Description
Since the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, international and Rwandan scholars have sought to understand the genocide and its aftermath. Numerous studies unpack and evaluate transitional justice mechanisms that tried to address the genocide, such as International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and gacaca (Clark 2010, Longman 2017, Palmer 2015, Eltringham 2019). This paper shifts attention from the mechanisms to widely and transnationally circulating artistic representations of newly established peace. While international studies scholars have increasingly turned towards arts and cultural production, many of these studies have focused on participatory arts and memory practices in Rwanda and outside (Apol 2019, Rush and Simić 2013, Cohen 2020). My paper argues that analysis of widely circulating creative works, such as novels and films, can contribute to conceptualisation of transitional justice goals. In doing so, this paper explores what types of data and which voices remain in the margins of international studies. My analysis of Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana and Parkin’s Baking Cakes in Kigali provides examples of how arts construct meaning of justice and reconciliation. This paper also recognises the difference between creative narratives about and from the African continent shaped by legacies of colonialism.
