Gendered Blame: Narratives of Participation in Genocide

• Published date: 01 December 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/15570851231188972
• Author: Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira,Kait S. Schell,Eric Sibomana
• Date: 01 December 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Feminist Criminology

2023, Vol. 18(5) 379–405

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/15570851231188972

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Gendered Blame: Narratives

of Participation in Genocide

Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira

1

,

Kait S. Schell

1

, and Eric Sibomana

2

Abstract

This article draws upon interviews with 74 Rwandans to analyze how they explain

civilian participation in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Specif‌ically, we assess how

Rwandans describe why men and women perpetrated genocide. We f‌ind that re-

spondents commonly attribute men’s participation in the genocide to structural,

external factors, such as government orders. However, respondents regularly attribute

women’s participation to jealousy and other factors tied to their personalities. We also

assess how the attribution of blame may impact the treatment of formerly incarcerated

individuals, suggesting that gendered views of the women who committed genocide

may hinder their reentry and reintegration.

Keywords

genocide, perpetration, blame, Rwanda, reentry

Genocide devastated communities across Rwanda when Simon was only two years

old. As the violence began, he and his family f‌led to a nearby church, joining the many

other Tutsi who had hoped a religious institution would provide refuge. Although

Simon does not remember much about this time in hiding, he recalls watching movies

on mattresses—mattresses that killing groups set on f‌ire when they eventually

1

The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

2

University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Corresponding Author:

Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira, The Ohio State University, 235 Townshend Hall, 1885 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH

43210, USA.

Email: nzitatira.1@osu.edu

arrived. He also vividly remembers witnessing a man strike his father with a machete

as the f‌ires blazed.

The person who killed Simon’s father subsequently served time in prison, and he and

many other Rwandans are now reentering society after completing their genocide-

related sentences. Ref‌lecting on the return of formerly incarcerated pe ople to his

community, Simon shared, “It was hard before; it was hard to see them coming [back].”

Simon then explained, however, that he was able to work on a project with the person

who killed his father because of his belief that the men who perpetrated violence were

“not naturally like that. They were inf‌luenced, the way we learn that 1 is 1 and 2 is 2, but

you can also take 4 and call it 1...”

However, when asked why women participated in the genocide, Simon explained,

“They also were jealous…Most women had that jealousy. They would think that killing

those people who have studied will allow their children who did not study well or who

were less intelligent to occupy their positions. Despite the happening of genocide,

females are jealous in general.”As such, Simon connected women’s participation in

genocide to an internal personality trait—jealousy—even though he had emphasized

how men were externally inf‌luenced.

This article examines how Rwandans like Simon explain participation in genocide

with a specif‌ic focus on how their accounts vary when describing men’sandwomen’s

perpetration. In 2020, we interviewed 74 Rwandans of divergent backgrounds. We

asked them about why people committed genocide, as well as about their interactions

with people who had been incarcerated for crimes of genocide. We f‌ind that, when

discussing men’s participation, respondents commonly shared external (e.g.,

structural or situational) causes, namely by suggesting that the government incited

participation. However, when asked to specify the reasons for women’sparticipation

in the genocide, respondents were much more likely to cite internal, psycho-social

factorstiedtowomen’s personalities, like jealousy. Women’s participation was also

discussed as far more taboo than men’s participation, and some respondents even

suggested the women who perpetrated genocide were not women (see also Sjoberg &

Gentry, 2007).

These attributions of blame are important in their own right (Maruna & Copes,

2005), though they likely shape engagement with people who committed genocide as

well. In fact, millions of Rwandans are coming to terms with the fact that the in-

dividuals who committed genocide in 1994 have been completing their prison

sentences and reentering society. Because of this current social situation, this article

also analyzes how respondents discuss engagement with men and women who were

incarcerated for genocide. Specif‌ically, we pay particular attention to whether and

how allocations of blame may shape interactions with individuals who have com-

pleted their sentences for crimes of genocide. In doing so, we illustrate that re-

spondents were more likely to view Rwandans whom they believed participated in the

genocide due to external factors as redeemable. Yet,respondents tied participation in

the genocide based on internal characteristics to being unreformable, indicating that

380 Feminist Criminology 18(5)