The Anthropology Of Genocide - WNLibrary

the rwandan genocide of 1994 145
tion. In May of 1993, for example, I journeyed to Rwanda and remained for one
month serving as a consultant to Family Health International, a subcontractor for
USAID. I participated in organizing an AIDS prevention project that was to be
funded by USAID. It was again as an employee of FHI that I returned to Rwanda
in late October 1993 to begin AIDS-related behavioral research. Although I had
hoped to live in Rwanda for at least two years and to conduct research on sexual
behavior and HIV transmission, that proved to be impossible because of the renewed
outbreak of hostilities that followed the assassination of President Habyarimana
on April 6, 1994. On April 9, most members of the American community
in Rwanda were evacuated by land convoy to neighboring Burundi. From Burundi,
I then flew to Nairobi, Kenya, where I spent the next four months.
During my last period of fieldwork in Rwanda, I witnessed the country’s slow
but inexorable slide into chaos. After several attempts to install the broad-based
transitional government failed, I became keenly aware that the Habyarimana
regime and the MRND had not been serious about the peace accords signed with
the Rwandan Patriotic Front in Arusha during August of 1993. Encouraged by the
unwavering support of French backers, Habyarimana and his supporters were treating
the accords as “just a piece of paper.” During the five months or so that I resided
in Rwanda, the dogs of war were slowly unleashed. Acts of terrorist violence became
more common, Interahamwe militia members grew bolder in their attacks
upon civilians, and there were several assassinations.
It had not been my intention to study or to witness the degradation of the
political situation in Rwanda. Originally I had hoped to further my explorations
into the popular perceptions of sickness and, in particular, of sexually transmitted
diseases. My job with FHI in Rwanda was to help adapt HIV prevention and
intervention strategies to local social and cultural realities. I had been chosen for
this task because FHI was aware of my previous research on popular medicine
and, in particular, my research emphasizing the importance of bodily fluids in
the local cognitive models of sickness. These were obviously important because
HIV is transmitted by bodily fluids, and preventive strategies generally focus on
“barrier methods” such as condoms. From previous research in Rwanda, I had
advanced the hypothesis that impeding the passage of bodily fluids between partners
was locally perceived as unhealthful, and that this resistance would have to
be overcome in culturally appropriate ways in order to promote safer sexual practices
(Taylor 1990).
RWANDAN SYMBOLISM AND THE BODY
Although the connection between local cognitive models of illness and ethnic nationalism
may appear distant at first glance, their relatedness lies at the level of
myth and symbol. The Rwandan body is, following Clastres, an imprinted body—
imprinted with the condensed memories of history. Following Kapferer, it is only
through myth and symbol that we can grasp the logic of these condensed mem