CONFRONTING ATROCITY CONFERENCE NARRATING TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE: HISTORY, MEMORY, POETICS AND POLITICS MCMASTER UNIVERSITY HAMILTON, ON, CANADA ...
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Confronting Atrocity Conference
Narrating Transitional Justice:
History, Memory, Poetics and Politics
McMaster University
Hamilton, ON, Canada
July 29 – 30, 2021Organized by
the Confronting Atrocity Project
Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice (CHRRJ)
Centre for Community Engaged Narrative Arts
Centre for Peace Studies
McMaster University, Canada
Illinois State University, USA
Conference Organizing Committee:
Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh
Principal Investigator / Confronting Atrocity Project
Director / Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice
McMaster University
ibhawoh@mcmaster.ca
Dr. Melike Yılmaz
Research Coordinator / Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice
McMaster University
yilmam2@mcmaster.ca
Dr. Paul Ugor
Illinois State University, USA
pugor@ilstu.edu
Keynote Speakers:
Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Dr. Zakes MdaTABLE OF CONTENTS Adebayo………………………….. 4 Okur…………………………… 18-19 Bouwknegt……………………..… 4-5 Olayoku……………………….. 19-20 Chacha & Wahome…………….. 5 Ombati………………………… 20 Cole……………………………..... 5-6 Onah…………………………… 20-21 Cuéllar…………………………..... 6 Onyebuchi……………………... 21 Federman & Niezen………………. 7 Osita…………………………… 21-22 Frouini……………………………. 8 Oyekan………………………… 22-23 Graham………………………….... 8 Pavlakis……………………….. 23-24 Gustavo…………………………… 9 Quiroga-Villamarín…………… 24 Habintwari & Scorgie..................... 9-10 Romeri-Lewis…………………. 24-25 Harroff…………………………….. 10 Salihu & Omotoso…………….. 25 Kiepe……………………………… 11-12 Topouzova…………………….. 26 Kirabira…………………………… 12 Ugor…………………………… 27 Knaus……………………………... 13 Vargas & Assis.………………. 27-28 MacAulay…………………………. 13-14 Wallace………………………... 29 Mandujano & DiGeorgio-Lutz……. 14-15 Weis…………………………… 29-30 Michelberger……………………… 15-16 Yilmaz & Momodu………….. 30-31 Moreno……………………………. 16 Mustakim……………………………….. 16-17 Mwonzora…………………………….... 17-18 Noguera…………………………… 18
CONFERENCE PARTICIPANT LIST
Adebayo, Sakiru TRC hearings. In other words, the film
provokes conversation on sensorial truth
“The Only Truth I Know is What I and how it challenges institutionalised
Feel in my Body”: Memory, Affect and truth like that of the TRC. Therefore, for
the Cinematic Prism of Trauma in peace and reconciliation to really begin,
Zulu Love Letter the film suggests that agency must be
given to body memories and bodily truths.
University of the Witwatersrand In all, the film provokes discourse on how
South Africa memory is embodied and what truths these
bodily memories have to tell about the past
in the context of reconciliation and justice
Abstract in South Africa.
Zulu Love Letter, a film based on the
period immediately following the end of
the apartheid regime in South Africa,
offers a critique of the Truth and Bouwknegt, Thijs B.
Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The
film also depicts the looming spectres of On Transitional History
apartheid in post/apartheid South Africa.
The film itself, I argue, is a funeralisation
of the deaths and horrors that apartheid NIOD Institute for War
inflicted on the black population. I argue Netherlands
that the film sheds light on how apartheid
is a carnivorous, black body-eating and
back flesh-devouring apparatus. I examine Abstract
how the aesthetic choices of the film Since the early 1990s a significant number
allows its audience to feel the of countries in Africa have had
post/apartheid affective texture. The film experiences with transitional justice for
re-enacts the violence of apartheid in the mass atrocity violence. Mass prosecutions
realms of the body and the domains of took place in Ethiopia and Rwanda, while
affect. Consequent on this, I show how the atrocities in Sierra Leone, Chad and
film invites its audience to think with and Central African Republic sparked special,
through the body in post/apartheid South hybrid courts. Simultaneously, the
Africa as well as how it returns its International Criminal Court (ICC)
audience back to the original meaning of opened investigations in ten African
trauma – a bodily wound. The film, I conflict ‘situations’. In many cases—i.e.
argue, provokes thoughts on body Chad, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Democratic
memory. That is, how victims’ bodies Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Côte
remember in ways that challenge d’Ivoire, Burundi, Central African
institutional and hegemonic narratives. Republic—(quasi) truth commissions
Zulu Love Letter, I conclude, presents the predated, paralleled or followed these
body as a site of truth but, in the name of judicial responses. Each country dealt
national reconciliation, this embodied with history in one way or another, on
truth was pushed to the margins during the their own terms and for their own reasons.In transitional justice, history—or events repressive regimes. If breaches of basic
from the past—is background, middle human rights become the norm in a
ground and foreground; it is invoked or society, a child’s daily experience of
revoked, used or abused, narrated or education, family, and play can be torn
untold, heard or silenced, written or apart, leaving them acutely vulnerable to
unwritten, uncovered or covered. While physical harm, psychological trauma,
establishing serviceable histories, doing displacement, recruitment by armed
transitional justice and writing history is factions or other forms of exploitation. In
often confused. This paper problematizes, the aftermath of societal upheaval, the
questions and assesses what the voices of children and youth are often
‘tribunalisation’ and ‘commissioning’ of absent from peace negotiations and
historical injustices have contributed to subsequent transitional processes. In
our empirical, historical knowledge about Kenya, after the post-election violence of
mass violence. Based on 17-years of first- 2007–2008, a truth commission was
hand observations of over 50 atrocity established to examine not only the
crimes trials, truth commission hearings immediate violence but its root causes as
and archival research, this paper critically well. It has made a conscious effort to
debates the promises, pitfalls and address the experiences of children and
problems of historical truth-seeking, truth- give them voice in the proceedings.
finding and truth ascertainment in Through their focus on the testimony of
transitional justice. By doing so, it victims of atrocity, truth commissions
animates a critical conversation about the provide acknowledgement and
relationship between transitional justice recognition of suffering and survival to
narratives about the past (‘Transitional those most affected. This paper is
History’), on the hand, and historical therefore an analysis of the children and
narratives, the historical record and youth narratives of wartime and memory
historiography on the other hand. of hearings and their treatment exploring.
