Paths to Forgetting : Memory and Power after Violence in East Africa

This book explores how different war-peace transitions in Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya shape public memory of atrocity. The book's regional focus and case studies help readers to deepen their understanding of the politics of memory, public amnesia, and transitional justice in post-atrocity contexts.

Public amnesia and the political choice to 'forget' aspects of a difficult past define many post-atrocity contexts. Paths to Forgetting explores how distinct forms of transition such as rebel victory or power-sharing shape the memory regime and produce different forms of public amnesia in Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya. The book focuses on sites of violence and their encounters with erasure to capture the everyday aspects of securitisation of memory. The book finds that public amnesia directly impacts conflict transformation and peacebuilding. It examines how amnesia contributes to grievance via non-recognition in Rwanda, and how exposures without meaningful redress in Burundi and the refusal to engage with deeper roots of conflict in Kenya undermine peacebuilding. Finally, the book highlights the importance of addressing the regional dimensions of memory and forgetting and equips readers with new conceptual tools for peacebuilding scholarship and practice.