This chapter looks at English in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan – at first sight countries at the periphery of World Englishes research and theory, given the size of their populations, their economic weight, and the impact their varieties and uses of English have had on others. It traces the histories and the present-day sociolinguistic situation of English in the five countries, of which only South Sudan and Uganda share a colonial past of British control. The current chapter also provides an outline of the similarities across and differences between their Englishes and discusses how continuing regional migration and influence from exogenous varieties of English have contributed to their shape and whether Uganda and Ugandan English play an epicentral role in the region.

This chapter investigates international commissions of inquiry (ICOI) as forms of memory intervention and attempts to breach public amnesia on violence, and how these interact with long-term conflict. The chapter specifically considers UN-sanctioned commissions and mapping exercises in Burundi and Rwanda in the 1990s. It shows that there are at least two ways in which international investigative reports have historically become participants in local conflict dynamics. The chapter shows that, first, by qualifying violence and conflict in particular ways, ICOIs can generate symbolic capital unequally benefiting the different sides to the conflict, and as such they participate in constructing hierarchies of blame and victimhood. Second, through the simultaneity of exposure (‘finding out’) and lack of official recognition, ICOIs can contribute to broader dynamics of impunity and public secrecy, with the risk of producing partial, socially disengaged and politically disempowered forms of revelation. The chapter urges us to construct investigative instruments that are better equipped to account for and address some of these unwanted effects.

This chapter reflects on the core contributions of the book to the study of memory, transitional justice and peacebuilding. First, it highlights conceptual contributions in rethinking the nature of public amnesia as an active form of labour. Following this, it notes the rich empirical findings on the diversity of ways in which the negation of and disengagement with the past operate, and the diverse ways in which this imprints into materiality, affecting sites of violence and those who encounter them. The chapter also highlights contributions to a dynamic understanding of amnesia and the comparative politics of transition, noting how diverse regimes of memory form based on the type of transition, and how these change over time. Finally, the chapter closes by highlighting the contributions to our understanding of the intersection between public amnesia and peacebuilding.

The introductory chapter lays out the core research questions and maps out persistent gaps in knowledge, particularly when it comes to: (1) comparative work on memory and public amnesia; (2) a dynamic understanding of how war-to-peace transitions shape memory regimes differently and over time; and (3) a regional approach to memory/amnesia. In other words, are there different ‘paths to forgetting’? And do memory regimes evolve in line with the changing nature of political regimes? To this effect, three cases are chosen for an in-depth exploration: a context of victor’s peace exemplified by Rwanda; a power-sharing deal exemplified here by Burundi; and finally a non-transition/ongoing confrontation exemplified by Kenya and the War on Terror in East Africa. From a comparative perspective, the book explores three distinct cases of both violence and transition: a genocide coupled with civil war and rebel victory in Rwanda, civil war and power-sharing in Burundi, and a transnational confrontation with a non-state actor in the context in Kenya. The chapter then outlines its methodology and offers a chapter-by-chapter overview of the book.

This chapter investigates the implications of rebel victory for the memory regime, looking at a case study of Rwanda. The chapter finds that victor’s justice extends to the realms of memory and shapes a distinct militant memocracy regime – an active shaping and policing of boundaries of memory, and the suppression of competing narratives, memory acts and memory spaces. Victor’s memory leaves a complex material imprint, defined by both intense memorialisation and multilayered erasures. The chapter also introduces the concepts of transnational rectification and memory erasure.

A framing case study describes the 2018 surge of migrants attempting to cross the English Channel from continental Europe to the UK in small boats to seek refugee status. The chapter then discusses international migration law. The chapter begins by presenting important concepts and historical trends from migration law, and the competing models of economic migration and crisis migration. It then describes in detail major components of the Refugee Convention, which sets international rules for determining whether an individual can be a refugee, creates rights for refugees, and shapes subsequent outcomes for individuals who are denied or lose refugee status. Finally, the chapter examines how international migration law interacts with topics discussed earlier in the book, including: law of the sea, human rights, armed conflict, criminal law, and environmental law.

