Accounting for genocide: transitional justice, mass (re)education and the pedagogy of truth in present-day Rwanda

Vigorous debate has recently arisen on the particular contribution of education to transitional justice (TJ). This article, focusing on the case of post-genocide Rwanda, raises the question of the possibilities, limitations and desirability of approaches which seek to impose, through education, top-down forms of reconciliation. The article employs the concepts of mass (re)education' and pedagogy of truth' to characterise the approach used by Rwanda's post-genocide government to reshape and reconcile society, and reflects on the extent to which the past thus taught can be employed in furthering TJ goals. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the study evaluates Rwanda-style practices by examining history and civic education programmes alongside young people's utterances on the truth' of historical wrongs. Concluding, it casts doubt on the transformative and conciliatory value of pedagogies of truth' that seek to recast identities and inter-group relations, especially in light of state-imposed selective understandings of legitimate truth, justice, memory and identity.