remembering the green hills in cold canada anna ainsworth a dissertation submitte

324 Pages·2015·1.9 MB·English

CONSTRUCTING RWANDAN IDENTITY IN THE DIASPORA: REMEMBERING THE
GREEN HILLS IN COLD CANADA

ANNA AINSWORTH

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN
PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR
OF PHILOSOPHY

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN POLITICAL SCIENCE
YORK UNIVERSITY
TORONTO, ONTARIO

OCTOBER, 2015

©ANNA AINSWORTH 2015
Abstract
This study investigated the processes of identity formation among those who identified as
Rwandan and lived in the Greater Toronto Area. The study was conducted using in-depth
qualitative interviews and ethnographic participant observation. It argues that those who
identified as Rwandan in the GTA were subject to powerful discourses of simultaneous
belonging and non-belonging in both the Canadian and the Rwandan state. The extreme violence
of the Rwandan genocide ruptured the bonds of belonging that had tied those who identified as
Rwandan to each other and to the Rwandan state. Since 1994, the new Rwandan state had
developed a powerful mythico-history that proposed that all those who are identified as Hutu are
perpetual perpetrators and all those who are identified as Tutsi are perpetual victims, even as it
had denied that the identities of Hutu and Tutsi continued to exist. The re-telling and re-enacting
of this mythico-history became the condition of belonging to the newly created diaspora and the
Rwandan state. Simultaneously, ambivalent welcome and racialization that those who identified
as Rwandan faced in Canada, and, specifically, the GTA, generated an anxiety and an awareness
that they could only partially belong in the new homeland. Thus, the exclusion of the Canadian
state generated a desire for the imagined homeland and enabled the Rwandan state to create a
diaspora. Yet, those who were defined as part of the Rwandan diaspora negotiated and navigated
the terms of their belonging/non-belonging in both Canada and in Rwanda. Even as they were
they were racialized by the Canadian state and framed as both desirable and threatening by the
Rwandan state, those who identified as Rwandan in the GTA built a sense of home and
belonging in Canada. They simultaneously became a diaspora and rooted themselves in the new
homeland of Canada.

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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Dr. Susan Henders for patiently and kindly walking me through
every stage of the dissertation process. Her warmth and support carried me through me many a
bout of self-doubt. Her keen eye caught many a grammatical and linguistic error, sparing me
embarrassment, and her astute editorial suggestions helped shape this from an amorphous
creature into something resembling a dissertation. The other members of my committee, Dr.
Daphne Winland and Dr. Robert Latham also offered invaluable guidance and advice,
encouraging me to further crystallize and clarify my ideas, and I owe them, and Dr. Nergis
Canefe, a debt of gratitude.
My family, especially Wendy and Steve, offered much needed sustenance, usually in the
form of delicious meals and technical support, the one keeping me nourished, and the second
keeping me sane. My friends, Liz, Carmen, Mark, Erin, and Daisy offered the boozy and often
much needed rest from work, without which I would be a rather dour individual. My work
family, Belinda, Maureen, Eva, Shannon, Adam, and Andrew supported me with kind words,
encouragement, chocolate and good fiction—all necessary to the well-being of my soul.
Finally, the largest debt of gratitude goes to my partner, Michael Ainsworth. When we
chose to pursue our dissertations at the same time he warned it would be difficult. He was right
(he usually is…). But, over the last six years, he, as always, has been my staunchest and most
steadfast advocate, intellectual sounding board, emotional support, supplier of good music, great
books, and tasty treats, invaluable companion and dearest friend—thank you.

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Table of Contents
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………..ii
Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………………..iii
Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………...iv
List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………………..vi
List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………vii

Chapter One: Introduction………………………………………………………………….....2
Brief Historical Context………………………………………………………………..9
Methods………………………………………………………………………………....16
Framework of Analysis………………………………………………………………...25
Central Arguments of Study and Key Contributions…………..……………………26
Organization of Study……………………………………………………………….....32

Chapter Two: The Making of a Diaspora…………………….………………………………33
Theorizing Diaspora………………………………..…………………………………..35
Theorizing Nation, Ethnicity, and Race………………………………………………38
States and the Making of Diasporas…………………………………………………...51
Home and Diasporas……………………………………………………………………58

