Génocide et Jeunesse: Un récit de JMV Rurangwa
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Jean-Marie Vianney-Laurangois, sociologist, educator and author of many books on the
00:05 genocide against the Tutsis, addresses the youngest in her new book,
00:09 "The Perpetrated Genocide against the Tutsis", explained to six children.
00:14 Listening to young people talk, we see that they already have access to a lot of
00:18 information, conveyed by television or the internet.
00:22 They often find themselves alone in the horror. They question themselves and retain
00:27 elements of vocabulary, but in an autonomous and unaccompanied way.
00:31 Jean-Marie Vianney-Laurangois found a balance between the playful side of a
00:36 conversation between a father and his children and the decency imposed by such a
00:41 subject. How to teach a terribly destructive event to children in
00:46 the face of structuring? With such a young audience, we do not address the
00:51 genocide against the Tutsis in a frontal way. Jean-Marie Vianney-Laurangois
00:55 directly took into history, sociology, the art of transmitting to explain
01:00 the process that led to the genocide against the Tutsis. For the newspaper
01:05 Éguier, he explains his approach, follow the rest.
01:10 First of all, we must say how this book was born. I was at the literary cafe
01:22 of April 2019, during the international conference on genocide.
01:27 And the literary cafe was part of this conference. I was invited to
01:35 talk about my experience as a writer of memory. Because I have written about
01:42 the memory of the Tutsi genocide for nearly 25 years.
01:48 So, during this coffee, one of the questions that was asked to me was
01:58 how can we explain the Tutsi genocide to young people? And there I said it was
02:06 not easy, it's not easy, but I'm going to try. And when I arrived in Ottawa,
02:11 of course, I started working on it. And at the end, after a year, I
02:16 released this book, the Tutsi genocide, explained to his children in bilingual
02:23 version, in French and English. But there are other versions that will come later.
02:27 And there, my approach was simply to make the text easy, easy to read.
02:35 And there I designed, I created, I created characters. A father, a university professor,
02:40 Jean Daudieu Namahire, who explains to his children Yannick, Alice, Yvan and Diane.
02:50 And his children ask him questions about genocide, questions related to his
02:55 youth, his execution and his memory. And so, in the light of his
03:01 historical, psychological, sociological, anthropological knowledge,
03:07 Jean Daudieu Namahire explains, answers to all the questions of his children.
03:13 I am a playwright, so I know, I create characters, usually, and I give them
03:19 words. The same thing, I create, I create the character of Namahire, who is a
03:24 professor, and I read, I read, I read, I give him, how to say, it's my
03:30 spokesperson, if you want, if you want, it's my spokesperson. So he knows them, he
03:34 studied genocide, and genocide, because he also knows, there is always a
03:39 regular reference to the Shoah. So he studied the Shoah to understand
03:45 the genocide of Tutsi, because there are similarities. And the pedagogical approach
03:49 here also consists of giving examples. These are very difficult, very complicated,
03:54 very specialized sociological concepts, but he makes them simple.
03:59 That is, he makes them in the explanation, very simple, insofar as he gives
04:04 examples. Every time he gives, he explains a concept, he gives examples.
04:08 And there, so that the children understand better, and they are reassured, he wants
04:14 everything to be understood. That's why he always asks, "Did you understand?"
04:20 And the children answer, "Yes, Papa." I tell myself that from ...
04:27 It was a book designed for children in high school, for young people in high school.
04:30 That is, from the age of 12, 12, 13, 14, up to 17. It's a commitment, my dear.
04:38 It's a commitment. Frankly, I always remember, whenever I have the opportunity,
04:44 that I committed myself to writing about the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
04:51 When I saw in Rome, where I was, where I studied sociology, children,
04:59 babies, who were picked up by Italian families on the mutilated bodies of their mothers.
05:08 And these children were taken to a hospital, and I went to see them at this hospital.
05:14 And I was very struck, very moved, and very outraged, very outraged, that I said that
05:22 it should not stop there. So I translated my rage, I translated my outrage,
05:27 my indignation, through poems, through plays, but also through explanatory texts.
05:34 Because at that time, in '90, in '94, I was seeing the genocide.
05:42 I had studied the history of my country, so I knew what was going on,
05:46 how this ideology, precisely, engendered the genocide.
05:50 But there were people in the West, journalists, or even teachers,
05:55 who did not know exactly the nature of this crime that was taking place.
