Hello, curious listeners! Thank you so much for accompanying us on this journey of memory. For this seventh episode, we decided to reflect on our experience in creating this podcast — where we started, what we learned, and where we’re headed.
We’ve brought together highlights from previous episodes, including statements from Boubacar Boris Diop, Malaika Uwamahoro, and Kaneza Theogone. On top of that are our own personal statements, where we talk about how these interviews and experiences have impacted and changed us. Additionally, we were lucky enough to include extra voices in this episode: University of Vienna Ass.-Prof. Dr. Rémi Tchokothe, who taught the course ‘Black Skin, White Bones: Rwanda 1994 and Humanity’s Collective Memory(cide)’ which inspired this podcast, as well as Angèle Bikié, a fellow student in the course.
It wasn’t easy to create these reflections. A common theme among them are feelings of anger, guilt, frustration, and sadness. Almost all of us wondered — why did we start out knowing so little about the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda? Why did the world do so little to stop this genocide? Why is it so hard to engage in this topic? If you, our listener, have also grappled with these feelings or questions, we encourage you to engage with this topic, and consider your own reflections on the topic.
Finally, while we started this podcast thinking that it would consist only of 5-6 episodes, it has bloomed into much more. This episode isn’t necessarily a conclusion; rather, it is a moment where we pause and reflect before continuing to do more. Keep note of this space, as we will come back to continue to release episodes!
Music:
This episode features the beautiful song “Iwanyu” by Teta Diana. Her website is http://www.tetadiana.com/. You can also subscribe to her bandcamp page at https://tetadiana.bandcamp.com/.
This episode also features the song “Soul of Rwanda” by film music composer Liam Colomer, part of the soundtrack to the documentary Generation 94, a wonderful story of genocide survivors who ended up promoting initiatives to help Rwandan people in vulnerable situations
Additional music: “Acoustic guitar rythm with maracas” by maurolop (Intro), available under CC0 1.0 license, as well as ““Peaceful Acoustic” by TomchikRec available under CC0 1.0 license, “Acoustic guitar- Sleepy” by afrodrumming, licensed under CC BY 3.0 and “Guitar loop 1l43” by Setuniman (Outro) available under CC BY-NC 3.0 license.
Curious to learn more? Click here to find a list of useful resources and links connected to the topics of our episodes:
(Re)membering Rwanda 