Post-Traumatic Growth in Testimonies from Survivors and Perpetrators of the Rwanda Genocide

Between April and July 1994, as many as one million people were brutally massacred in what has become known as the Rwanda Genocide. Some of those who lived through the genocide have chosen to record their experiences either orally or in writing. These testimonies make an invaluable contribution to understanding the genocide since without them our knowledge of what happened in Rwanda in 1994 is restricted to official government narratives, historical records and journalistic accounts in which the voices of survivors and perpetrators remain largely unheard. Based on a pilot study carried out between 2010 and 2013, this project will focus on narratives of genocide by Rwandan people who experienced it first-hand. The narratives are oral testimonies recorded in Kinyarwanda by the Genocide Archive Rwanda, which is managed by our project partner, Nottinghamshire-based NGO, the Aegis Trust. The Aegis Trust began recording these testimonies in 2004 and, through our close collaboration with the Trust, we have access to a corpus of over 2,500 testimonies.

The trauma of experiencing genocide can have devastating psychological effects. Research has shown that post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety as well as emotional problems of guilt, shame, anger, substance abuse, conflicts within relationships and marriage breakdown are all common problems following trauma. Such problems have now been well documented in Rwandan people in the twenty years following the genocide. However, research also shows that in the struggle to rebuild lives there is often the possibility of positive changes for individuals and their communities. These positive changes are commonly referred to as post-traumatic growth. Post-traumatic growth describes the way in which survivors of trauma are able to build a new way of life that they experience as superior to the life they had before. It seems paradoxical to suggest that the genocide could have resulted in such positive changes, but research in other contexts suggests it is a real possibility.

Such positive changes are generally thought to result from the resolution of cognitive dissonance caused by an event that challenges or even shatters an individual's pre-trauma assumptions. The rebuilding of an individual's assumptive world may result in changes in domains of life such as self-perception, interpersonal relationships or life philosophy. However, basic world assumptions are likely to differ according to culture, as is the impact of trauma on those assumptions. While the concept of post-traumatic growth appears to be a universal phenomenon, the cognitive processes it involves, as well as the ways in which it is manifested, may vary from one culture to another. Through its focus on qualitative inquiry, this project will allow for a bottom-up understanding of post-traumatic growth in the specific context of post-genocide Rwanda.

In order to gain a better understanding of the impact of the genocide on Rwandan people, the project has three main objectives: (i) to determine whether processes of post-traumatic growth are taking place in Rwandan survivors and perpetrators; (ii) to allow the stories of ordinary Rwandan people to reach a wider audience; and (iii) to make a contribution to broader process of post-conflict healing, reconciliation and development.

By analysing testimonies through the lens of post-traumatic growth, the project will investigate the ways in which individual Rwandans demonstrate adjustment, and possibly even positive transformation, after the trauma of genocide. The project will use the qualitative findings from the textual analysis to build a culturally sensitive interview checklist for use in Rwanda by psychotherapists and trauma practitioners. As such, the project aims to provide insights into how post-traumatic growth may be promoted, ultimately contributing to the rebuilding of Rwandan society after 1994.

The project will have an impact on four distinct non-academic groups:
(i) Practitioners carrying out trauma therapy and individuals engaged in such programmes;
(ii) Rwandans who wish to access a public platform to discuss the genocide;
(iii) The general public;
(iv) The Aegis Trust.

(i) In Rwanda, we will share our research with local therapists. Joseph, who is a practising psychotherapist, will lead the practitioners' workshop in Kigali, which will present the findings of our project to therapists working in Rwanda. By better understanding how positive changes take place among perpetrator and survivor communities, as well as how these differ from one another, this project will inform trauma practitioners working in Rwanda, providing insights into how growth may be facilitated within this particular socio-cultural context. This will ultimately help in the journey towards post-conflict reconciliation and human development. In the UK, the team's involvement with the University of Nottingham's Centre for Trauma, Resilience and Growth will ensure that practising counsellors, therapists and trauma practitioners are involved in the project through participation in the seminar series, the project's online presence and and the end-of-project conference.

(ii) Our research on Rwandan people's testimonies will make their stories available to a wider public. In doing so, this project will benefit individuals who experienced the Rwanda genocide and whose post-traumatic psychological and social adjustment requires that their testimonies be accurately recorded, listened to with sensitivity and disseminated to the world. Knowledge of what happened in Rwanda in 1994 is limited and often inaccurate. By publishing volumes of testimonies by Rwandan survivors and perpetrators, we will contribute to improving global understanding and dispelling myths about Rwanda and the genocide.

In addition, through our work on the testimonies held at Genocide Archive Rwanda, we will be able to check on the quality of translations of testimonies held in the archive and advise Aegis on suggested changes. The project will also fund the translation of additional testimonies provided by perpetrators, allowing their voices to be heard by a much larger audience and improving the quality and quantity of translated archival resources available in Genocide Archive Rwanda.

(iii) The project team shares the Aegis Trust's commitment to the importance of engagement as a means of increasing public awareness of genocide and its consequences. We will promote public understanding of the Rwanda genocide through our three engagement events that will take place each year of the project during the April commemoration period. These will be: (i) an education event for schools at the Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire; (ii) a film screening and Q and A at Broadway Cinema, Nottingham; and (iii) a practitioners' workshop at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in Rwanda.

(iv) These events along with the project's findings on post-traumatic growth will allow us to help contribute to the Aegis Trust's genocide education programme. Furthermore, by generating interest in the work of the Aegis Trust, particularly Genocide Archive Rwanda, the project may increase monetary donations to the Aegis Trust, helping further their invaluable work which aims to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity as well as support communities suffering the consequences of genocide. Aegis will also receive all royalties earned from sales of the two volumes of testimony to be produced by the project team.