The study tests the strength of of
Keywords: Trials; Truth Commissions; combining a human rights agenda with
Transitional Justice; Africa; History issues of historical interpretation. The data
will be obtained from TJRC offices in
Nairobi and analysis done to establish the
experiences of the youth and children in
Chacha, Babere Kerata & post-conflict situations.
Wahome, John
Keywords: children, youth, TJRC, truth
commission, reconciliation, transitional
Life After the Camps: Transitional justice.
Justice, Children and Youth
Rehabilitation in Kenya
Laikipia University
Kenya
Abstract
African youth and children are among the
most vulnerable groups affected by
violence in conflict or massive abuses ofCole, Soji African reality. As a play of trauma,
Nothing But the Truth strives to build and
to reveal memory, insisting that the telling
Nothing But the Truth: The TRC and and the visualizing of traumatic stories are
the Trauma of Shattered Assumption complicated process. By placing the South
African and Canadian TRC side by side;
Brock University this presentation explores how John
Canada Kani’s Nothing But the Truth regards the
Abstract TRCs attempts at reframing the notion of
One of the key interpretative categories of victimhood. The drama acknowledges that
reading contemporary politics and culture one can come to know trauma through
of a nation is its history of trauma. various means, and that trauma manifests
National trauma has become a conceptual itself differently on people’s minds and
tool with historical application and moral bodies. It concludes that the mishandling
specificity that is concerned with concrete of the TRC can result into a people being
psychological dynamics set in motion by concurrently traumatized as victims as
events. Invariably, Memory and History well as survivors.
constitute the major dynamics in the study
of national or collective trauma especially Keywords: Trauma, Historical-memory,
when the subject of justice is in focus. This TRC, Disillusionment, Nationhood.
presentation will explore John Kani’s
Nothing But the Truth as a dramatic text
that depicts the South African Truth and
Reconciliation Commission (TRC), as Cuéllar, Nicolás
both an instrument of trauma as well as
national showmanship. Using the trauma HISTORIAS EN KILÓMETROS
theory of Shattered Assumption as Laboratory for audiovisual training
propounded by Janoff-Bulman, I will and content generation with social
argue that the Canadian TRC is impact
synonymous in such descriptions. The
argument will suggest how the emerging “Historias en Kilómetros”
results of the Canadian TRC is Colombia
downplaying its main objective of healing
past pains, to becoming merely a
constituent of memory that is surrounded Abstract
by different propositions and engendered One of Colombia’s Commission for the
by the transformation and promotion of Clarification of Truth, Coexistence, and
collective memory to the level of national Non-repetition (CTC) ‘s goals is to
memorials. The shattered assumption in promote the social appropriation of the
“Nothing But the Truth” suggests an act of process of clarifying the truth through
witnessing as well as a performative social dialogue and community
response to the traumatic events that mark participation in Commission processes.
South Africa’s history. By putting the To do so, CTC has joined forces with
characters in temporary spates of Historias en Kilómetros (HEK), a
estrangement and disillusionment, John filmmaking training laboratory that gives
Kani’s drama seems to fit the self into the communities in areas affected by
embodying fragments that form an Colombia’s armed conflict the technical
incomplete and discontinuous South and creative devices to tell their own
stories through film. HEK has amethodology that connects communities’ Federman, Sarah & Niezen, Ronald
local teams with more than 70 national and
international professionals in virtual round Victims and Perpetrators in the
tables to learn the tools to produce and Aftermath of Mass Atrocity
share their own stories with the world.
HEK’s allies with CTC to generate a
collective imaginary of transition through Federman
quality audiovisual products as a University of Baltimore
contribution to national reconciliation. USA
The laboratory will be working with nine
Niezen
local teams for three years (2019 – 2021),
chosen from the Truth Commission’s McGill University
legacy actors such as victims, women Canada
social leaders, and rural communities.
These local teams empower the
community’s voices with original Abstract
audiovisual material and create a dignified Individuals can play multiple roles
self-image for themselves and the world. throughout a conflict and over a lifetime.
HEK is, above all, a laboratory that In some circumstances, perpetrators can
articulates filmmaking with the life of the be victims and vice versa. Accepting this
community and turns social leaders into more accurate representation of the
storytellers that help in the construction of context of violence presents a conundrum
their communities’ collective memory. for accountability and justice mechanisms
Through HEK, The CTC can ensure that that are premised on clear roles. In this
the communities sustain its legacy, volume, we consider these complexities
strengthening and visualizing the through responses to mass atrocity in
territorial processes for coexistence and various contexts including international
non-repetition at an international level. tribunals, truth and reconciliation
commissions, rehabilitation programs,
Keywords: Social impact storytelling, and NGO-based social movements. The
creative filmmaking narratives, volume we propose seeks to bring the
community cinema, collective imaginary literature on perpetration and the more
of transition. recent field of victim studies into
conversation with one another. There is a
constructive dimension to the critiques we
present. Supporting long-term positive
peace requires understanding the
narratives dynamics within and between
groups. The blurring of victim- and
perpetrator-boundaries and greater
acknowledgement of their overlapping
roles can be a crucial part of peacebuilding
processes. We will consider the case
studies of Canada’s Truth &
Reconciliation Commission and the
French National Railway’s attempts to
make amends for its role in the Holocaust.Frouini, Ismail 2005. This paper finally argues that the
activists/prisoners have foregrounded
Narrating Transitional (Un)Justice, political consciousness that framed their
Atrocity and Memory in Morocco na(rra)tion, resistance and take on
transitional justice in Morocco. It also
argues that writing memory reveals and
Chouaib Doukkali University stimulates many voices and screams of
Morocco consciousness and dissidence that have
been excluded from the official history of
Morocco.
