ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the two connotations of the term ‘narrative’, as adjective and verb: it unpacks the culpability/shame/guilt narrative and it narrates genocidal violence from the perspective of non-perpetrator members of the perpetrator group whose experiences continue to be under-researched in the social history of genocides. It examines the Rwandan case, it contributes to the general understanding of moral responsibility, as collective guilt and shame are significant issues for collaborators and their descendants. The chapter discusses attributions of guilt and shame in the social and narrative lives of Rwandans. It traces the formation of the public narrative of moral culpability addressed to members of the perpetrator group that leads to collective guilt and shame. Non-perpetrator members of the perpetrator group resist the generalised attribution of culpability by reframing it through the language of resistance or incapability, and in doing so they distance themselves from collective guilt and shame.
