I was told by a French academic in 1998 that the Rwandan genocide was created by Belgian colonialism, the Tutu/Hutsi dichotomy being a result of that.
I also met a man called Alphonse who told me his entire family had been macheted to death. He was a maniacally ebullient man, and I thought at the time he displayed exceptional exuberance following this horrific experience.
In hindsight, his jubilation was inexplicable from the Western point of view. Perhaps it was vaunting - the product of the victory of an invented story, or simply the fact he was insane. Perhaps his story was true and he just thought this was normal. His character and his experiences did not match any framing we encountered in Britain, and his stories were detailed and consistent.
I doubt very much he would have been in Britain had it not been for the massacre.
I was told by a French academic in 1998 that the Rwandan genocide was created by Belgian colonialism, the Tutu/Hutsi dichotomy being a result of that.
I also met a man called Alphonse who told me his entire family had been macheted to death. He was a maniacally ebullient man, and I thought at the time he displayed exceptional exuberance following this horrific experience.
In hindsight, his jubilation was inexplicable from the Western point of view. Perhaps it was vaunting - the product of the victory of an invented story, or simply the fact he was insane. Perhaps his story was true and he just thought this was normal. His character and his experiences did not match any framing we encountered in Britain, and his stories were detailed and consistent.
I doubt very much he would have been in Britain had it not been for the massacre.
“murder by machete entered Western minds”…