Abstract
Moroccan prison narratives offer a critical
retrospective avenue towards the
discursive power of neo-colonialism, the Graham, Shane
human rights abuse and the traumatic
atrocities of the Years of Lead (1956-
Stolen Memories: Trauma, Memory,
1999). These narratives work towards
and Forgetting in Mohale Mashigo’s
generating a postcolonial conscious
The Yearning and “The Parlemo”
discourse that shapes the writing of
trauma, marginality, history and
Utah State University
resistance. This “Years of Lead” Morocco
USA
is notorious for the abuse of the human
rights, arbitrary incarceration and torture
of the activists who dared to speak truth to Abstract
power. The events shaped the memory of Brooke, the protagonist of Mohale
the “Years of Lead” Morocco necessitate Mashigo’s short story “The Parlemo”
the need to (re)write the national memory (2018), and Marubini, the protagonist of
and narrate such transitional (un)justice. her novel The Yearning (2016), wrestle
As a result, memory has been the central with very personal traumas: Brooke’s
concern of many of the survivors of the relationship with a manipulative and
period. This paper is an attempt to analyse emotionally abusive boyfriend, and
how the traumatic atrocities are narrated Marubini’s childhood abduction and rape.
by the survivors of the “Years of Lead” era Yet their personal struggles with traumatic
in Morocco. Furthermore, it investigates memory and amnesia play out against the
the forms of resistance that the dissidents backdrop of South Africa’s violent
have offered to the power relations political transition and its aftermath; the
circulating their subjectivities. It, personal and the political collide and
therefore, proves true the Foucauldian intertwine in these narratives, and the
analogic correlation of power and characters’ stories, I will argue, serve as
resistance: “where there is power there is parables or loose allegories of South
resistance”. It is premised upon analysing Africa’s post-apartheid rites of memory
the following Moroccan postcolonial and forgetting. Brooke visits a shop
marginality and prison writers: Abdellatif located on a Johannesburg corner “now
Laâbi’s Rue Du Retour 1989, Fatna El named for two activists who are neither
Bouih Talk of Darkness 2008, Malika Mandela nor Biko, where two apartheid-
Oufkir’s Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a era presidents used to meet” (“Parlemo”
Desert Jail, 2001, Khadija Marquez’s The 47). When customers enter this shop, they
Biography of Ash, 2000 and Abd al-Qadir are “agreeing to have some of your
Al-Shawi’s The Courtyard of Honour, memories stolen. The only way to accessthose memories was to come back and was established as part of the Havana
have them play out like a movie in front of Accords of 2016, has held hearings on
you” (51). Marubini similarly has her false positives. This offers
memories stolen, in her case by her well- a window of opportunity to analyse the
meaning father, a sangoma in training who understanding of the narratives related to
performs a ritual that drains away the state crime in Colombia’s TJ setting. By
memory of her rape along with a quantity analysing the way in which the JEP
of her blood—but as she narrates it, “there addresses the narratives of both
is something good being torn away with perpetrators and victims’ groups of false
the bad” (Yearning 143). Though neither positives – specifically mothers- the paper
text explicitly mentions the Truth will reflect on the social, moral and
Commission nor foregrounds the political political meanings of state crime and its
transition, together they offer a veiled implication for enduring peace in
critique of South Africa’s selective post- Colombia.
apartheid remembrance practices.
Habintwari, D’Artagnan &
Gustavo Rojas-Páez Scorgie, Lindsay
Between accountability and oblivion: Genocide Denial and Transitional
understanding state crime narratives Justice: The Role of Memorials,
in transitional Colombia Testimony, and Literature
Universidad Libre Habintwari
Colombia Kigali Genocide Memorial
Rwanda
Abstract Scorgie
This paper examines the narratives University of Western Ontario
surrounding the accountability of state Canada
crime in Colombia’s Transitional setting.
In so doing, it seeks to analyse the Abstract
narratives related to one of the most As Armenian genocide scholar Peter
disturbing forms of state crime that has Balakian notes, “Genocide denial is the
marked Colombia’s recent history: the last phase of genocide. It denounces the
“false positives”. The false positives victims and rehabilitates the perpetrators.
“consisted of the arbitrary execution of, It also robs the victim’s culture of all
principally, poor, marginalized male moral order.” Due to the severity of this
civilians by the military, sometimes in crime and its effects on survivors,
collaboration with illegal armed groups, attention is increasingly being paid to the
who were then presented as guerrilla role that transitional justice mechanisms
fighters having been lawfully killed in can have in fighting denial. Our paper will
combat” ( Gordon 2017 p 1 ). Between build upon research conducted on
2002 and 2010 approximately 10,000 genocide denial with regards to the
civilians were victims of false positives Genocide Against the Tutsis in Rwanda.