Chapter Three: Collective Violence and the Making of a Diaspora………………………...63
Rwandan Genocide as Cultural Trauma……………………………………………...64
Individual Traumas…………………………………………………………………….65
Coping with Trauma…………………………………………………………………...69
Creating Cultural Trauma…………………………………………………………….73
State Appropriation of Survivor Narratives………………………………………….88

Chapter Four: Individual and Institutional Practices of Identity Formation……………...94
History of Diaspora Organizational Life in the GTA………………………………...96
Emergence of a “Diaspora”…………………………………………………………...101
Remembrance and Performances of Unity………………………………………….105
Opening Thoughts about Sexual Violence………………………………..…115
Celebrations and Performances of Unity……………………………………………120
Song and Dance as Expressions of Rwandaness…………………………….124
Micropolitics and/or Internal Contestations………………………………………..128
Ethnicities……………………………………………………………………..128
Gendered Divisions…………………………………………………………...141

Chapter Five: Ambivalent Welcome: Canadian Multiculturalism and Racialization……147
Multiculturalism………………………………………………………………………149
Loving the Hostland/Homeland………………………………………………………155
The Role of Migration stories in Creating a Shared Narrative……….……………162
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Keeping Families Together…………………………………………………………...170
Raising Children in the Host/Homeland…………………………………………….172
Families and New Gender Regimes………………………………………………….177
Confronting Multiculturalism………………………………………………………..181
Reminders of non-belonging: “What’s your background?”……………………….186
What do you know about Rwanda?………………………………………………… 188
Racialization in the Host/Homeland…………………………………………………189
Racializing Children…………………………………………………………..191
Racializing Men………………………………………………………………..195
Racializing Young Men……………………………………………………….200
Racializing Women……………………………………………………………204
Labour market integration and segregation………………………………………...207
Accent Discrimination………………………………………………………………...212

Chapter Six: The Contradictory Dynamics of Transnationalism.………………………....216
Little Transnationalisms……………………………………………………………...220
Little Digital Transnationalism………………………………………………………223
Children’s Transnational Imaginations……………………………………………..227
Imagined and Real Transnational Interventions in Rwanda………………………230
Absence of Affective Transnationalism……………………………………………...232
Transnationalism from Below: Civil Society………………………………………..234
Rwandan State-led Transnationalism………………………………………………..239
Diaspora as Desirable: Rwanda Day…………………………………………………240
Diaspora as Threat…………………………………………………………………….246

Chapter Seven: Belonging in our homes: Claiming Space and Citizenship……………….254
Claims of Belonging …………………………………………………………………..255
Intimate Connections to the New Homeland………………………………………...264
Rwandan Pride in the New Homeland……………………………………………….266

Chapter Eight: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...274
Summary of Findings…………………………………………………………………275
Limitations of Study…………………………………………………………………..285
Contributions and Wider Implications………………………………………………287

References……………………………………………………………………………………...294

Appendices………………………………………………………………….………………….310
Appendix A: Abbreviations and Terms……………………………………………...310
Appendix B: Informed Consent Form……………………………………………….312
Appendix C: Interview Questions……………………………….………………...…315
Appendix D: List of Interviewees and Interviews…………………………………..317

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List of Tables
Table 1: Individuals Identifying as Rwandan on Canadian Censuses………………………….…6

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List of Figures

Figure 1: Photo of Rwandan flag flying over Toronto City Hall, April 2013…………………..1