As Kamari Maxine Clarke likewise explores in her chapter, the intersection of rights and “transitional justice” in diverse situations has become one of the defining features of our time. Narrating the classic role of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the end of Apartheid, Clarke dramatizes the struggle over the meaning of transition, distinguishing between the “moralistic” goal of forgiveness and the more confrontational demand for accountability. For Clarke, the performativity of justice – it is always rendered by someone – means the history of human rights needs to be equally attentive to when it is not provided or when crimes are perpetrated or mistakes made in its name. What we see is that particular transitional justice speech acts enable the reproduction of particular types of power.

Post-genocide Rwanda serves as a case of strong institutional control in which the government engages transitional justice through a strategy of coercion. In this chapter I explore the Rwandan government’s response to international pressure for accountability. To advance government impunity, the government adopts a strategy of coercion, wherein a new transitional justice institution, gacaca, is implemented but subsequently monitored and controlled to advance state impunity and consolidate RPF control. The chapter begins with an overview of armed conflict in Rwanda with particular attention on the complexities of the violence experienced by individuals during the civil war, genocide, and at the hands of the RPF. I then discuss the government’s strategic adaptation of transitional justice to identify and evaluate the coercive strategy in which claims for government accountability are monitored and controlled. I explore the strategy of coercion in practice through an in-depth analysis of gacaca, which has aggressively pursued crimes of genocide while ignoring RPF abuses. To explore the coercion strategy beyond the case of Rwanda, I examine transitional justice in Burundi.

In this introductory chapter I present the core tension in the study of transitional justice: the frequent failure of transitional justice to bring justice to victims of state violence. I question how governments escape justice in the age of accountability. The strategies through which a government adapts transitional justice to manage potentially risky demands for accountability have implications for who is held responsible for the atrocities of the past, a central factor for political order itself. This chapter engages the literature on norm compliance to situate my theory of strategic adaptation.

Thanks in part to a fee-free basic education policy, school enrolment in Rwanda has surged. More children, particularly those from poor families, now have access to more years within the public education system. At the same time, completion rates remain low and repetition rates remain high. This chapter looks at the ‘hidden costs’ of fee-free schooling in Rwanda. It pairs policy analysis with qualitative data gathering with children, families, teachers, and local and national decision-makers to consider why completion and transition rates aren’t as high as expected in the context of fee-free school. Findings suggest children continue to contend with a range of school-related costs that impact attendance, performance and completion. Examination fees, afterschool coaching, school feeding and ‘voluntary’ parent–teacher association dues shape children’s full participation in school. These ‘hidden costs’ are a key factor for why children do not complete their schooling. The notion of ‘culture’ or ‘backwards mindset’ as the primary reasons why families may choose not to send their children to school is challenged; instead there may be direct and indirect costs that are not accounted for, even in the context of a policy that appears to align with the Education for All agenda.

This chapter explores Pentecostal conversion as both an affective and a political process. It considers the kind of subjects young urban Pentecostals are called upon to become: organised, enterpreneurial, armed not only with a transformed heart but with a ‘vision’ for their future and a ‘strategic plan’. This subject both converges with and diverges from the RPF’s attempts to create ‘ideal’ subjects who are able to participate in the country’s post-genocide development. While some young Pentecostals benefited from such self-making, others became disillusioned. Instead, they highlighted the limits of the Pentecostal project and its inability to deliver the bright future they felt they had been promised.

This chapter considers gender dynamics within the new Pentecostal churches and the role of young women within them. It explores Pentecostal gender constructions and how they conflict with the RPF’s more ‘progressive’ gender policies. The chapter foregrounds young women’s timework and how their actions are oriented towards leaving a Christian legacy for imagined heirs in the future. Here legacy is related to notions of urwibutso (memorial), with the concept taking on new meanings in Pentecostal churches. This chapter continues the discussion of Christian ubwenge, arguing that it becomes particularly important for young Pentecostal women.