This thesis analyzes the collection and presentation of survivor oral testimony collected in Rwanda following the Rwandan Genocide. The study discusses the challenges of traditional historical methods in addressing the incomprehensibility of understanding genocide from the outside. The tendency of historians to focus on what is being said in an oral testimony with little discussion of how it is being said leaves the crucial sources only partially analyzed. This study embraces the subjectivity of oral histories to instead focus on expanding the methods used to engage with the testimonies. Using a post-structural theoretical lens helps to illustrate the manner in which aspects of gender or trauma are intimately tied to the creation and presentation of memory. The creation of the Rwandan Genocide’s narrative within prominent newspapers of the time reflects the tendency to misrepresent and misunderstand the complexity of such an event. Intellectual pursuits of African peoples and cultures require a reassessment of the prevailing tools and methods of analysis. Classification, even with the use of dates, and focusing on written sources loses its value when trying to gain some level of comprehension of the Genocide. Deconstructing the testimonies in their totality can begin to give some crucial insight into how such a tragedy is conceptualized at an individual level. But more importantly, it demonstrates the integral role of culture within the formation and expression of memory.
