2011-10-12

Paul Kagame's Rwanda has been sailing its own political course for sixteen years now, with a great deal of international support. Joris Verhaegen and employees of the theatre group A Two Dogs Company want to contribute to the debate about this development policy through the play Talk. For MO* Verhaegen wrote an opinion piece, an abridged version of his Rwanda Inc. Business plan.

The concept of genocide was introduced by the Western world and was modelled on the Holocaust as the main point of reference. Western culture, which, as always, considers its own values to be universal, exports the term without adaptation or nuance to other 'similar' contexts - such as Rwanda - which have very different geographical, historical and cultural roots. Constantly referring to the example of the Holocaust, the consequences of such a massacre are also considered to be known in advance: traumas, the need to organise memory, etc. The consequences of such a massacre are also considered to be known in advance. This thinking in stereotypes leads to self-filling prophecies with each new genocide: the new reality rather confirms the already known hypotheses than giving rise to thorough research. What value can we attach to such generalistic conclusions?

Supported
€6.150 allocated on 31/05/2010.
ID
FPD/2010/814
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