in Rwanda, I believe that all societies struggling with reconciliation in the aftermath of civil war and failed civil society can benefit from the knowledge gained through the Rwandan government’s efforts.
Frequently, in Academic theorizing, we look at the roots and practices of ethnic identity and ethnic conflict. These are very valuable enterprises for inquiry. However, I also believe it is important to examine how nation states whose entire political and cultural infrastructures have been devastated by ethnic conflict and genocide are attempting to rebuild. Post-conflict management experiments and practices are substantially important lines of inquiry into how nation-states recover and how their policies and efforts to reconstitute a national framework translate into local contexts. These nation-states, whose people bravely attempt to go on after the unthinkable has happened and, who, courageously attempt to fix the unfixable have lessons to teach us beyond the roots, causes and origins of conflict, i.e., “what do we do when everything falls apart?”
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| | Authors: Calhoun, Lindsay. |
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within one generation…How does that happen? What communication processes
and structures are necessary for a society to recover? What best communication
practices contribute to a nation’s recovery? What communication practices hinder
its recovery? What critical communication interventions are still possible in
Rwanda, with regard to the Gacaca courts as they develop? What role does
dialogue play? How can identity, particularly cultural identity be reconstituted and
renegotiated in Rwanda instead of silenced? How can communication in the Gacaca
courts make that possible? What kinds of communication practices are possible
within the legal framework of the Gacaca courts? How can limits to speech be
resisted or subverted within those court systems to provide better outcomes for
sustainable reconciliation? These are all questions central to theories of dialogue,
utterance, culture and communication. If given the opportunity to ponder these
questions and the unique framework of the Gacaca courts in Rwanda, I believe that
all societies struggling with reconciliation in the aftermath of civil war and failed
civil society can benefit from the knowledge gained through the Rwandan
government’s efforts.
Frequently, in Academic theorizing, we look at the roots and practices of ethnic
identity and ethnic conflict. These are very valuable enterprises for inquiry.
However, I also believe it is important to examine how nation states whose entire
political and cultural infrastructures have been devastated by ethnic conflict and
genocide are attempting to rebuild. Post-conflict management experiments and
practices are substantially important lines of inquiry into how nation-states recover
and how their policies and efforts to reconstitute a national framework translate into
local contexts. These nation-states, whose people bravely attempt to go on after
the unthinkable has happened and, who, courageously attempt to fix the unfixable
have lessons to teach us beyond the roots, causes and origins of conflict, i.e., “what
do we do when everything falls apart?”
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