Figure 2: Illustration of Umushanana………………….………………………………………265

Figure 3: Illustration of Kaba and Slit…………………………………………………………265

Figure 4: Illustration of Wrapper……………………………………………………………....265

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Figure 1: Rwandan flag flying over Toronto City Hall, April 2013
Chapter One
Introduction
Interviewer: How do you define yourself?
Janvier: That’s a question I struggle with all the time. I’ve been here since ’86, so, my adult life
really tends to make me a Canadian. And my children, who are born here, they are
Canadian in all their thoughts and everything else. So it’s not easy, much as I love
Rwanda, to uproot myself from here, I know my kids would not go back, I had wanted to
go there in [...] we were there, I didn’t get enough, or I didn’t get support from my
family. I realize, I can go back no problem, but I again, I say that, most of who I am, is
here.
Interviewer: Well, you’ve already hinted at this, but to what extent do you feel that you belong to
Rwanda or belong in Rwanda?
Janvier: Great extent, great extent. I’m a Rwandese. And the fact that, it may be psychological,
having been stateless for that long in other African countries, the fact that now I can hold
a Rwandan passport makes me feel deeply psychologically involved with that country
because it’s like something we never had. I used to carry stateless travel documents. If
you carry that, that document, I can tell you, say you reach Heathrow airport—the way
you are treated, it’s like you are a criminal. You cannot be allowed to wander in the
airport, you don’t know, again this goes to Canada, you don’t know how proud I was,
holding a Canadian passport, going to Rwanda, through Heathrow airport, those
immigration officers wishing me to have a nice day sir, a nice day sir. The same joe who
in a couple of years had a stateless travel documents and was treated as a criminal, now
having a Canadian passport, ohhh, it was so sweet. Very sweet, very sweet. So being a
Rwandese again, having a passport is a wonderful thing, so nice.
Interviewer: How do you define yourself?
Christophe: Because this also, because at some point we will go and, I don’t know how long we
will take, but it will come to reality where actually we will find that we are the same. So
those Rwanda, DRC, those conflicts to me, they are no sense, ‘cause those they are
definitions. Those are definitions, but if we go back in history, we might find that we are
all brothers and we are all one, and actually we should have one target. So that’s how I,
you know, to myself, I define myself as a human being. Yeah, ‘cause sometimes I take
like Rwanda, Africa, you know those are, all, geographical criteria. Unless you send me
geographically, how do you define me? But to me, as a, I, I, define myself as a human
being. Who wouldn’t give an opportunity to a Rwandan, maybe, let’s say I’m CEO of a
company and I would say, you know, let’s meet you and you qualify for a position that’s
available in my company, I wouldn’t say you know this is the number one is Rwandan,
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number two is African, number three is a Canadian. I would, you know, look at the
performance of everybody, so that is why I say I define myself as a human who would
not go by nationality, or ethnic lines, or whatever. I know those things are everywhere.
Interviewer: To what extant do you feel that you belong in Rwanda, when you visit, or when you
think about it?
Seraphine: Ummm, 20%? I feel Canadian, like I’m I’m a Canadian, I feel like this is my home.
Umm, the transit, like, like in the first few years when I just got here, I was still back in
Rwanda, ‘cause I was not sure what’s here, how, how do I integrate here, how do I come
around and feel at home, but after those years, after now, I don’t, I just, when I go to
Rwanda I feel like I’m a visitor. A visitor who is excited to see how the country is
progressing, to see how, what has happened, but I don’t feel like I’m there, I’m part of
them. I don’t feel like I’m Rwandese. [laughs a bit nervously] I am Rwandese, but at the
same time, I would love to visit and then come back.
Interviewer: So when you migrated you were comfortable identifying as Rwandese?
Theodore: Yes I was, when I migrated in 1992 I wish I could go to Rwanda directly, before I
came to Canada, but at that time I couldn’t do that, so that’s why I went back. At my age
now, what I have and what I can contribute, that’s what I have to do now because the
country’s in my heart now, so what I can do for a little boy or a small girl in the country,
so what I can do. Yeah, let’s me do my part, my contribution and I will do it, I will teach
my son, or my daughter, anybody around me to help. Not only Rwanda, yeah, Africa too,
that’s why I’m doing things not only for Rwanda, it’s for Africa too.
Interviewer: How do you identify yourself?
Theodosia: I am Rwandese, period. And I have my IDs as Rwandese and I have my passport as
Rwandese, so I keep that because Canada accepts dual citizenship, so that’s where I
belong. I’m here, I’m Canadian, I have my passport. I cross the border, I go to Kigali, I’m
Rwandese, I show my Rwandese passport.
Why did the people quoted above perceive themselves as belonging to a group? They shared
little in common; one was born in Uganda, one in Rwanda, and one in Burundi; one migrated to
Canada 27 years ago, one 13 years ago, and one 3 years ago; one was educated in Egypt, one in
Rwanda, and one in Canada. They shared skin colour, yet they also resembled African-
Americans, Caribbeans, Sub-Saharan Africans. They shared a language spoken by about 15
million people worldwide—Kinyarwanda, but not all members of this supposed group spoke
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