(RojasBolaños and Benavides 2018). In particular, we will be exploring the
Recently, the JEP (Special Jurisdiction for effectiveness of various types of
Peace), the transitional justice tribunal thatmemorialization – including physical Harroff, Lindsay memorials, testimonies, and literature – in both confronting denial, and mitigating its effects on victims. Denial takes various Storytelling after the Public Hearings: forms, and includes drastically reducing Cultural Representations of South the death toll, perpetuating the idea of a Africa Truth Reconciliation ‘Double Genocide’, or describing the Commission violence as a civil war rather than genocide. It emanates not only from Florida Atlantic University, sources within Rwanda, but also from USA certain communities within countries such as France and Belgium, where it tends to Abstract flourish amongst sectors of their academic This project examines how diverse forms communities, militaries, various political and practices of storytelling in accounts circles, as well as segments of the general bearing witness to South Africa’s Truth citizenry. While memorialization certainly and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has a critical role to play in Rwanda’s contribute to a living archive of South transitional justice process in terms of Africa’s past to nation-making. I study the combatting denial, preliminary research TRC’s final report—regarded by many has found that its effectiveness in this transitional justice scholars as the TRC’s regard very much depends on the type of final product and primary bearer of its memorialization in question. For example, legacy—alongside Antjie Krog’s memoir the country’s official memorials – in Country of My Skull and the Global Art particular the Kigali Genocide Memorial Corps’ theatrical production Truth in and Murambi Memorial– directly confront Translation. The disparate forms and those denial narratives emanating from practices of storytelling within these France. They are perhaps less successful at cultural representations of the TRC reaching deniers within the country. On demonstrate how identity, affect, the other hand, the practice of testimony – embodied performance, and an ethic and widely utilized amongst survivors practice of critical listening all contribute throughout Rwanda as a tool for healing to the TRC’s legacy, the truth it provides, and remembering – seems to be far more and its project of nation-making. This effective at combatting internal genocide project illuminates the importance of denial sources rather than those coming storytelling that occurs beyond the formal from foreign communities. Our paper thus institution of a truth commission. How a seeks to explore these preliminary commission’s activities and findings are observations in more detail. It builds on taken up, extended, and circulated after its D’Artagnan Habintwari’s experience as a formal period of operation has ended is guide at Kigali Genocide Memorial, a essential for understanding its survivor of the genocide, and his different contribution to truth, reconciliation, and responsibilities in genocide survivor nation-making. associations in preserving the memory of the genocide, as well as Lindsay Scorgie’s academic research on genocide denial.
Katila, Anna scholarship, there are fewer studies on the
popular representations of these
mechanisms, especially gacaca. Peck
Imagining and Narrating Transitional omits the formal outcomes of the
Justice: Representation of the transitional justice processes portrayed in
aftermath of genocide in Rwanda in the film, framing the two platforms in
Raoul Peck’s Sometimes in April terms of their potential to facilitate truth
(2005) telling. Thus, based on my close readings
of key scenes in Peck’s film, I will argue
King’s College London that according to the film narrative truth is
UK the firs step towards healing and
reconciliation but that it can be facilitated
Abstract by different transitional justice
The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in mechanisms depending on individuals’
Rwanda, which saw deaths of over a needs and circumstances.
million Tutsi as well as moderate Hutu and
Twa, did not receive appropriate or well- Kiepe, Jasper A.
informed media attention in the West as
the event unfolded. Misinformation
Punishment Instead of Progress – The
persisted in the aftermath of genocide and
Psyche of Injustice as a Critique of
has been reinforced by some Hollywood
Punitive Transitional Justice
productions, such as Hotel Rwanda (2004)
directed by Terry George. Raoul Peck’s
UK
Sometimes in April (2005) produced and
broadcasted by the HBO exists within this
Abstract
body of films communicating to the
Transitional justice has been touted as the
Western audiences, but at the same time it
most promising framework for addressing
is unique in its attempt to educate the
conflict and atrocities globally,
audience by remaining faithful to the
exemplified by the ICC – an international
history and events of genocide while
court which theoretically holds the power
making sense of its aftermath in Rwanda.
to bring perpetrators to justice. However,
To examine the ways in which Peck
‘justice’ at the ICC and beyond is often
constructs a counternarrative to the
delivered by victors to ‘survivors’ in the
dominant popular discourse, this paper
form of punitive justice, which is branded
will ask how the mechanisms of
as a success in international media – with
transitional justice are depicted and to
a few perpetrators going to court, justice
what end.
reigning supreme, and countries moving
Peck’s film depicts two transitional justice
forward. This paper argues that pursuing
mechanisms addressing the genocide: the
punitive justice as the hallmark of
International Criminal Tribunal for
transitional justice is a misguided
Rwanda (ICTR) and gacaca community
approach at best. Whereas there are many
courts. Gacaca were centrally established
voices advocating for harsher sentences
by the government but locally driven
related to human rights atrocities, this
quasi-legal institutions that shared
approach is vulnerable to exploitation by
features with truth commissions.
media-savvy authoritarian leaders
Although the processes and impact of the
institutionalising justice as a political tool.
