On Twitter, Exile, and Umutesi

I originally wanted to do a whole post on the Umutesi reading from last week; I thought her descriptions of the civil war was a poignant account of a history that isn’t talked about as much.  I don’t have the book in front of me, but Umutesi talked about friends and family members who had been killed when the RPF started to advance from Uganda–this personal aspect was really useful in understanding how the civil war contributed to the political and social landscape leading up to the genocide.

The impact of forced exile seems to be a recurring theme in the last few days’ readings; Professor Thomson talked about the impact of exile on the RPF’s singular desire to return to Rwanda. Fuji also talked about exile, although in different contexts.  Citing one of her contacts, she says that “after returning to their homes in Kimanzi [from where they had fled in the DRC], this man explained, people no longer treated one another as they did before, as friends and neighbors, because of where they spent their time in exile” (99).  Fuji is referring here more to her “logic of contamination” where the place and people a person associates with could have an impact on their tendencies.

I do want to bring up some of the logic of tweets and twitter sources as they correspond with the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission.  One of the more poignant moments of this was when Kagame’s office tweeted “President #Kagame: The definition of human rights has become politicized depending on who the person defined is #WEF” (from @UrugwiroVillage).  A recent tweet from @RwandaLatest links to an article on the Mugesera trial (it was unclear from the article whether the trial is led by Mugusera or against him but it seems as if he is leading the trial) where it details his attempt to use Rwanda scholars as evidence of RPA crimes against humanity.  Here’s the link to the article: http://focus.rw/wp/2013/02/mugesera-uses-ruzibiza-reyntjens-and-bruguiere-for-his-defense/