Rwanda is a country in East Africa that has experienced many armed conflicts. Between November 1959 and September 1961, the country witnessed horrendous killings resulting from the sociopolitical conflict between Hutu and Tutsi, which led to the Hutu taking power with the support of colonial authorities and the Catholic Church. This state of insecurity led tens of thousands of Tutsi and a certain number of Hutu to seek refuge outside the country or to resettle in settlement sites within the country (Kimonyo, 2008).

Between March 1961 and November 1966, there were about ten significant attacks that mainly targeted officials in the border region. According to Kimonyo (2008), each of these attacks, in response, signaled more or less extensive repression actions against the Tutsi population of the locality. The attack in December 1963 marked a turning point in the scale of repression, with the genocide acts in Gikongoro (Lemarchand, 1970).

Rwanda is primarily known for the genocide of the Tutsi that occurred from April 7 to July 17, 1994. This genocide is historically part of a genocidal project latent for several decades, involving several phases of mass killings. According to the report on the enumeration of genocide victims conducted in July 2000 by the Ministry of Local Administration and Social Affairs, the number of all declared genocide victims is estimated to be between 1,074,017, and 934,218 victims. According to the UN, the number of genocide victims is estimated to be between 800,000 and one million people killed in one hundred days. The genocide was officially halted on July 4, 1994, when Kigali, the capital, was liberated by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) commanded by the current President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, who defeated the regular army that had planned and executed the genocide. This period, corresponding to the cessation of the massacres, is also significant as it marks the beginning of survival. The start of the post-genocide period is primarily characterized by a significant number of victims, approximately 1/7 to 1/8 of the population killed in a record time of 3 months. 

To piece things back together, the new authorities had to resort to a policy of unity, reconciliation, development, good governance, social justice, the fight against impunity, and health for all. Regarding the latter, the emphasis was initially placed on the rehabilitation of health services deeply destroyed during the genocide, including hospitals, health centers, training structures for healthcare professionals of all kinds, etc. Mental health was also promoted, with the adoption, for the first time in the country's history, of a national mental health policy, primarily based on its integration into primary healthcare. This process is still ongoing and continues to develop each day to reach the highest level. A National Fund for the Assistance of Genocide Survivors (FARG) was created to contribute to the support of these survivors, and the Gacaca jurisdictions addressed the issues related to the genocide, including the question of rape and other sexual violence perpetrated in the context of the genocide, as a constitutive crime of genocide. Twenty-eight years after the last genocide of the twenty-first century, Rwanda has maintained its political stability and aspires to become, by 2035, an upper-middle-income economy. This strong economic growth has been accompanied by an improvement in living conditions. The infant mortality rate has dropped by two-thirds, and the country has almost achieved the goal of universal education. The poverty rate decreased from 77% in 2001 to 55% in 2017, while life expectancy increased from 29 years to 69 years between the mid-1990s and 2019. However, the Covid pandemic has led to a resurgence of poverty in 2021 (World Bank, 2022).

Key Bibliographical Resources

RECHERCHES ET PRATIQUES

EN SANTÉ MENTALE SUITE

AUX VIOLENCES POLITIQUES

Répondre d'Autrui

Jean-Luc Brackelaire
Jean Kinable
Eugène Rutembesa

Thématique :
- Psychologie et psychanalyse
- Sociologie et questions de société

Détails de l'éditeur

Comment oeuvrer ensemble à restaurer les possibilités psychiques et sociales de répondre d'Autrui après qu'on ait tenté de le détruire ? Ce livre collectif est un partage interdisciplinaire de réflexions, d'expériences, de recherches et de pratiques touchant la santé mentale dans les suites de violences collectives (guerre, génocide, dictature...) et des traumatismes psychosociaux qu'elles provoquent. Un tel partage est indispensable tant les violences collectives attaquent la possibilité même de parler, de vivre et de collaborer avec autrui.

Re-Imagining Rwanda: Conflict, Survival and Disinformation in the Late Twentieth Century (African Studies, Series Number 102) First Edition

Johan Pottier

The conflict in Rwanda and the Great Lakes in 1994-1996 attracted the horrified attention of the world's media, diplomats and aid workers struggling to make sense of the bloodshed. It is a sobering analysis of how simple, persuasive, but fatally misleading analysis of the situation led to policy errors that exacerbated the original crisis.

"In this well-documented, thorough, well-organized, vigorously argued narrative, Pottier guides us through the complexities of these local realities within shifting national, regional, and international contexts. Essential." 

Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali 

De Gil Courtemanche 

In April 1994, the middle-aged Canadian journalist Bernard Valcourt is making a documentary in Kigali about AIDS. He secretly falls in love for the Tutsi waitress of his hotel Gentille, who is younger than him, in a period of violent racial conflicts. When the genocide of the Tutsis by the Hutus in Rwanda begins, Bernard does not succeed in escaping with Gentille to Canada. When the genocide finishes in July 1994, Bernard returns to the chaotic Kigali seeking out Gentille in the middle of destruction and dead bodies.

Aussi en film

Basé sur le roman de Gil COURTEMANCHE, Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali, le film Un dimanche à Kigali est l'œuvre du réalisateur Robert Favreau, assisté de Gil Courtemanche au scénario. L'histoire gravite autour de Bernard Valcourt, journaliste, qui est envoyé au Rwanda dans le but de faire un documentaire sur le sida. Il se verra pris dans la tourmente des horribles événements mettant en cause Hutus et Tutsis et qui conduiront tragiquement au génocide.