Return to Fawe

Yesterday, I had my first focus group with the secondary school students who will be taking part in the training module I am currently creating.  I wanted to get a sense of their hopes and expectations regarding the skills they would derive from the workshop.  It was a little difficult to get them to start talking and they were very vague in explaining their goals for participating in the workshop.  Most expressed the desire to help people and impact the lives of others.  As the conversation built up momentum, it mostly focused upon the need for improved communication skills, especially in situations in which there exists a power imbalance, such as dealing with a parent or a teacher.  

It appears, from the focus group discussion, that young women in Rwanda are struggling to assert their independence and forge their own path.  The conflict they most encountered seemed to be rooted in the place women still hold in Rwandan society.  Although Rwanda has made strides in the incorporation of women in leadership positions, these young women are struggling with their families to assert their own career path and to prove to their fathers that they are more than competent to make appropriate and wise decisions regarding their future educational endeavors.  The written comments one young woman offered expressed frustration in that she feels an absence of professional and educational support and advice.  Young women, it seems, are still struggling to prove their worth to their families, communities and Rwandan society.  It will be interesting to determine whether or not young Rwandan men feel such pressure from their families regarding career paths.

The discussion veered to Gacaca, Rwanda's system of community justice.  While the Fawe girls praised the system for offering justice to the survivors and contributing to the reconciliation process for the country, they also acknowledged many of Gacaca's inherent problems.  The courts grant rights to victims; illustrates the government's understanding of the problems of post genocide Rwanda and commitment to help; brings Hutus and Tutsis together granting them an avenue to resolve conflicts among each other; and often provides survivors with knowledge where their lost loved ones perished, allowing for proper burial.  

However, given the problems of Gacaca (that former killers or their families serve as judges and the insecurity of survivors who identify or are even in the place to identify those who wronged them and their families), I was surprised by the girls enthusiasm for the system.  I asked whether or not there could be reconciliation without justice.  The girls looked astonished by my question and I gathered from their answer that they saw the confessions and apologies offered by perpetrators of the genocide as sufficient justice to allow for reconciliation.  It seems then, justice is in the eye of the beholder.