Euphemism, censorship, and the vocabularies of silence in Burundi

Russell, Aidan

doi:10.4324/9781351141123-4

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Aidan Russell documents the co-production of publicly non-contestable truths about violence in Burundi, denials and silences: 'A truth [about horrible events would be] turned to foment opacity around the crimes of the state ' (2018: 66, 2019). Even if euphemism and ambiguous descriptions of violence enabled multiple interpretations of past violence, succeeding authoritarian regimes imposed one political truth and many silences (Russell 2018). In both case studies, we observe the materiality of exhumed remains strengthens the political power of discursive claims to truth.…”

Section: Conclusion: the Management Of Mass Graves After Confl Ict An...mentioning

confidence: 71%

“…Under the fi rst mandate of the TRC (2014-2018), there were eff orts to document a wide diversity of events that aff ected diff erent constituencies across various periods and parts of the country; these eff orts have been abandoned with an increasing focus on 1972. Despite recurrent claims to truth, the TRC and exhumation practices are reproducing older patterns of implicit truths, imposed silenced and denial (Russell 2018), with strong political implications.…”

Section: Scaling Up Mass Graves Exhumations Through the Trcmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Extensive research debates these sensitive themes in Rwanda and Burundi (e.g. Manirakiza 1988;Daley 1991;Deslaurier 1998;Ngaruko and Nkurunziza 2005;Eltringham 2006;Lemarchand 2006;Fujii 2010;Russell 2018). Building on these fi ndings, we discuss the entanglement of post-confl ict exhumation and rights-based discourse with regional political processes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 90%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Managing Mass Graves in Rwanda and Burundi

Jamar

Major

2022

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

English Abstract: The governments of Rwanda and Burundi exhume mass graves with the promise of revealing truths about the contested histories of past conflict and genocide. In Rwanda, exhumations recover and conserve the bodies of victims of the genocide against the Tutsi. Since December 2019, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Burundi has also begun mass exhumations; these efforts are motivated by truth-seeking and reconciliation aspirations that articulate a specific narrative of victimhood and state legitimacy. The state employs vernacularised forms of forensic practices and ‘international’ rights-based discourses in both cases. Drawing on our respective ethnographic fieldwork, we describe and analyse exhumation practices in Rwanda and Burundi. The ‘forensic turn’ in post-conflict settings has been the subject of much discussion and debate among scholars since the proliferation of the practice over recent decades. We add to these debates in our consideration of two linked settings in which the exhumations had become powerful political tools, in this case serving as a source of power for specific regimes.French Abstract: Les gouvernements du Rwanda et du Burundi exhument des fosses communes en promettant d’éclaircir les vérités sur les histoires contestées des conflits et des génocides passés. Au Rwanda, les exhumations ont été organisée pour récupérer et conserver les corps des victimes du génocide contre les Tutsis. Depuis décembre 2019, la Commission Vérité et Réconciliation au Burundi a également entamé des exhumations de masse ; ces efforts sont motivés par des ambitions de recherche de la vérité et de réconciliation articulées autour d’un récit spécifique de victimisation et de légitimation de l’État. Dans les deux cas, l’État utilise des formes vernacularisées de pratiques médico-légales et des discours « internationaux » fondés sur les droits. En nous appuyant sur nos travaux ethnographiques de terrain respectifs, nous décrivons et analysons les pratiques d’exhumation au Rwanda et au Burundi. Le tournant médico-légal » dans les contextes post-conflits a fait l’objet de nombreuses discussions et débats parmi les chercheurs depuis la prolifération de ces pratiques au cours des dernières décennies. Nous contribuant à ces débats en examinant deux contextes liés dans lesquels les exhumations sont devenues de puissants outils politiques, servant dans ce cas de source de pouvoir pour des régimes spécifiques.

show abstract

Section: Conclusion: the Management Of Mass Graves After Confl Ict An...mentioning

confidence: 71%

Section: Scaling Up Mass Graves Exhumations Through the Trcmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Managing Mass Graves in Rwanda and Burundi

Jamar

Major

2022

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Meanwhile, anthropologists have shown that violence can be dealt with in many ways in diff erent contexts. It is, for instance, well-known in the African Great Lakes region that silence is a socially constructed and morally accepted way of dealing with large scale violence (Ingelaere 2009;Russell 2019). Argenti and Schramm suggest that "we ought perhaps to pay still more attention to a politics of memory, or in other words to processes of appropriation, confl icting interests and overlapping discourses" (2010: 18, emphasis in original).…”

Section: Knowing Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Times of Violence

Turner

2021

Conflict and Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the past two decades, I have done ethnographic fieldwork amongst Burundians in Burundi and in exile, exploring the different ways they deal with the violence that the country has witnessed over the decades. In this article I follow my tracks back and forth and in and out of the country, reflecting on the advantages and challenges of long-term engagement. At a conceptual level, I propose that while violence is indeed lodged in a social context, violent events create a momentary temporal rupture, thereby dislodging meaning from its local context of understanding. My methodological contribution is to explore how long-term engagements, revisits, and diachronic comparisons in ethnography may help us understand violence and violent events. I explore how violent events have affected the past, the present, and the future, causing those who experience it to reorient their understanding not only of their pasts but also of their anticipations for the future.

show abstract

Euphemism, censorship, and the vocabularies of silence in Burundi

Abstract: Burundi's postcolonial history is often recounted through the dates of great événements, the "events", isolated flashes of political violence that seem to trace out a sequential chain across the decades

Cited by 2 publications

References 12 publications

Managing Mass Graves in Rwanda and Burundi

Managing Mass Graves in Rwanda and Burundi

Times of Violence

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About