Relating to the Rwandan genocide

One professor and survivor pair work together to shed light on the violent event

Rebuilding lives in Rwanda
Recounting her experiences as a Rwandan genocide survivor is no easy task for Berthe Kayitesi. Yet, although she finds sharing these tragic stories to be tiring, at the same time she knows it is necessary.

That’s why Kayitesi worked with Bates College professor Alexandre Dauge-Roth to take 15 of his students to Rwanda, where they created an oral history project to document survivors and their stories.

Kayitesi and Dauge-Roth shared what they had learned with Penn students and staff in Houston Hall yesterday at an event called “The Legacy of Genocide: Exposing Students to the Voices and Places of Genocide in Rwanda.”

The two addressed pressing pedagogical questions about how to teach about the Rwandan genocide, as well as why it’s necessary to expose students to such horrific images and events.

“There’s a kind of vacuum of recognition regarding the consequences of genocide, where we could easily have an impact on survivors’ lives,” Dauge-Roth said.

Dauge-Roth believes part of the problem lies in that a lot of films about genocide violence have a tendency to confine it at a distance.

“The screen hides as much as it reveals,” he explained, adding that viewers can be too removed from the violence as an internal defense mechanism to shield themselves from the tragedy.

“So what I try to do here through this oral history project is to question this distance, or try to reduce it as much as possible to generate some discomfort,” he said. “And then it’s up to the students to make something out of it. They have to answer, ultimately.”

Kayitesi echoed Dauge-Roth’s concern about the lack of true awareness about the Rwandan genocide.

“Students would ask us, the Rwandan survivors, ‘What do you want us to do with your stories from this trip?’ And all of us say, ‘We want you to go the United States and say what happened here, and to combat the denial,’” Kayitesi said, adding, “in every genocide, there is always denial.”

Kayitesi appreciated how the students acted as “ambassadors” who could share her stories about her homeland back in America. In addition, Kayitesi praised the way these students took what they were studying so seriously to travel across the world to gain firsthand experience.

“Students were able to go out of class and interact with people in the field,” she said. “They were living what they were studying.”

Dauge-Roth projected photographs from the students’ trip to Rwanda. In one, human remains piled on a table inside a Rwandan church’s genocide memorial. In another, the students stood side-by-side with genocide survivors.

For Penn doctorate student Lisa Abraham, the event was an eye-opening experience into the educational challenges to learning about genocide.

“It was very thought-provoking,” she said. “You often think about genocide and traumatic events, but you don’t necessarily know how to teach them or talk about them, which I think is a very interesting approach.”

Event organizer and Penn doctorate student George MacLeod was pleased with the afternoon’s event, which drew an intimate crowd of about 50 who filled the Ben Franklin room.

“I think it went really well, we had a nice turnout,” MacLeod said. “I think Berthe did a great job from the perspective of someone who is a survivor, talking about the transformation she witnessed in American students and articulating that.”

“As she said, the importance of Americans understanding what happened — that to her is something that is so, so crucial,” he added. “That people know what’s going on even if they’re unable to give material assistance. Just to understand, and be willing to understand, is a wonderful thing.”

By Nicole Greenstein · April 12, 2012