ocide are intended to strip away this capacity to recognize others as being worthy of life . The process psychologically prepares members of one group to deal with their source of insecurity once and for all as pre-emptive self-defence , thereby manufacturing consent for genocide .
Putting the genie back in the bottle
Ironically , the process of stripping the humanity of others also takes an aspect of the very humanity of perpetrators and bystanders to persecution . This relationship of mutual stripping of humanity continues even after genocide . Perpetrators and some of their relatives feel an almost irrepressible urge to distort the facts and some bystanders who know what happened will choose silence . Both groups seek to preserve their humanity . On the other hand , survivors and others feel threatened that the perpetuation of denial poses a danger of the recurrence of genocide . In other words , in a society that experienced genocide , the tragedy never ends . Genocide isn ’ t an event but the culmination of a process that only ends with the defeat of denial . In other words , genocide denial is the last and first stage of genocide .
Genocide ideology and denial can be defeated for good only when the amoral aims for political power from which they originate is turned on its head with a new moral code for governance that responds to the primordial instinct for security from the perspective of a collective identity .
The identity of being a Rwandan is , and ought to be , a sufficient basis for pursuing and providing security . It is the only way to bring about and maintain a leadership that doesn ’ t accuse its children of smelling like goats .
The amoral aim for power was expected of colonizers – after all , it defined the methods of colonisation . The tragedy was when Rwandan leaders embraced and adopted it . Independence ought to have meant an opportunity to transform the aims of political power from zero-sum to winsome , from competition to cooperation . Alas , the colonial state remained despite “ independence .”
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