Book chapter: Speech politics

17th June 2020

Performing political scripts

Abstract:

Ananda Breed’s article investigates gacaca courts in Rwanda, which have been employed since 2005 to address crimes related to the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi. Stressing that scripts and performances influence and inform each other in/as an evolving practice, the article explores critically the varied permutations of the gacaca law and subsequent performances of gacaca—staged both juridically and artistically. Analyzing juridical gacaca courts (with Jeffrey C. Alexander) as ‘social performances,’ the author also examines examples of theatrical gacaca performances, presenting them as moments of intervention and even sites of resistance within the larger speech politics of post-genocide Rwanda.