Music of Reconciliation

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Music of Reconciliation

In Rwandan history and society, music has always played a very important role. In this society, where history has been kept through spoken rather than written words, music has been one essential tool of keeping memory alive. However, music has been used in both a negative and positive way. During the 1994 genocide, music was used to initiate hatred and terror against the Tutsi minority and Tutsi-friendly Hutus. The rhythm of hate speech was broadcast daily on Radio Television Mille Collines (RTMC), a popular, nationalist-oriented but unofficial Hutu radio station based in Rwanda's capital city, Kigali. RTMC offered music that was not allowed to be played on official radio, including extremist nationalist folk music by Hutu singers. Lyrics dealt with the superiority of the Hutu race and encouraged people to kill their Tutsi neighbors. A single extremist song might be played ten or fifteen times a day, so people could learn its lyrics by heart. During the 1994 genocide, the role of music used in this manner had been to incite hatred and separation within communities.

The sound of music, its lyrics and rhythms, is used in to achieve the opposite goal—to bring together communities that had once been driven apart. For instance, in 2002, Rwanda's government, under President Paul Kagame, established traditional courts to hear the trials of genocide suspects. In support of this effort, the radio aired a folksong with lyrics such as, "Now, here they are: the Gacaca tribunals. The tribunals, which should help to strengthen reconciliation and unity." The song explains the idea of the popular courts and their procedures to listeners, and exhorts the people to cooperate: "My dear fellow countryman, witness of the tragedy without name. Tell the truth. Tell who is innocent and who is guilty." Most such songs are broadcast on national radio, Radio Rwanda, as part of a campaign to sensitize the population of the upcoming court procedures.

During the actual court hearings, music has been used by the suspects to ask the audience for merciful treatment. Usually, the prisoners, dressed in rose-colored prison uniforms, start to dance and sing together before the start of the hearing. They sing about what they have done and ask the survivors and families of the victims for forgiveness. In other cases, prisoners sing about being wrongly arrested and they plead their innocence. When the singing ends, the actual court proceeding starts. Singing and dancing is here seen as one way of building a bridge between perpetrators and victims.

Another way that music is used in reconciling the communities torn apart by genocide is found in the government-sponsored reintegration or solidarity camps. Under the supervision of the Rwanda Demobilization and Reintegration Commission and the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, these camps were installed to prepare surrendered or captured combatants from armed groups for their return to civil society. These former members of the Forces Armées Rwandaises and Interahamwe militias carried out most of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and fled to neighboring countries after the fall of the regime. On their return to Rwanda they are required to stay in a solidarity camp for several weeks, during which time they receive counseling, medical screening, and psychological treatment. They are also taught—and are required to sing—songs with lyrics like: "We are no Hutus, we are no Tutsis. We are all Rwandese now." Most of the camp songs are about peace, unity, and how to live together. Through these songs, former soldiers are asked to learn the new framework of the state: a reunited, reconciled Rwanda.

The benefit of using music in order to overcome a difficult past is especially important while reaching out to young people. The youth of Rwanda have suffered greatly from the genocide. Many youngsters, especially those from a poor background, were recruited by the militias at the time of the genocide. According to World Bank figures, there were more than three thousand former child-combatants who had to be reintegrated into society. Most of them had to learn how to live as children again. They were sent to special camps and schools, where they were undergoing sensitization and counseling activities.

Singing and dancing have been used with good effect to help these children to cope with their difficult past. In 2004 many of them, as well as the thousands of children who lost their families to the slaughter, still live in orphanage centers throughout the country. Music projects involving modern dance or hip hop music have been set up to give young people their own voices and to help them overcome the traumas of their past. All forms of artistic expression—theatre plays, music bands, dancing—have been integrated into projects by various non-governmental organizations working in Rwanda as well. The Kimisagara Youth Centre on the outskirts of Kigali, for instance, offers children and teenagers singing and dancing classes in which they can talk about their past and their future.

Music can strengthen unity and reconciliation, but it has to be seen as only one aspect within a wider framework of understanding and overcoming the legacy of the Rwandan genocide. It is not by singing, "We are all Rwandese now" that the history of the genocide can be properly commemorated. Critics of the government's reconciliation strategies have already made this point by demanding that the lessons of recent history must be learned in order for all of Rwanda's citizens to learn to live together again. However, music can contribute to opening the hearts and minds of the people: it can play a role in reaching out to victims, survivors, and perpetrators, and it can help to keep the memory of the past and the hope of a better future alive.

Tania Krämer

Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity