In this episode Abigale discusses the importance of poetry in therapy and healing. She is a student journalist with us on a placement organised by the Oxford University Career Services. This article was edited using the Hemingway Editor.
🎧 listen to Abigale’ backstory here - she discusses her motivation & research as well.
“Writing as a duty to memory” (Chiorean, 2022, p 47): The Importance of Poetics in Post-Genocide Rwanda
Poetry functions as a widely acknowledged therapeutic medium. A controlled space through which trauma can be confronted and processed. This poetic purpose is integral to the cultural identity of modern-day Rwanda. As the country heals from decades of colonial-imposed ethnic division and the devastating 1994 genocide.
The Poetic History of Rwanda
Rwanda has a rich and diverse literary tradition. It possesses a strongly oral literary heritage. With an emphasis on storytelling and generational communication that ensured the continuity of cultural heritage. Poets were essential figures within the community. They would recite during communal gatherings, ceremonies, and religious rites.
The Pre-colonial Rwanda royal court exercised the tradition of ibitekerezo. An epic genre of poetry which explored the history of Rwandan dynasties. This was so integral to the functioning of the court that young men training to join the King’s Royal Military Guard were required to learn these poems and compose similar works.
However, with Rwanda becoming part of German East Africa in 1884. Later being passed to Belgium under the Legions of Nations mandate. The cultural importance of Rwandan poetry was subjugated. The colonists separated the Rwandan people into three ethnic groups. The Hutu. The Tutsi. And, the Twa. This implementation of an ethnically designated class system. With the Hutu indentured to the Tutsi was cemented. The issuing of ethnic identity cards in the early 1930s ensured Rwandan society was fractured and disconnected.
This disconnect was aggravated following the Belgian withdrawal from Rwanda. Wherein the Belgian leaders handed power predominantly to the Hutu majority. This created decades of ethnic conflict between the Hutu and the Tutsi. Culminating in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. This saw the deaths of up to 1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus between April 6th to mid July 1994. Extremist ideology devastated social units and international indifference abetted the massacres.
Maria Chiorean aptly defines the devastation this trauma wreaked on Rwandan literary identit.y. “in a country where oral culture has been the norm for centuries and where the first fixed narrative of society and community was a foreign, hierarchical one, the genocide itself becomes the new point of reference, destabilising any conventional understanding of the nation” (2022: 58). The growth in contemporary poetry has provided a means to rebuild this sense of nationhood.
Poetic Responses to the Genocide
The Rwandan Government has promoted unity and togetherness as important therapeutics to past trauma. These are certainly essential factors. They are also well communicated in Angel Uwamahoro’s poem ‘Agaciro’. Which she performed to celebrate Rwanda Day in 2014. She declares “We are Rwandese. Our hearts beat in threes”. This assimilation of ethnic differences reflects the state-enforced removal of ethnic associations from identity cards. It promotes unity. But also prevents the expression of the diversity of Rwandan identity.
Multilingual hip-hop poet and spoken word artist Eric 1Key. He declares “I hear about umuco (culture) almost every day and I can’t stop myself from asking ‘Which one?’” (2013). Rwanda is a linguistically diverse country. With English, French, Swahili, and Kinyarwanda widely spoken. So, poetry documenting modern Rwandan identity cannot promote a monolingual sense of self. But instead enacts a complex re-establishment of the variety within Rwandan cultural heritage.
The complexity of growing from genocide is demonstrable in the increasing Poetry slams. Along with Spoken Word performances among Rwandan youth. Betty Tushabe founded Spoken Word Rwanda. An annual literary festival that promotes self-expression through the creative arts. This is a multidimensional peace-building strategy. Which rejoices in the presence of many diverse voices and artistic means of expression. Those who perform utilise slang and exaggerated accents to promote a sense of community. With the increased use of Kinyarwanda destabilising the linguistic authorities of the colonial languages.
The Ishyo Arts Centre also centres the project of healing from genocide in artistic expression. The centre, founded in 2007 by eight Rwandan women. It emphasises the need for literature and the arts to be more accessible. They created the Bibliobus scheme. The first Rwandan moving library. And, the Breaking Barriers-Building Bridges project (2014). Which aims to empower disabled youth through engaging them in arts and culture. Both projects articulate the need for creative institutions in Rwanda. Which emphasise community and commonality but not singularity. They encourage artistic expression. Fostering a better understanding of identity and its relation to a traumatic past.
