ABSTRACT
Drawing from critical discourse analysis of academic, popular culture, and media texts on the Rwandan genocide, this chapter argues that when it comes to knowledge production about the Rwandan genocide, there exists a “raced expertise” that is harmful to Rwandans. This raced expertise is a colonial continuity that is contextualized in global white supremacy. Drawing from critical race and postcolonial theorists, the privileging of white voices and perspectives serves to re-constitute whites as heroes, saviors, and legitimated decision-makers while rendering Rwandan survivors speechless, their knowledge co-opted, and de-legitimized. This process of colonial knowledge production about Rwandans serves the purpose of continuing to consolidate control over material resources (whether academic, humanitarian, or natural). However, whether recognized or not, Rwandan survivors do create knowledge about the genocide; ethics and accountability demand that the “international community” supports the recognition and privileging of their expertise.
