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Rwanda's Genocide Heritage: Between Justice and Sovereignty

Delia Wendel

Culture, humanities & social science

Rwanda's Genocide Heritage: Between Justice and Sovereignty

By Delia Wendel, associate professor of urban studies and international development in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Duke University Press · 2025

Drawing from oral histories and a visual archive of memory work after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Wendel explores the human rights and government priorities that preserved killing sites and victims' remains for public display. Rwanda's genocide memorials exemplify a global phenomenon that Wendel terms "trauma heritage," wherein hidden or unrecognized violence is made visible in public space to demand justice and recognition. Wendel argues that trauma heritage innovates on the form histories take by "writing" them into landscapes, constituting a reparative historiography from the Global South.

From Summer 2026 recommended reading from MIT (MIT News). Cover image via Google Books.