The PANAFRICAN Review
Rwanda Offers France a Chance To Reconcile Itself with Its Imagination
Olivier Mushimire
On 27 May 2021 , President Emmanuel Macron delivered as speech at the Kigali Genocide Memorial that underscored France ’ s newfound clarity on some key facts about the genocide against the Tutsi . This was an important step in efforts to normalize relations between the two countries . However , for some genocide survivors , Macron ’ s speech fell short of their expectations because it missed one important aspect : a formal apology for France ’ s role in the genocide , as an accomplice that acquiesced and emboldened the regime of killers . In other words , clarity and apology needed to go hand in hand ; one without the other was insufficient . As a survivor , I am of the view that an apology would have shifted responsibility ( that it has yet to fully own up to ) from France and forced the pace of forgiveness . Here ’ s why .
First on the issue of clarity . Macron ’ s speech clarified and reversed France ’ s dehumanizing , self-justifying and denialists stance that coalesced with narratives with origins in genocide perpetrator circles two decades ago . He emphasized that the 1994 tragedy in Rwanda has a name : genocide and unequivocally named the target : “ the killers had just one criminal obsession : the eradication of the Tutsis , of all the Tutsis ,” Macron said . Similarly , significant , Macron stated ( twice ) the number of genocide victims , “ more than a million men , women and children ,” he said to a nation that had resigned itself to the belief that the French were incapable of the truth on the genocide because it implicates them .
Further , Macron affirmed that the genocide was planned , “ A genocide has a genealogy . It has a history . A genocide doesn ’ t happen overnight . It is planned over time ,” he said , elaborating on the mechanics and psychology of extermination , “ A genocide takes hold of people ’ s minds ; it grows from stories ; it takes root in daily humiliations until it reveals itself in absolute hatred .”
Furthermore , he pulled the rug from under the feet of genocide deniers who try to evade responsibility by conjuring moral equivalencies . “ Genocide is not comparable . It is unique . There was one single genocide : the genocide against the Tutsi ,” Macron underscored , as he invited his own country to look closely in the mirror , “ Silence over the examination of the truth tramples on the memory of the genocide and on the dignity of survivors ,” Macron said with clarity and courage never before seen , or expected , from a leader of a western nation , let alone from complicitous France .
This courage was recognised by Macron ’ s host , President Kagame , who said that the speech of was an act of tremendous courage and that it would have “ special meaning for what is taking place now , and which will resonate well beyond Rwanda .” Kagame said this precisely in reference to the current attempts by Westerners and their institutions to impose an alternative discourse of Rwanda ’ s lived experience through manipulative actions that he called the “ falsification of history by promoting the lie of the so-called double genocide , fraudulent court cases in Europe against Rwandan officials , genocide suspects being granted safe havens in Europe , and Rwanda ’ s extradition requests being refused ”.
France ’ s refusal to apologise deliberate
Ahead of his visit to Rwanda , renown historians , associations representing the interests of the victims and survivors of the genocide , renown historians and conscientious politicians in France and around the world strongly urged President Macron to unequivocally apologize to Rwanda ( ns ) on behalf of France . But in the end , and though his carefully worded speech in defence of the humanity of victims , Macron fell short of
14