"A calf cannot fail to pick a color from its mother: Intergenerational transmission of trauma and its effect on reconciliation among post-genocide Rwandan youth"

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Abstract Background: The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi took more than one million lives in a period of one hundred days. Most survivors were left severely traumatized, and similar trauma symptoms found among adults are also currently being observed among young people including those who were born after and who did not physically witness or experience the horrific events of the genocide. Based on a growing and substantial body of theory and evidence suggesting the possibility of transmission of trauma across generations, our study aimed to explore mechanisms of trauma transmission to youth born of genocide survivors after the genocide and the effects trauma may have on the reconciliation process among this younger generation in post-genocide Rwanda. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted in Rwanda among youth born after the genocide from genocide survivor parents, parents who survived the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis and mental health and peace-building professionals. Nineteen individual interviews (IDIs) with post-genocide descendants of survivors, ten IDIs with mental health and peacebuilding professionals, and six focus group discussions (FGDs) with genocide survivor parents were conducted in Eastern Province and Kigali city of Rwanda. Respondents were recruited through five local organisations that work closely with survivors and their descendants. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyse the data.Results: Findings from our study suggest that the trauma experienced by genocide survivor parents is perceived to be transmitted through various pathways including biological means, silence and disclosure of genocide experiences, and everyday contact with a traumatized parent. Life at home as well as the recurrent genocide commemoration period, during which remembrance events such as re-burial of genocide victims, testimonies of survivors and commemoration rituals that refresh the memories of the past, appear to potentiate this phenomenon. Additionally, such trauma transmitted to survivor descendants (descendants of genocide survivors) is understood to negatively affect their psychological well-being which can limit their involvement in reconciliation process out of fear of re-traumatizing their parents, due to mistrust towards families of perpetrators and parents’ reconciliation involvement including its potentially traumatic impacts on them.

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