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Recycled rhetoric: examining continuities in political rhetoric as a resilience strategy in pre-independence and post-genocide Rwanda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2021

Meghan C. Laws
Meghan C. Laws*
Affiliation:
School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK
*
Email: ML270@st-andrews.ac.uk
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Abstract

Seen as one of Africa's most visionary and enlightened autocrats, Paul Kagame's presidency is often contrasted with the violence and ethnocentrism of his discredited predecessors. Drawing on rarely analysed primary sources, this article disputes this simplified narrative by revealing striking continuities in the ruling elite's rhetorical repertoire in the late colonial period (1956–1959) and present-day Rwanda. Both then and now, rhetorical calls to remove ethnic labels from public discourse in the name of national unity are key resilience strategies designed to shape regime relations with domestic and international audiences in ways that reinforce power concentration by a small (largely Tutsi) elite. Changes in the distribution of power and the scale of anti-Tutsi violence (most notably in 1994) help explain why a similar rhetorical strategy failed to prevent the dismantling of the Tutsi oligarchy in 1961 while strengthening its contemporary counterpart.

Keywords

Rwandapolitical rhetoricauthoritarian resilienceethnic controlcomparative historical analysis
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 175 - 195
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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Footnotes

The author is deeply indebted to Marie-Eve Desrosiers whose guidance, conversation and encouragement made this article possible. The author would also like to thank Aidan Russell, John McGarry and the two anonymous reviewers at JMAS for their constructive feedback and critique. This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

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