Whose Ubuntu? Rethinking Rwanda’s Gacaca Transitional Justice System

Gacaca, a transitional justice judicial practice in Rwanda, has been hotly contested over the last decade. A minority view calls it legal terrorism or even genocide, while much of the international peace studies community considers it a shining example of Ubuntu ethics, i.e., a successful tool of reconciliation initiated by Tutsi survivors who offered reintegration to former perpetrators (Hutu). Never has a legal instrument been described in such stark and contrasting ways. Where most scholars see a positive contribution to peacemaking in a postwar society and use the Southern African term, Ubuntu, I consider such a view misguided and label Gacaca a practice that employs Ubuntu in the negative. Its excesses showcase negative ethnicity, a persecution of innocent bystanders, Hutu, such that Gacaca proceedings often had the character of a show trial. What occurred under the watchful eye and praise of international observers, such as UN observers, NGOs, and scholars, was a “trial run” of ethnic supremacy writ large—across all sectors of Rwandan society: a legitimation of an ethnocratic nation-state, where former Tutsi refugees control the seat of power, including ambassadorial appointments. Some 80 percent of Rwanda’s ruling elites are Tutsi (Reyntjens 2021). I will take stock of the competing narratives by first offering a historical review of Gacaca.