In 1994, a genocide against the Tutsi people took place in a small, landlocked African country: Rwanda. But what actually happened in 1994? How did the genocide against the Tutsi come about, how was the international community involved, and how are the events connected to colonial histories? With our first podcast episode, we wanted to give you a historical overview.
Hello curious people!
Thank you for making it this far and connecting further with us through our website. We – Ona, Dora, Ines, Hannah and Laura – really appreciate you being here and joining us building collective memories.
Our very first episode actually took a long time to record and put together. With all of us having no experience with audio production whatsoever, there were many technical difficulties we started off with. Additionally, the Covid-19 crisis meant limited possibilities for meeting up in person.
As it was the starting point of our podcast, we also asked ourselves many questions, often felt unsure, and were doubtful: why do we, five students from Vienna, feel like we can speak about such a matter? Do we know enough? How do we do this? And, most importantly – are we even in a position to speak?
So, we thought a lot about our approach. With this podcast, we don’t want to explain or teach anything. In contrary – we, as learners, want to go through our learning experiences with our listeners and approach the many sides of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi through arts. We don’t want to speak for anybody, but rather speak with different people and learn through our encounters and through arts.
We believe that it is our duty as human beings to learn about this event of our recent global history. The Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda wasn’t, and isn’t “just an African issue” or something Europe doesn’t have to deal with. Actually, it is very much a European and global topic. It is, and has to be part of our global collective memory. As Boubacar Boris Diop put it in his book Murambi, the Book of Bones: “a genocide reminds every society of its essential fragility” (p. 177). A genocide concerns us all, as human beings.
We hope you enjoy listening to our first episode.
Curious to learn more? Click here to find a list of useful resources and links connected to the topics of our first episode:
(Re)membering Rwanda 