Of other times: Temporality, memory and trauma in post-genocide Rwanda

Post-genocide Rwanda, survivors' engagement with memorial sites reveals complex temporal practices that challenge linear narratives of time. Care-taking rituals and imaginative processes create a symbolic time-reversal, while the materiality of memorials preserves the past in the present. Annual commemoration ceremonies construct multiple temporal logics, including homogenization and cyclical trauma-time, countering simplistic 'before and after' transitional justice frameworks. The study, based on extensive fieldwork and participatory observation, demonstrates that survivors actively reshape their relationship with time through mnemonic practices, offering a nuanced understanding of post-traumatic temporality.

Viebach, J. (2019). Of other times: Temporality, memory and trauma in post-genocide Rwanda. International Review of Victimology, 25(3), 277–301. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269758019833281