Returning to the Source: Rituals of Justice and Philosophical Anthropology in Post-Genocide Rwanda

Abstract

This essay explores: 1) the relationship between the calls of theorists/activists Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral for post colonial African governments to develop systems of social meaning beyond western colonial forms; 2) the influence of indigenous African philosophical systems conception of the "human" in the process of developing new systems of thought and meaning; and 3) how the Rwandan judicial system and philosophy of the "Gacaca Council" reflects the post-genocide Rwandan state's practical and philosophical need to develop systems of judgment reflective of the society's vision of itself.