ICTR and gacaca are thoroughly
For example, in North Uganda, global
researched in transitional justice
efforts to bring transitional justice havebeen co-opted by a government deeply conceptualization of reconciliation within
involved in the atrocities in question – a transitional justice processes is tenuous,
government which now wields an with divergent approaches within the
international mandate to ‘pursue justice’, socio-legal discourse. From an
translating to increased suppression and international criminal law perspective,
political power. Indeed, similar case transitional justice processes are
studies (such as DRC or Sri Lanka) associated with establishing individual
showcase that confronting violence needs criminal responsibility and producing
to return power to the people and promote historical records of the crimes. Yet, from
reconciliation, including finding a sociological perspective, the
mechanisms for communities to grow psychological component is even more
together and shape a common crucial. Nonetheless, there is a strong
understanding of memory, truth and interdisciplinary recognition for the
history. This approach can challenge the element of justice, as a component of
perception of ‘justice’ as a form of peacebuilding and reconciliation. This
punishment, and instead help paper focuses on the Northern Uganda
communities approach the psyche of the conflict from an “ethno-social” and
‘injustice’ as a separate entity that affected transitional justice perspective. The
groups must grapple with. This is a spatial experiences of the victims, especially
critique of justice/injustice, proposing women and children, reveal the
bottom-up reconciliation as a tool of significance of transitional justice during
dealing with the past that not only aims to ongoing conflict, but also, broader
deliver a fair justice that is perceived as national reconciliation within “ethno-
such even by the perpetrators, but also a social” contexts. A key question is; what
tool that can foster pacification and ensure are the discourses embedded in the varied
peace on the long term. narratives of the reconciliation actors in
Northern Uganda? This paper seeks to
Keywords: Transitional justice, answer this question by examining the
reconciliation, political violence, politics Northern Uganda case from a socio-legal
of memory, ICC. perspective. It explores the different forms
of transitional justice that were
Kirabira, Tonny Raymond implemented, while centralizing the
victims’ insights. In addition, the complex
factors of culture and gender discourses in
Cultural and Social representations in Uganda are discussed. By doing so, we
Transitional justice: The Case of can gain a better understanding of the
Northern Uganda impact of culture during transitional
justice processes. It makes an
University of Portsmouth anthropological engagement with
UK transitional justice, using qualitative
analysis with a socio-legal approach,
Abstract which guides both legal and non-legal
The case of Northern Uganda presents an interventions in conflict resolution.
interesting but yet underexplored nexus
between transitional justice and local Keywords: Northern Uganda,
context. The role of truth in peacebuilding accountability, peacebuilding, transitional
remains highly contentious, within ethno- justice, ethno-social contexts.
socio contexts. In addition, theKnaus, Juliann ongoing violence towards and murdering
of indigenous women is explored in The
Unnatural and Accidental Women (2005)
The Strength of My Roots: The by Mary Clements. These are just a few
Political, Cultural, and Historical theatre pieces, which use performance as
Significance of Hair in Indigenous testimony, memorialization, and healing,
Canadian Plays and which all mention hair. Hair is, thus
seen as a common thread linked to
University of Graz Indigenous culture, history, and
Austria spirituality and is a way to narrate and in
turn create a space of healing and justice.
Abstract
The politics of hair has increasingly
become a topic of research interest, MacAulay, Alison
particularly in the black community.
However, despite the significance of hair “Hillywood” as History, “Hillywood”
within indigenous communities, it as Healing: Transitions in Rwandan
remains to be an understudied area. In Filmmaking, 2004-2014
particular long hair, especially braided
(and the traumatic forced removal of that University of Toronto
hair), for both men and women, have Canada
incredible cultural, historical, and spiritual
significance in First Nations communities. Abstract
In the TRC report entitled The Survivors This paper assesses the images, narratives,
Speak, there are 107 mentions of ‘hair,’ and historical arguments found in post-
which visibly points towards this genocide Rwandan filmmaking from
significance. So, where are the discussions 2004-2014 as they relate to questions of
of the political power of hair in native memory, memorialization and history-
communities? This paper aims to fill this writing in a time of transitional justice and
gap in research by looking at how hair is reconciliation. Between the tenth to the
(re- ) presented in contemporary (1990s- twentieth anniversary of the 1994
today) Canadian indigenous plays in order Genocide in Rwanda, the local Rwandan
to stress the media, political, cultural, and film industry grew exponentially, with
historical significance of hair in First filmmakers taking particular care to cover,
Nations communities. The mentioning of whether it was through documentary or
hair in these plays in turn weaves together fictional forms, various elements of life in
the experiences of violence which haunt Rwanda after the genocide. Transitional
native communities in order to reach a justice processes in Rwanda, including
form of collective healing. In the play gacaca courts and ingando re-education
Moonlodge (1990) by Margo Kane, for camps, included questions of guilt and
example, a solo performer tries to heal responsibility; historical understandings
from the practice of “scooping,” the and/or explanations for the genocide;
systematic removal of native children notions of forgiveness and ‘moving
from their families. In Path with No forward’; and explorations of trauma at
Moccasins (1991) by Shirley Cheechoo, both an individual and collective national
the physical, psychological, and emotional level. Unsurprisingly, these themes also
damages brought by residential school featured heavily in Rwandan film during
experiences is picked apart, and the this period. Taking seriously film’s abilityto impact and add to the larger historical Mandujano, Martha Galvan &
imaginational of the past, this paper traces DiGeorgio-Lutz, JoAnn
the ways in which filmmakers engaged in
national processes of testimony collection, “Memory Words” and Museums: The
archive creation, and history-writing Efficacy of Never Again in Guatemala
within the political and social context of
justice and memorialization. The stories Mandujano
told in and by these films produced an California Polytechnic State University
archive of the genocide and its aftermath, USA
but were also interrogating, reclaiming DiGeorgio
and re-inscribing existing archives with Texas A&M University at Galveston
meaning. This paper considers a cross- USA
section of films produced between 2004 Abstract
and 2014 and the various spaces in which In the aftermath of genocide and mass
they were screened within Rwanda, atrocity crimes, memorialization in
particularly as part of the “Hillywood” general, and museums in particular, play a
traveling screen portion of the annual significant role in transitional justice
Rwanda Film Festival. This paper posits initiatives. Museums, as a form of
the creation of a ‘redemptive narrative’ memorialization, function as sites of
trope in Rwandan filmmaking during this healing, places to bear witness, and even
period of transition and explores the claim as aids in truth and justice initiatives in
of ‘filmmaker as healer’ within Rwanda’s their chronicle of atrocity crimes.
