Beneficiaries are actors too.pdf - Southern Institute of Peace ...

approximately 800,000 Rwandans and left many scars in
Rwandan society, including displacement as many Rwandans
were forced to live as refugees in neighbouring countries and
outside the African continent. Seventeen years after the
1994genocide, Rwanda can be considered as having embarked
on a largely grandiose post-conflict reconstruction and healing
process. The efforts towards healing and reconciliation are
ongoing and they are largely geared toward rebuilding trust
among the Rwandans. The abunzi mediators epitomize the
Rwandan government's efforts towards institutionalizing conflict
resolution and justice at the local level. The abunzi exist in the
context of other local initiatives for conflict resolution and
transitional justice including the gacaca courts, which have been
hailed as having paved way for accountability by trying
approximately 1.5 million cases of genocide. With the conclusion
of gacaca court hearings in 2010, the Rwandan government has
had to institutionalize traditional methods of conflict resolution
in its legal system to ensure that communities remain
empowered to address their problems before resorting to the
formal court system. This has been made possible through the
promotion of various endogenous systems including the abunzi,
a mechanism for mediation. Unlike the gacaca courts which were
specifically mandated to try cases of genocide which were
committed from October 1990 to 31 December 1994, abunzi
mediators deal with smaller local disputes between neighbours
and fellow community members.
Anatomy of the abunzi
The abunzi is an indigenous system which existed in Rwanda
before colonialism. Their objective is to unite two parties who
have a disagreement. The abunzi can be paralleled with similar
traditional dispute resolution systems in other parts of Africa,
including the kogtla in Botswana, the Bashingantahe in Burundi
and the dare in Zimbabwe. All these institutions essentially exist
within a particular cultural context for dealing with disputes.
The abunzi (which literally means 'bringing two people together
to talk') are not necessarily the first or the last institution to
attempt to resolve a dispute between parties. In some cases,
parties go to the abunzi when resolution at the family level,
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