Info 202 Fall 2011

Genocide
Archive Rwanda, a digital archive now available to the public,
documents the 1994 murders of millions of Rwandans. Born
out of the collaboration between the Kigali Genocide Memorial, Aegis
Trust, Rwanda's National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide
and the Human Rights Documentation Initiative (HRDI) at the
University of Texas, Austin, the Archive makes available resources ranging from radio broadcasts, video testimonials from
survivors, photographs, propaganda posters. Beyond the multimedia artifacts available to the public online, the Archive expounds on the documents in their collection such as by creating GPS maps in relation to where the atrocities took place. Marking the areas with corresponding testimonials by survivors takes into account future changes to the landscape whether by nature or man-made development. The considerations taken into account in creating Genocide Archive Rwanda reflect the tension between preservation, change over time for any archiving project but made all the more poignant by the content which this particular archive seeks to preserve.

For a community to have active input into how the metadata is created allows that community to maintain control of perception and narrative in the archive built around their resources. In addition to the logistical difficulties in digitizing resources in a country with limited technological facilities, the problem of modeling a vocabulary around which to structure metadata that worked from both the Rwandan perspective as well as Western American and European ones was not an insignificant matter. The
Genocide Archive Rwanda itself is organized in such a way that places
emphasis on survivors' voices and portrays individuals as “survivors
of genocide” rather than “victims of genocide”; a semantic
distinction which greatly alters the narrative perception of the
archives. It frames the archives as being a place which not only
commemorates the dead and documents the time but ultimately
celebrates Rwandan strength and resilience as opposed to passive
victimhood. The conscientiousness of perception in delineating the
ontology of the archives turns the notion of “all classifications
being biased” to the advantage of the community by creating a
culturally constructive framework under which to influence and shape
the narrative of genocide for future generations.

Sources:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2010/12/13/131971720/rwanda

http://blogs.ischool.utexas.edu/ischoolyou/archives/tag/t-kay

http://www.genocidearchiverwanda.org.rw/index.php/Welcome_to_Genocide_Archive_Rwanda