06:01 And the terms they used were, the amalgams were that,
06:07 it was a war between Hutus and Tutsis, a civil war,
06:11 it was a war between, rather an inter-ethnic war,
06:15 it was a war between Bantus and Amis,
06:19 again, the antagonistic dichotomization, Hutu, rather Bantu-Amis.
06:24 It was a war between farmers and shepherds.
06:28 And you know that was not it.
06:30 So it was not it, it was really far from the truth.
06:33 And then it shocked me, it outraged me.
06:36 And I, as I was doing sociology, and I was studying ideologies,
06:43 inter-ethnic relations, and then it gave me the capacity,
06:50 the elements on which I could base myself to explain, to rectify,
06:56 to rectify, to say, no, this is not an inter-ethnic war,
07:00 it's a war, it's a genocide.
07:02 And what is genocide?
07:05 We translate it, we define it first, according to its etymology.
07:10 Genocide is a word that was forged by Rafael Lemkin,
07:16 a teacher of Polish-Jewish origin.
07:19 It comes from two Greek words.
07:21 Genos, which means people, race, or ethnicity.
07:25 And sid, which comes from Latin, caedere, which means to kill.
07:31 So it's killing a race, killing a racial group.
07:34 But killing a group for its racial, national, religious, or ethnic belonging.
07:41 And of course, the UN has expanded the concept,
07:44 the Jews have expanded the concept.
07:46 Now it's the very intention to kill in all and in part.
07:50 And it's always the state that commits genocide.
07:52 So all of this, I documented, like others,
07:58 and I was able to explain how the crime that was perpetrated in 1994
08:05 was not at all an inter-ethnic war, but rather a genocide.
08:11 A genocide, outright, perpetrated against all.
08:14 Because what was done was the intention of the state,
08:19 the intention to exterminate a group of people
08:26 for their ethnic belonging.
08:31 So how to fight against genocidal ideology?
08:35 It's by knowing.
08:36 First, know what happened.
08:39 Knowing that genocide is not something that happens by chance.
08:43 It's something that is prepared, conceived, and executed.
08:47 So how to fight against genocidal ideology?
08:50 It's by showing people, first of all, how it came about.
08:55 This is how the people of Rwanda were divided,
08:58 by colonization, by the settlers,
09:02 because of the principle of "dividere et imperar",
09:06 the classic colonial principle.
09:08 Showing how the Tutsis were denationalized, if you can say that.
09:17 Because we said, "These Tutsis are not from Rwanda.
09:21 They are Amis who come from abroad."
09:23 And you know that the First Republic,
09:27 in its speeches, the leaders of the First Republic,
09:32 said that there was a double colonialism,
09:39 that we had to first free ourselves from Tutsi colonialism
09:43 and then from Belgian colonialism.
09:45 Imagine people who have been living here for centuries,
09:49 and we start making them foreign invaders, enemies to defeat.
09:53 That's ideology.
09:54 And this ideology was taught in schools,
09:57 and it was broadcasted through songs,
10:00 songs that were broadcast on the radio.
10:04 I listened to these songs since I was a child,
10:09 and they made Hutu the only owner of Rwanda.
10:14 And that was the Tutsi ideology.
10:16 Because when we killed the Tutsis,
10:19 we said we had to bring them back to their homes,
10:23 and the most cynical said, "Not the shortest way, the Nyavarongo."
10:28 University professors, you know them,
10:31 they said, "Moussia is not an example."
10:33 So how to fight against genocide?
10:36 The genocidal ideology is to be vigilant,
10:39 to avoid or fight against the discourses,
10:44 to denounce, to fustigate all the hateful discourses
10:47 that are the generators of genocide.
10:50 Because genocide, as someone said,
10:53 starts with the dead and ends with the dead.
10:56 The dead are in danger when they are misused, of course.
11:00 And that's frequent.
11:03 Yes, of course, there are amalgams.
11:06 It's true, many young people are confused,
11:10 they are confused because they read things that are contradicted.
11:14 Some say this, others say that.
11:16 So how to convey this memory, how to convey the truth,
11:21 how to convey the memory of the genocide in a correct way,
11:24 faithful to history, to historical truth,
11:27 obviously, it's always by reading and making people read.
11:33 And if the denigrationists use social media,
11:40 young people who are concerned about the better future of the country
11:46 should use social media.
11:49 If there are people who write books that deny genocide,
11:54 we can't prevent them, of course,
11:57 but we also have the duty to write.
