ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the social history of violence through the perspective of members of the majority group by examining another supporting narrative in the constellation of genocide narratives: the rescuing narrative. The narrative of community protection challenges that of collective moral culpability by focusing on relationships of assistance, and strengthens the narrative of rescapes’ survival by highlighting the connections between victims and rescuers, while contrasting that of genocidaires’ killing with non-violent actions of care. The chapter examines communal rescue in Rwanda and provides an overview of rescuers and rescuing activities in contexts of violence in general before tracing the formation of the public narrative of the heroic rescuer in Rwanda. The 2009 Rwandan Law Governing Memorial Sites and Cemeteries of Victims of Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda make reference to the actions of those who perished to protect others.
