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Social Anthropology

"If you keep your problems in your stomach the dogs cannot steal them" : trauma, forgiveness, and con-viviality in Rwanda : an ethnographic study following the healing and rebuilding our communities (HROC) project in Gisenyi, Rwanda

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

By bringing together survivors of the genocide with released prisoners to discuss trauma, healing, and trust, Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC) in Rwanda may help people to broaden their networks of support and rebuild everyday life. ... After 1994, Rwandans, particularly in Gisenyi, found that many neighbours were strangers and members of "the other side". Few Rwandans are able to meet their daily needs without accessing relationships of reciprocity, so how are such relation- ships established after genocide? In this thesis I argue that restoring relationships of reciprocity is critical to the restoration of the everyday in Rwanda. The genocide in 1994 was unarguably a traumatic experience for the population in Rwanda, and it damaged common modes of social interaction. But for those I spoke to, forgiveness was important to the process of healing...

Degree

thesis:*
Grantor dc:publisher.institution
Social Anthropology
Year dc:date.issued
2010

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Forcier, Angela
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Ross, Fiona

Rights

Language dc:language.iso
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12220
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12220

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Cape Town
Base URL
open.uct.ac.za/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Forcier, Angela. "If you keep your problems in your stomach the dogs cannot steal them" : trauma, forgiveness, and con-viviality in Rwanda : an ethnographic study following the healing and rebuilding our communities (HROC) project in Gisenyi, Rwanda. Social Anthropology, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12220