by Kazuya Hirokawa
Abstract
Some international communities have romanticized Rwanda’s national reconstruction after the 1994 genocide as The Rwandan Miracle. Nevertheless, academics have warned that Rwanda remains at risk of renewed acute violence. Therefore, this paper scrutinizes these competing assessments by questioning whether post-genocide Rwanda deserves a miracle story. I conducted a systematic review of academic articles, governmental documents, and international organization reports. The structure consists of two-part. First, in Section Ⅰ, the study analyzed the colonial and post-colonial dynamics to identify the causes of the power-struggle. It elucidated that the structural power inequalities in socio-economic coffee economy and socio-political hierarchical racial politics unleashed the post-colonial power struggle between Tutsi and Hutu, and the 1994 genocide. Therefore, second, in Section Ⅱ&Ⅲ, the research established criteria of socio-economic and socio-political decolonization to analyze the plausibility and sustainability of the current integration policy. The comprehensive study demonstrated that the miracle story is in danger of ending in a mirage due to the continuing structural power inequalities by the depoliticization of the populace. In the socio-economic field, despite unprecedentedly impressive growth, the growth model does not materialize the robust all-inclusive development. In the socio-political dimension, it is hard to forge the inclusive Rwandan identity that transcends exclusive ethnic identity because of the flawed civic nationalism and reconciliation. Not only the top-down policy to alleviate tensions but also bottom-up practice by citizens themselves that presupposes democratization of the political-economic power and public discussion about the past tragedy is integral for the lasting unity.