ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the formation, transformation and consolidation of the genocide master-narrative in Rwanda through the conceptual lens of the narrative constellation. It examines the ways in which key events, nationally and internationally, enable the formation of public narratives that converge to form the master-narrative. The chapter explains the main narratives, describes their changes over time and their convergence to consolidate and strengthen the genocide master-narrative. It discusses the dialogical relationship of the genocide master-narrative with the counter master-narrative of war, showing that this too is constituted by a constellation of narratives in dialogue across mirroring domains. The chapter shows that the converse phenomenon is at play: that conflict itself can become the foundational narrative around which national claims to belonging are made to forge a new country, nation and people in post-genocide Rwanda. S. Straus writes that genocides are based on specific foundational narratives around group claims to citizenship at the expense of other groups.
