The transformation of lieux de mémoire: the Nyabarongo River in Rwanda, 1992-2009

This article takes the Nyabarongo river as a lens through which to tentatively reflect on the transformation of lieux de memoire in post-genocide Rwanda in the period 1992–2009. It is culled from a larger, multi-year project on the construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of collective memory in Rwanda that revolves around a systematic, historical, and spatial analysis of the hundreds of genocide memorials, informal and otherwise, that have been created - and some that have disappeared - in the last fifteen years.