(Digital) archives, memory and reconstruction in post-Genocide Rwanda (HN)

In 1994, Rwanda suffered a Genocide of enormous proportions, and has faced huge challenges in its wake. The Genocide is the pivotal event in the recent history of Rwanda, and much of civic and political life since then has focused on the on-going process of reconstruction. A range of educational and other interventions has been made by the government to further reconciliation between perpetrators and victims and positive relations between communities. The aim is to prevent future conflict, to commemorate the dead and respect the survivors, to construct and preserve a shared memory of the event, and to create a shared identity as Rwandans. Rwanda is now on its way to creating a modern integrated society with a burgeoning economy.

The Aegis Trust, a charity that works towards the prevention of genocide through education and research, has collected testimonies and other documentary material about the Genocide and post-Genocide reconstruction as the Genocide Archive of Rwanda, both as a physical archive but more particularly as a digital archive, transforming access to the material. There is a range of other significant archival holdings that if digitised and integrated would significantly increase understanding of the Genocide, and offer further opportunities for education, research, and public understanding and reconciliation.

Most prominent among these is the archive of the Gacaca Courts, which were based on a traditional method of conflict resolution that was revived to deal with the problem of processing large numbers of accused. The records of these courts form an archive of 60,000,000 pages, and are of unparalleled significance as a record of the process of truth telling, justice, and reconciliation. A project is underway, supervised by a consortium including King's College London and the Aegis Trust, to digitise the documents and create an online archive, with tools and interpretive materials.

These developments can play a key role in the burgeoning digital economy in Rwanda. The government is fostering a knowledge-based economy including ICT, with the aim of becoming a hub of expertise within east Africa, and digital content and asset industries form an important part in this vision. Currently, the skills and knowledge required for managing digital materials are largely lacking, and one of the aims of the Gacaca project is to build this expertise and capacity locally.

These initiatives do however pose fundamental questions about the role and nature of digital archives in Rwanda. The Network will draw upon two areas of research in the digital humanities. The first will explore the role of (digital) archives in transitional justice, the construction of cultural memory, and the impact and potentially transformative effect of mass digitisation. This will provoke an examination of the implications of creating digital archives of records of the Genocide, and of potential uses of the materials, and enable the establishment of policies and processes specific to the Rwandan context. The second will address the infrastructural aspects of digital archives: what forms of archival structures are appropriate and sustainable in the cultural context of Rwanda, and what might their relationship be to the growing digital economy?

We will explore these two themes in two internationally and interdisciplinary conferences in Rwanda and the UK, and as a result we will make specific recommendations for next steps in which the theoretical, practical and pedagogical aspects of the Network's research around digital archives can contribute to social, cultural or economic development in Rwanda, and also build new international collaborations that can take these forward. In particular, we will develop a roadmap for capacity building in digital content technologies in Rwanda, in collaboration archive holders, higher education, and tech industries, with the ultimate objective of creating a "centre of excellence" for the region.

Government and policy makers in Rwanda, and in other regions emerging from conflict, as well as supra-national bodies, will benefit from an enhanced understanding of the potential role of digital archives and mass digitisation programmes in facilitating transitional justice, peace education, and post-conflict reconciliation, as well as of the issues raised. They will also gain a clearer understanding of how to establish policies and processes for archives and digitisation appropriate to the local context, and how to focus funding for digital projects to maximise impact and utility.

Legal professionals working in transitional justice or post-conflict scenarios will benefit similarly. Most directly this includes the Ministry of Justice and attorneys in Rwanda, but also international bodies such as the UN and the International Criminal Court.

Journalists: There is a substantial media interest in the 1994 Genocide, whose repercussions are far from over. The Genocide informs many aspects of current life in Rwanda, and the process of reconciliation is as yet incomplete, with both refugees and perpetrators still at large. The events that led up to the Genocide also have contemporary echoes elsewhere in the region, most notably in Burundi. However, media coverage often lacks historical context or relies on information derived from third parties. The Network will help to establish a context for journalism in the field, as well as generating research that may itself be the focus of media interest.

Archivists and other heritage: Rwandan professionals and the archives world in general will benefit from an increased understanding of the role of (digital) archives, and in particular of archived experiences and local knowledge, for post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction. The Network will also lead to a greater awareness of issues specific to Rwanda and other post-conflict societies (such as the nature and meaning of "gaps" in the archives), and of the relevance or otherwise of Western archival constructs in non-Western contexts.

Digital technology & content industries in Rwanda: the Rwandan Government's plans for economic development involve include the development of a knowledge-based economy (in particular ICT) with the aim of becoming a hub of expertise in the region. Digital content and asset technologies can form a key part of this. The Network will expand existing collaborations to build expertise and capacity locally in these skills & technologies. While initially focused on traditional archival content, the impact is not restricted to this and has potential for economic developments in media industries and mobile devices.

Public: The general public in Rwanda are key stakeholders in Genocide-related archives, having been affected by the Genocide and its aftermath, either directly - as victim or perpetrator - or indirectly through the loss of family and friends. The impact of the Network on archival digitisation in Rwanda will increase the public's understanding of the Genocide, and allow them to participate more fully in reconciliation through enhanced access to documentary material. It will in particular help them to understand the importance of their own community experiences - embodied in testimonials and other documents - for strengthening the reconciliation process.

Funders: The Network will help to identify areas for which further research, exploration and development would be of value, and provide an evidence base on which funders will be able to draw when establishing priority areas for support. In the context of this Network, this includes not only traditional funders of academic or cultural heritage activities, but also Rwandan Government agencies, agencies of other governments that fund international development activities, and private donors who may wish to sponsor local heritage activities (such as archive digitisation) or to invest in local digital content industries.