Keywords
Genocide, Identity, Politics, Rwanda
Content Language
EN
Abstract
Scholarly works on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi have been too generic with minimal focus on institutional violence. Therefore, this paper addresses this knowledge gap by focusing on the former Caisse Sociale du Rwanda (CSR) as a case study. The research adopted a qualitative approach, with primary data being collected through structured and semi-structured interviews, which were administered to sixty-two (62) participants, and data collection methods were structured and semi-structured interviews, observation method, and secondary sources. Primary data was complemented and reinforced with data from secondary sources.
This research study, which is built on ideological and identitarianism discourses, addresses some specific questions to elicit empirical explanations for institutional violence within state institutions, using the former Caisse Sociale du Rwanda as a case study. Specifically, the study sought to determine the level to which institutional violence was engineered within CSR during the genocide as well as assess the relations between Hutu and Tutsi employees before the 1994 war, during the 1994 war, and during the 1994 genocide. The study further delves into how Hutu employees engineered the execution and executed Tutsis within the former institution and the role institutional leaders played in executing the genocide both within and outside the former institution. Additionally, the study explores the weaponry used to commit the killings and how the institution covered up and tried to erase these acts afterward.
The findings show the institutionalization of violence through different political periods. The study also highlights the crimes committed against the former Tutsi employees, weapons used in killing the former Tutsi employees, acts of erasing genocide facts, and how the former state institution used workers’ money to implement the genocide in conspiracy with the former genocidal government. As depicted in the empirical findings, institutional ethnic cleavage was a result of ethnopolitical violence against Tutsi employees. The extent and consistency of ethnic institutionalization and violence against Tutsi employees were unprecedented. Equally, legitimizing exclusion in CSR was inseparable from the state’s ethnic divide between the Hutu and Tutsi.
Recommended Citation
Musafiri, Elly; Gona, George; Ombongi, Kenneth; and Shyaka, Aggee Mugabe
(2023)
"The Road to Genocide: Identity Politics within Former State Institutions, the case of Caisse Sociale du Rwanda,"
Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies:
Vol. 5:
Iss.
2, .
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/jacaps/vol5/iss2/3