post-genocide landscape of truth, justice, Museums can also serve an educative
memory, and reconciliation. Stemming function in the prevention of further mass
from a larger dissertation section on film atrocity crimes through awareness and
and its place in larger projects of education. As museums evolved from
memorialization and historical memory, institutions that collect and exhibit
this paper looks specifically at how a antiquities to educational epicenters, their
number of Rwandan filmmakers engaged functions to serve the public have also
directly with national processes of evolved to advocate for the protection of
transitional justice and how the industry human rights. Many museums established
screened films in order to promote by a state or grassroots organizations to
national healing. commemorate and memorialize genocide
often have an educative mission tied to the
ideal of “never again.” The idea that
memorialization through museums can
advance a preventative function in the
aftermath of mass atrocities is gaining
traction in the literature on transitional
justice, especially as non-punitive,
restorative justice mechanisms.
Memorialization through the agency of
museums functions to document and
preserve a violent past and also educates
future generations, ostensibly to prevent a
repeat of mass atrocities. With this notion
in mind and in conjunction with museums
as agents of change, we examine twomuseums in Guatemala established after
the thirty-six year armed internal conflict Michelberger, Pascal
and the concomitant genocide to measure
the efficacy of never again as an educative After the Facts: The Ambitious Pursuit
tool. In Guatemala City, we examine The of Prosecutorial Truth-Seeking in
Casa de la Memoria, which presents the Giulio Ricciarelli’s Labyrinth of Lies
complete historical narrative of the Maya,
from their origin through conquest and the University of Western Ontario
more recent armed internal conflict and Canada
genocide. The museum is aimed at
informing the youth of the violence Abstract
against the Maya and their motto is para Directly following the conclusion of the
no olvido or do not forget. In the war in 1945, a number of fairly successful
department of Baja Verapaz, we examine trials and other transitional justice
the Rabinal Museo Comunitario de la measures were enforced in West Germany
Memoria Historica, that is dedicated with the aim of addressing the crimes of
exclusively to the historical memory of the the Holocaust. However, already in the
Maya Achi and to educate about the acts early 1950s, both the West German State
of genocide committed against them by and the Allied occupiers deemed it wise to
the government between 1980 and 1984. put an end to investigations into the past
We set out to measure the efficacy of each and to focus on present and future instead.
museums’ mission regarding never again. In this light, the first Frankfurt Auschwitz
To this end, we develop a typology of the trial (1963-65) is commonly regarded as a
comments that we call memory words left turning point in German post-war history.
by visitors to each museum that are Giulio Ricciarelli’s drama film Labyrinth
recorded in their guest logs/visitor books of Lies (2014, orig. I’m Labyrinth des
and other memorial spaces within each Schweigens) narrates the investigation
museum that allows for individual that directly led to the historic trial and
expression of the museum experience. We examines the ambitious pursuit of
examine whether each museums’ bringing the atrocities of the Third Reich
typology of memory words resulted in a to court, twenty years after the fact. The
particular message(specific to Guatemala) fictional narrative negotiates fundamental
or a more universal message of never questions of truth, justice, guilt, and how
again that mirrors current mass atrocities those questions affect the relationship
world-wide, and if so, in what context, between past, present, and future in a
which languages, etc. Could we expect transition environment.
that high levels of efficacy within a Reading Ricciarelli’s film through a lens
Guatemalan context—that is, memory that is informed by both literary and
words of never again by mostly transitional justice scholarship, this paper
Guatemalan visitors to the museums seeks to argue that fiction in the context of
spillover into the political realm and transitional justice is not limited to a
correlate with an improvement in human prototypical form of storytelling that
rights and some measure of transitional provides a stage for perspectives of the
justice? To that end, we then examine oppressed. Rather, fiction can function on
Guatemala’s human rights record and a much broader level as a valuable tool
progress in achieving transitional justice that helps us understand the complex and
since the inception of the two museums. challenging questions that transitional
justice efforts and scholarship areconcerned with. In the particular case of intangible. From an anthropological
Labyrinth of Lies, the fictional narrative perspective the disappeared are
emphasizes that history is itself made of characterized by their liminality as their
narratives and that those narratives do not whereabouts are unknown, even the
produce themselves. Post-conflict truth- causes of their disappearance and whether
seeking is presented as a highly ambitious they are alive or dead. These
and intricate endeavour that requires characteristics lead to the representation of
critical engagement not only with the past his memory through other narratives that
events themselves, but also with the ways go beyond language. Therefore
in which those events are framed as photography, theater, tattoos, and
narratives that, in turn, affect the ways in performance emerged as new forms of
which present, and future are narrated. representation in which all includes the
body as a space of memory. This proposal
shows how these memories are
Moreno, Julián Numpaque represented and includes a photographic
work carried out by the author.
The disappeared: memory, narratives,
and representation from Colombia Keywords: Disappeared, Memory,
Photography, Narratives, Colombia.
