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Title Staging the Rwandan Diaspora: The Politics of Performance
Full text http://vbn.aau.dk/da/publications/staging-the-rwandan-diaspora-the-politics-of-performance(27674c4a-d6bc-45ff-aa1d-7af554bf1252).html; http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2013.812888; http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2013.812888
Date 2013
Author(s) Turner, Simon
Abstract This article explores how the Rwandan state 'stages' its diaspora as agents of change. I argue that<br/>'staging' ' in the sense of creating a specific, positive image ' is an important aspect of the present<br/>government's effort to create a new Rwanda of national unity and reconciliation. Although the diaspora<br/>mostly is articulated in policy documents in positive terms, there is also a strong acknowledgement<br/>of the so-called 'negative forces' of the diaspora. Staging the diaspora as agents of change is<br/>therefore a means to deal with this ambiguous perception of the diaspora and cultivate only its positive<br/>sides, and becomes part of a larger state-building project that is about 'staging' or 'performing'<br/>national unity and asserting state sovereignty. I argue that the Rwandan state performs its sovereignty<br/>and governs its hostile diaspora through processes of categorising the diaspora and<br/>through processes of inclusion and exclusion of certain categories.
Subject(s) diaspora; state; sovereignty; performance; genocide
Language eng
Publisher Routledge
Type of publication article
Source Turner, S 2013, ' Staging the Rwandan Diaspora: The Politics of Performance ' African Studies, vol 72, no. 2, pp. 265-284. , 10.1080/00020184.2013.812888
Repository Aalborg - Aalborg University
Added to C-A: 2016-07-26;07:10:39