Jean-Paul Samputu emphasises the need for linguistic and cultural diversity when expressing and relating to the past. He sings in six languages. Kinyarwanda. Swahili. Lingala. Ganda. French. And, English. He also combines musical traditions from all regions of Rwanda. Intwatwa. Umushayayo. Imparamba. And, Ikinimba. He lost his parents, three brothers and a sister in the genocide. But, he preaches peace. Having forgiven his father’s killer during his village’s Gacaca. The traditional Rwandan community courts. In 2007, he was awarded the title of Ambassador of Peace by the Inter Religious and International federation for World Peace.
Poetry and Performance also afford important opportunities for social criticism. This aspect of creative expression is one of the most significant for reflecting on and preventing the repetition of atrocity. The comic trio of Micheal Sengazi, Arthur Nkusi and Jerome Mugisha. Aka ‘Comedy Knights’, present this in their sketches and parodies. They satirise common issues of love and family. But also investigate more sombre problems. Such as the ineffectiveness of some international aid projects in Rwanda. Hervé Kimenyi continues this comic social criticism. He presents aid workers arriving in Kigali, declaring “I am not here to help, I’m only here to see how I can help”. This inadequacy not only causes collective laughter. Which itself creates community. But also reminds the audience of the ways in which the Western world ignored genocide. Creative expression is not only therapeutic, but also critical and investigative.
Brenda Indekwe’s ‘Silence’ (2014) also explores how to respond to genocide. At the opening of the text, she leaves a blank page framed by the title and the statement. “whenever we keep silent about our history, experiences and thoughts, we leave a blank page for anyone to write anything they wish” (2014: 26). This demonstrates the need for fellow Rwandans to fill such silence with their own cultural expression. Storytelling is a central part of Rwandan culture. And a necessary aspect of re-establishing cultural harmony. Not to mention agency after genocide and colonial rule.
International Poetic Responses to the Genocide
American Academic and poet Laura Apol led a multi-year project with Rwandan youth and the Association Mwana Ukundwa. They used poetry and narrative writing as a therapeutic tool. This involved a series of workshops which took place in the 2000s. She identifies poetry as a way of “bearing witness” (Dawes, 2007). A way of shaping that which is unthinkable then confronting others with it. This project aimed “to document for the future their [the Rwandan youth] own experiences and testimonies, to use their writing to educate the children of Rwanda, and to have their words reach an audience beyond the boundaries of their country” (2015: 75).
Apol’s time in Rwanda also inspired her own work, including her anthology ‘Requiem, Rwanda’ (2015). She uses poetry as both a memorial and a testimony. So, demonstrating its significance in healing from and reckoning with a deeply troubling past. It is an educative and reflective mode that bears witness to dreadful loss and cruelty.
Conclusion
Poetry is used as a therapeutic tool in Rwanda through charities and individual poets. Poetic performances emphasise Rwandan diversity. They create community through their identification of commonality, but not singularity. It is a mode that permits forgiveness and social criticism. It also establishes the human needs of understanding, connection, contribution, self-determination, and self-actualisation. Yet, it is reductive to suggest Rwandan poetry is born of Rwandan devastation. Theirs is a culture entrenched in story-telling. And, the modern examples of Rwandan poetics. While often responding to the trauma of genocide. Also respond to centuries of culture and tradition. As in the words of Louise Umutoni poet and founder of the publishing agency Huza Press, “any mention of Rwanda is closely followed by the word Genocide and, as vital as this is to our history, it is not our only experience.”
Bibliography
Apol, L. (2015) Requiem, Rwanda, Michigan State University Press
Apol, L. (2017) Writing poetry in Rwanda: a means for better listening, understanding, processing, and responding, Journal of Poetry Therapy, 30:2, pp. 71-83.
Chiorean, M. (2022) Alternative Patterns of Literary Progress: Writing about Rwanda in the Wake of Trauma. Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory 8(1). pp. 47–62.
Dawes, J. (2007) That the world may know: Bearing Witness to Atrocity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Hervé Kimenyi (2011) Kimenyi Herve on Comedy Knights Rwanda. 2 Oct. 2011. Available at: youtube.com/watch?v=vYYVlrxcn1w
Indekwe, B. (2014) Silence in Telling Our Own Stories: Poems by Rwandan Youth 20 Years after the Genocide. Youth Literacy Organization.
Slater, L. (2018). Cultural identity and reconciliation in Rwanda: From spoken word to stand-up. The French Review, 92(2), pp 119-130.
Rwanda2020 (2014) Poem by Angel Uwamhoro at Rwanda Day Atlanta, 20 Sept 2014. Available at: youtube.com/watch?v=xkpq70xNa48
Thank you for reading an A4R 🎨 Post. Don’t forget to share it with your friends and family.