Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T13:19:24.667Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Post-Colonial Post-Traumatic Growth in Rwandan Men

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2018

Caroline Williamson Sinalo
Affiliation:
University College Cork
Get access

Summary

The concept of posttraumatic growth is understood to be universal, however, the ways in which growth is manifested may be culture-specific. In Chapter 2, I present a reading of Rwandan men’s testimonies using posttraumatic growth theory, taking cultural and historical factors into consideration. Analyzing the testimonies in this way, I argue, can enable trauma scholars to move beyond the eurocentrism of traditional trauma theory and its focus on events, belatedness and unrepresentability. The chapter shows that pre-colonial notions of male strength and invulnerability were eroded by colonialism and ultimately decimated during the three months of violence in 1994. Since the genocide, however, Tutsi masculine identity has been reconstructed through the ideology of ndi umuyarwanda, the notion of Rwandanness or Rwandicity. While this ideology has received much criticism among Western scholars because of its association with the Rwandan government, I argue that its adoption (and adaption) among Rwandan men is a form of postcolonial posttraumatic growth. Post-genocide masculinity emphasises its rejection of colonial and neo-colonial ideas about Rwanda, turning instead to indigenous culture and beliefs; a phenomenon that post-colonial theorists might label ‘interior vision’ (Bernabé, Chamoiseau & Confiant, 1986).
Type
Chapter
Information
Rwanda After Genocide
Gender, Identity and Post-Traumatic Growth
, pp. 53 - 84
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×