Juridical and Applied Performance in Post-Genocide Rwanda

Location: Highfield House A01
Date(s): Thursday 4th February 2016 (16:00-17:00)
Description: Dr Ananda Breed will provide an overview of how performance was used as a powerful tool to rehearse the nation for the local level gacaca courts, an indigenous mediation system used to address the 1994 genocide against Tutsi. Grassroots associations responded to gacaca through their own understanding of justice and reconciliation. However, gacaca was eventually used as a ‘fictional frame’ - a stage to act out personal vendettas - due to the speeding up of court trials in 2007 that led to an increase in the number of individuals whose properties were auctioned off for compensation, thus potentially leading to future conflict and further divide. She provides timely examples of the limitations and potential benefits of Applied Performance in the noted contexts of performance and performatives in post-genocide Rwanda with the project Ukuri Mubinyoma (Truth in Lies) concerning the Gender-based violence law of 2008 co-directed by Breed and the Mashirika Creative and Performing Arts Company, further problematising the notion of participation when the mass participation of the population is ordained by law to participate in the gacaca courts and how that effects any other participatory arts practices in post-genocide Rwanda.

Department of Modern Languages and Cultures

University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD