Recent debates in post-genocide and post-war Rwanda have explored how official commemorations of the Genocide Against the Tutsi in many ways borrow and ‘mimic’ the Holocaust memory ‘paradigm’. The academic canon on post-1994 Rwanda focuses the mostly on politics around this official memory that has evolved into hegemonic memory and on how it has been mobilized to promote a selective memory of the past. However, there is little analysis of vernacular, bottom-up memory practices that have evolved alongside the official one. Using observation, semi-structured interviews, and secondary sources, this article examines vernacular memory practices of mourning the wartime missing in Rwanda. Through the concepts of ‘multidirectional’ and ‘traveling’ memory, this study examines how survivors of these interconnected violent histories that unfolded in two different countries claim multi-faceted Agaciro (dignity, self-respect, and self-worth) through two different memory approaches. The article argues that while actors in official memory approach claim Agaciro through borrowing from another global hegemonic memory, respondents in this study created vernacular avenues to remember their missing loved ones. The article finds that while hegemonic memory might appear to only compete with vernacular memory, there are also ‘knots’ that connect these two memory forms in Rwanda’s context and beyond. In its conclusion, the article proposes an Agaciro-centred approach to examine the relationships between official and unofficial memory practices that have been reenergized through protests both offline and online in Rwanda and beyond. The article contributes to scholarship on Rwanda’s post-genocide memory politics, transcultural memory, and decolonial perspectives on dignity.

中文翻译：

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阿加西罗、白话记忆和后种族灭绝卢旺达的记忆政治

最近在后种族灭绝和战后卢旺达的辩论探讨了官方对图西族种族灭绝的纪念如何在许多方面借用和“模仿”大屠杀记忆“范式”。关于 1994 年后卢旺达的学术经典主要关注围绕这一已演变为霸权记忆的官方记忆的政治，以及如何动员它来促进对过去的选择性记忆。然而，几乎没有分析与官方做法一起发展的白话、自下而上的记忆做法。通过观察、半结构化访谈和二手资料，本文考察了悼念卢旺达战时失踪者的白话记忆实践。通过“多向”和“旅行”记忆的概念，本研究探讨了在两个不同国家展开的这些相互关联的暴力历史的幸存者如何通过两种不同的记忆方法来主张多方面的 Agaciro（尊严、自尊和自我价值）。文章认为，虽然官方记忆方法中的演员通过借鉴另一个全球霸权记忆来声称阿加西罗，但本研究中的受访者创造了白话途径来记住他们失踪的亲人。文章发现，虽然霸权记忆似乎只与白话记忆竞争，但在卢旺达及其他地区也存在连接这两种记忆形式的“结”。在其结论中，这篇文章提出了一种以阿加西罗为中心的方法来研究官方和非官方记忆实践之间的关系，这些实践通过卢旺达及其他地区的线下和线上抗议活动重新焕发了活力。这篇文章有助于研究卢旺达种族灭绝后的记忆政治、跨文化记忆和关于尊严的非殖民主义观点。