"A Puzzle From Within": Problems with and Alternatives to Humanitarianism and Savior Narratives for Ethiopia and Rwanda.

Abstract

In this dissertation, I bring to bear a unique blend of sources to look at problems with and alternatives to humanitarianism and savior narratives for the 1984/5 famine in Ethiopia and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Using works from Alex de Waal, Miriam Ticktin, Liisa Malkki, Wendy Brown, and Mahmood Mamdani and comparing media representations of and humanitarian advertisements for Ethiopia and Rwanda, I illustrate how the depoliticization of the famine and genocide, viewing them as natural or cultural rather than political, obscures the stories of Ethiopia and Rwanda. Instead, savior narratives are used, which put the humanitarian North at the center of the story, not only disempowering Africans, by painting them as helpless, passive, and subject to inevitable crises, but also disempowering the North, by suggesting that humanitarianism is the only response – quite separate from political action. These strategies reveal their constructedness when seen as a continuation of colonizing missions which relied on savior narratives employing a strong divide between “us” and “them.” In a new approach bringing in literature in the form of songs, I examine three popular works written to raise money for the Ethiopian famine: “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid, “We Are the World” by USA for Africa, and “Tears Are Not Enough” by Northern Lights. I compare and contrast the ability of music both to re-enforce savior narratives, or to point to community and learning as alternatives. Adding a final contrast, pointing to a better approach, I analyze two novels written as part of the Fest’Africa project, Tierno Monenembo’s The Oldest Orphan and Boubacar Boris Diop’s Murambi: The Book of Bones. With the novel by Rwandan Scholastique Mukasonga, these novels counter depoliticized discourses by engaging their audiences rhetorically at both an emotional and intellectual level, as well as showing encounters with history and power in the context of the genocide. These combine with a focus on storytelling and challenges to universalism to present alternatives in engaging with the genocide, and thus other “crises” in Africa, more widely, better illustrating ways which can empower both Africans and audiences in the North.