New Community, Old Tradition: The Intore Warrior as a Symbol of the New Man. Rwanda’s Itorero-Policy of Societal Recreation
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Abstract
In Rwanda, the state-driven program, Itorero ry’Igihugu, revives an old military institution, Itorero, of the pre-colonial kingdom’s Tutsi elite warriors, Intore [the chosen ones]. By building a new national community of “chosen people” through civic education and cultural adjustment trainings (promoting ‘Rwandan values’) the program aims at countering the impact of experienced collective violence and inner division to ensure the success of the national development plan, Vision 2020. Introduced as an endogenous instrument for post-genocide national rehabilitation, Itorero is currently the most far-reaching governmental program, and the first one aimed at profound societal transformation through a new interpretation of an old tradition. Its approach challenges globalized norms of peacebuilding and raises questions concerning debates on ‘divided communities’ and ‘national reconciliation. Drawing on field research as well as on the historical genesis and local meanings of the tradition, the paper provides insights into the program’s image of man and into its own logic of social reconstruction beyond the normative views of peacebuilding.
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