11:59 So I always say, let's write books,
12:02 let's say what we think is the truth,
12:05 and then they too will write what they want,
12:08 and then the public will see, will choose.
12:11 But since we can't stop them, we can't prevent them,
12:14 especially those who live in countries
12:17 that tend to defend human rights.
12:20 Yes, she goes to France too,
12:22 because I think she was a correspondent for Radio France Internationale before.
12:27 Yes, she's a French Canadian.
12:30 So she's a journalist who's known there.
12:35 And then there are circles, of course, friends,
12:39 publishing houses that can easily publish it.
12:44 That's the problem, because these people deny or revisit.
12:53 A lot of people, in my opinion,
12:56 because we notice that a lot of people now don't deny.
13:00 There are more revisionists than denigrationists,
13:04 and they've realized that it's difficult.
13:07 It's not easy to deny the genocide of Turkey and to be believed.
13:13 But rather they revise, but it's also a way to hurt the memory.
13:19 But I also realize that they say yes, they publish books,
13:24 but immediately afterwards they have people who contradict them.
13:28 You saw, for example, Yudi Riva, he published his book there,
13:31 which you know, and associations, rescuers, writers,
13:39 of whom I am part, I signed a petition.
13:42 Historians?
13:43 Yes, historians, professors at the university.
13:46 And we signed petitions to describe his behavior,
13:52 because he had been received by the National Radio of Canada.
13:56 And he gave lectures all over Europe, in America.
14:04 So yes, we can't prevent him from speaking,
14:09 it's impossible, because in the name of freedom of expression.
14:12 Well, of course, it's difficult to translate it into justice.
14:20 But what we can do is to prevent him from speaking,
14:30 or to give him the floor.
14:31 For example, in the name of freedom of expression,
14:34 he will always go somewhere to present his book.
14:38 But let's have a contradictory debate,
14:40 by inviting other people who write, who know,
14:44 and so the public will follow the debate.
14:47 Otherwise, when we let a negationist, a revisionist, speak alone,
14:51 people will gobble up what he said,
14:54 especially when it's a journalist of great renown like Yudi Riva.
14:59 So, in my opinion, the way to remedy this situation
15:05 is to confront his theses with those of other researchers.
15:11 Invite him to a round table and organize a contradictory debate.
15:17 And that's maybe the way to...
15:19 But listen, he is supported.
15:23 There are people, as the president said,
15:26 there are forces, I wouldn't even say invisible,
15:30 not so invisible, because they are the universities that invite him,
15:34 they are the media that invite him.
15:36 So, it's difficult.
15:39 We can't stop him, what I said,
15:41 in the name of freedom of expression in the West, that's how it is.
15:44 But what I would suggest is that we can get to know
15:52 his movements, if he is present,
15:56 give a conference, let's go there too,
15:58 and then let's deliver another speech.
16:02 Because people who hurt the memory or distort it,
16:05 who pervert it,
16:08 I think we should fight them.
16:13 We should fight them by all means.
16:16 Because it's a contempt,
16:23 it's disrespect and contempt
16:26 towards our dead, who were killed,
16:30 when they had nothing to do with it,
16:34 only victims of the fact that they were all here.
16:37 It hurts, it's disrespect, it's contempt,
16:41 it's... that's it.
16:45 I think that the associations of the escaped,
16:51 the young people,
16:53 because they are the flame-bearers of tomorrow,
16:56 they should really...
16:58 But I think the way is good,
17:02 correct, to follow precisely because
17:05 the memory killer...
17:08 There is not really much difference between the memory killer
17:11 and the killer who killed the physical person.
17:14 Yes, exactly, the difference is not huge.
17:17 So we should really follow them,
17:21 even juridically, as much as we can.
17:24 Obviously, there are some who have no means left.
17:27 Well, I have read some extremes,
17:31 I don't know yet, I read a whole book,
17:34 but what I learned by reading the media
17:38 is that it reveals,
17:41 first of all, the truth that has been hidden for a long time.
17:44 And it reveals the responsibilities of these states,
17:48 of France in particular,
17:50 which has supported for a long time the genocidal regime.
17:55 So these reports, in my opinion,
17:58 are a great contribution to the preservation of the memory of genocide.
18:02 So I welcome the publication of these reports,
18:05 and you will see the effects that it will have,
18:08 whether positive or beneficial.
18:10 (upbeat music)