Universidad de Los Andes
Colombia
Mustakim Ansary
Abstract
This proposal researches new forms of Religious and Caste Based
representation of memory related to the Persecutions in India: Study of Two
crime of forced disappearance in Transitional Justice Commission
Colombia. It is estimated that there are Reports
around 80,000 cases of missing persons,
according to official data published by the Kazi Nazrul University
National Center for Historical Memory, India
while some nongovernmental
organizations and human rights entities Abstract
indicate that the number of cases may This proposal analyzes how all countries
exceed that amount. After the signing of that are former colonies and victimized in
the peace agreement between the several levels, are still continuing the
government and the guerrilla of The legacy of victimization in several ways. In
FARC a period of transitional justice India, discrimination and violence on the
began, where opportunities have been basis of ethnic and caste differences have
opened on the public agenda to carry out been endemic since long. Indian society is
memory exercises on what occurred still today highly caste based and there are
during this conflict. In this way, initiatives frequent cases of caste atrocities
have emerged from social organizations, perpetrated by the upper castes against the
the state, the academy and cultural lower castes or the ‘untouchable’ castes.
collectives that indagates different ways to The Partition of the Indian subcontinent in
build memory about conflict. Building a 1947 was also done on the basis of
memory related to the disappearance religious difference and the trauma and
means to face the paradox of nightmare of post-partition inter-religious
representation of something that is violence in the Indian sub-continentcontinue to haunt all the people of this Mwonzora, Knowledge
region. Millions of people were killed
because of communal hatred-based The nexus between Transitional
violence. The trauma and the fear and Justice and memory in Zimbabwe
inter-community prejudices continue to
linger and people still look for justice. In Northwest University
this climate of social discord and division, South Africa
transitional justice was very crucial. Post- Abstract
independence Indian religious minorities This exposition seeks to explore the nexus
and lower-caste people expected between transitional justice and memory
constitutional measures of justice for them in post-colonial Zimbabwe. The paper
through effective policy measures. While argues that there will be no meaningful
the Indian Constitution as a policy transitional justice, healing, and
document enshrines superb provision for reconciliation without truth-telling, and
transitional justice, its application and remembrance of the past. Over the years,
implementation have belied all hopes. The the government of Zimbabwe has been
recent rise of the Right wing ultra- muzzling and stifling any efforts to
nationalist political forces in India remembering the past especially activities
reinforces all these oppression and related to fratricidal massacres referred to
atrocities meted out against the minorities as Gukurahundi that occurred between
and lower castes. I would focus on two 1983 to 1987 in Matabeleland and
very significant transitional justice related Midlands provinces and costed lives of
commissions in India —the Mandal over 20 000 civilians. Families of the
Commission and the Sachar Committee victims, activists’ other social movements
Reports – both were formed to bring such as ‘Mthwakazi’ have never been
justice to the Muslim minorities and lower freely allowed to exercise their right to
caste Dalits (so called untouchable castes) commemorate or remember the victims of
in India. I will show how complete Gukurahundi and the 2008 electoral
implementation of the observation of these violence. For quite some time, the
two justice commissions are yet to be done Zimbabwean government have been
and I shall do that through a repressing and suppressing any efforts to
comprehensive engagement with these remember, not only the victims of the
two commission reports. I shall also focus Gukurahundi atrocities but also the
on available literature on this domain such victims of the June 2008 run-off election.
as archival reports, Minority witnesses’ The state has been criminalizing such
reports, Dalit memoires, Dalit literary commemorations in fear that
texts, etc, to see how they act as crucial remembering the past could potentially
testaments of justice for the disempowered ‘open old wounds. This is evinced by
and the persecuted. suppression of memorialisation activities
such as exhumations and reburials of
victims of the Gukurahundi pogrom. In
addition, any narratives related to
establishing an effective TRC that could
deliver justice to the victims has been
falling in deaf ears simply because the
government has been complicity in the
human rights abuses. To this end,
Zimbabwe is forced into a conspiracy ofsilence over the past incidents of violence analyses the role of literary works that
and massacres which then hinders efforts have addressed the take and re take of
geared towards achieving transitional November 5th 1985, specifically the
justice. The paper will thus grapple with novel 35 deaths.
these issues in seeking to uncover how
criminalisation of memorialisation Keywords: collective memory, narratives,
hampers efforts of transitional justice and transitional justice, politics of truth
peacebuilding. The other pertinent
questions will be how has groups such as
‘Mthwakazi’ used memory as a form of Okur, Jeannette Squires
resistance to the state sanctioned silence
about addressing the historical injustices. Art and Justice in Bakhtiyar Ali’s
Shari Mosiqare Spiyekan
Noguera, Amira García The University of Texas, Austin
USA
Collective memory in Colombia: the
take and retake of the palace of justice Abstract
in the novel 35 deaths Iraqi Kurdish author Bakhtiyar Ali’s
fourth novel, Shari Mosiqare Spiyekan
(The City the White Musicians, 2006) was
Universidad de la Salle translated from Sorani to German by
Colombia Peschawa Fatah and Hans-Ulrich Müller-
Schwefe under the title Die Stadt der
Abstract weißen Musiker in 2017 and was soon
This paper addresses the ways in which celebrated by German writer and critic
the memory of the armed conflict in Stefan Weidner as “a major novel about
Colombia has been shaped over the past art and reconciliation” comparable to
decade. In so doing, it draws on M. Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus. The
Halbwachs concept of Collective novel, hailed by Weidner as “an epitaph
Memory and explores its importance in for the victims of the Kurdish wars” and
the understanding of competing “a manifesto for the power of poetry and
memories related to Colombia’s armed life”, became more formally associated
conflict. The paper takes as a case study with the genre of genocide literature when
one of the pieces of memory that has its author was awarded the Nelly Sachs
