Transmitting memories in Rwanda: From a survivor parent to the next generation (Brill Press 2023) By Claver Irakoze (Aegis Trust, Rwanda) with Caroline Williamson Sinalo (UCC)

The book will be attended by both authors and presented by special guest Munyurangabo Benda, Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham

Co-organised with the CASiLaC cluster on Life Writing.

Tea, coffee and sandwiches provided. 

@4pm, COuncil Room, UCC, 5 October 2023

Known for its breathtaking scenery, the central-east African country of Rwanda lived through one of the worst episodes of violence of the late 20^th century,  the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, in which over a million people were brutally murdered in 100 days. This launch will present our book, Transmitting memories in Rwanda: From a survivor parent the next generation (2023 with Brill Press as part of the Postcolonial Lives Series). Transmitting memories in Rwanda recounts the personal story of Claver Irakoze who survived the Genocide as a child and, like other Rwandans of his generation, is now grappling with the heavy responsibility of raising children in the post-Genocide context. Tracing the various stages of Irakoze’s life experiences, each chapter teases out issues surrounding childhood, parenting and the transmission of memories between generations. The final chapter draws on Irakoze’s personal and professional experience to provide some reflections on managing memories of Genocide within the family.

Munyurangabo Benda is a Tutor with the Centre for Black Theology (CBT) at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, where he teaches Womanist and Black theological studies.

His research explores the possibilities offered by faith-based diplomacy in African identity-based conflicts. His past research has investigated the role of Rwandan churches in post-genocide reconciliation; having been largely ineffective and silent during the massacres. His doctoral research used postcolonial analysis to critically compare the agency of Muslim and Christian communities in the genocide of 1994 in Rwanda. His current research interests in Theology revolve the postcolonial dynamics in African State modernity, Moral Philosophy , post-conflict reconstruction theories, genocide studies, memory studies, Transitional temporalities, and of course Black Theology focused on the phenomenon of ‘Global Blackness’.

Claver Irakoze is author of the children’s book That Child Is Me (Imagine We), producer of the song and music video “Umurage w’amateka” (The Legacy of History). Irakoze works for the Aegis Trust, developing the Genocide Archive of Rwanda (www.genocidearchiverwanda.org.rw).

Caroline Williamson Sinalo is lecturer in World Languages at University College Cork and author of Rwanda after Genocide: Gender, Identity and Posttraumatic Growth (Cambridge University Press 2018) and co-author of Transmitting Memories in Rwanda: From a Survivor Parent to the next Generation (Brill 2022). She is also the co-editor of Representing Gender-Based Violence: Global Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan 2022). Williamson Sinalo’s research focuses on conflict and violence in Africa’s Great Lakes region, and has been supported by the AHRC, the Aegis Trust, the Irish Research Council, the Government of Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. 

This event is supported by the Irish Embassy in Kampala, the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, UCC and the Department of French, UCC.