marked the country’s violent history: the Prize on December 10, 2017. In this paper,
Toma y Retoma del Palacio de Justicia I examine the narratological tools
(The take and re take of the palace of Bakhtiyar Ali employs in his novel to
justice) in 1985. The understanding of explore themes of justice, forgiveness,
this event remains contested to this day truth, beauty and morality. These include
and its memorialization is traversed by a unique plot structure, in which the four
official narratives and counter-narratives main characters’ dreams, nightmares and
advanced by victims’ groups and art. My searches – rather than a linear series of
analysis suggests that counter-narratives events – drive the narrative forward; and
are important to observe how memory is an array of symbols and magical realism
built dialectally and by different forms of elements that convey key messages about
enunciation that scape the official forms the (sometimes uncannily similar)
of memorialization. In this vein, the paper emotional experiences of Anfal survivors,like Jeladet the Dove, and perpetrators of Olayoku, Philip Ademola
war atrocities, like General Samir Al-
Babilee. Additionally, these characters Representation of Women Through
interspersed philosophical conversations Class and Ethnicity / Race in the
about truth and justice, often set in surreal Testimonials of the Human Rights
spaces such as underground art tunnels Violations Investigation Commision of
and makeshift courtrooms, reveal a Nigeria
captivating world of oppression, genocide,
regret, survival and perseverance. With University of Ibadan
this close reading of a now transnational Nigeria
text, I aim to demonstrate how Bakhtiyar Abstract
Ali counters, by expounding his view of The conceptualization of justice as a sine
art as peaceful form of resistance and qua non for the restoration of sustainable
salvation, the extremism and political hate peace in post-conflict societies is
that destroyed his people during and after foundational for the momentum of
Iraq’s 1988 genocide campaign. I also discourses on transitional justice since the
bring his novel into conversation with initiation of tribunals after the Second
scholarship on the ethics of fiction that World War. Following the Platonic
seeks to represent rape, torture, and tradition that justice entails achieving
genocide in order to explore the human societal equilibrium within social
capacity for darkness and, more contexts, the introduction of narratives as
importantly, healing (Vice, 2000; Budick memory initiatives via the truth
2019; Gallimore & Herndon, 2019). commission mechanism encapsulates a
Finally, I argue that Bakhtiyar Ali’s Shari holistic therapeutic approach; as both
Mosiqare Spiyekan is just one of dozens victims and perpetrators are given the
of contemporary Turkish- and Iraqi- healing platforms through story telling as
Kurdish novels whose authors, by virtue they confront the horrific past.
of their transnational status, have initiated Nonetheless, the cultural contexts of the
an interactive process of witnessing in and locales of implementation are often
through literature, a process that does not considered definitive regarding the
end with the text, but rather, engages the eventual outcomes of truth commissions.
readers of multiple nations in For instance, indices such as gender, class,
contemplating ‘unspeakable’ human ethnicity and race reflect the societal
rights violations. dynamics of power and representation in
the narratives of truth telling. This study
Keywords: Kurdish novels; Anfal; thus assumes a gender lens in exploring
witnessing through literature; magical the intersections of these indices in the
realism representation of women during the public
hearings of the Human Rights Violations
Investigation Commission of Nigeria
(HRVIC). It adopts the hermeneutical
method for understanding the cultural
underpinnings of testimonials as
documented by the HRVIC. It then
interrogates how political asymmetry
facilitates the vulnerabilities of women –
from marginal class and ethnicities- to
state violence, while officialdom andwealth serve as enablers of propensity to spurring conflict and violence. The
violence among them. It also unpacks how Commission operated from the premise
cultural violations including female that understanding the nature and causes
genital mutilation and forced marriages of past violations will prevent such
persist in endangering women, alongside atrocities from re-occurring in the future.
the state’s structural violations in public To, partially, accomplish this mission, the
facilities such as the prisons, especially Commission unveiled iconic visual
against pregnant women. The study rhetoric images in its final report. This
contends that women need more visibility study examines how the Commission
both as drivers of the process – through appropriated iconic visuals, to
membership of truth commissions and as symbolically, represent its core mandate.
‘subjects of petitions’ due to the By examining the symbolic elements
predominance of male narratives within embedded in the iconic photographs, the
the frame of the HRVIC. study explores how the images address the
key functions of the Commission founded
Keywords: Gender and Transitional in ‘truth,’ ‘justice’ and ‘reconciliation’.
Justice, the Human Rights Violations
Investigation Commission, Female Keywords: Kenya, Post-Election
Representation. Violence, Visual Images, Truth, Justice,
Reconciliation
Ombati, Mokua
Onah, Chijioke Kizito
Visuals: The Symbolic Face of
Collective Truth, Justice and Framing Remembrance: Witnessing,
Reconciliation in Kenya Memory, and Narratives of Boko
Haram Terrorism
Moi University
Kenya Cornell University, USA
Abstract Abstract
One way a country can transition from a In April 2014, one of the world’s deadliest
violent past is through the creation of a terrorist organization, Boko Haram,
truth, justice and reconciliation kidnapped 276 girls who were attending
commission. Kenya’ Truth, Justice and school in the village of Chibok in North-
Reconciliation Commission (herein the East of Nigeria. The abduction sparked
Commission) was established following global outrage, drawing the attention of
bloodshed and destruction of property the world to the activities of this group.
occasioned by the 2007/2008 Post- Activists in Nigeria employed social
Election Violence (PEV). The violence media platforms to demand the release of
shocked Kenya’ consciousness into the Chibok girls, culminating into one of
realisation that the nation-state referred to the most globalized activism of
as Kenya, which gained independence 2014/2015, in a hashtag known as
from British colonial rule in 1963, may no #BringBackOurGirls. This transnational
longer continue to exist as a single united activism led to the immediate
entity. This prompted an opportunity for crystallization of this event into a
the country to (re)examine and come to mnemonic practice, as Chibok becomes a
terms with negative practices of the past metonym for the memory of not justYou can also read
