Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak

Jean Hatzfeld has provided us with a remarkable account of a group of Rwandan genocide perpetrators. These perpetrators have admitted to violent criminal activity. This allows us a rare glance into their accounts. While the validity of their reports might be questioned, we know that they would not be penalized for anything that they disclosed. Their accounts lead to several questions that we might address.

•How did the offenders make sense of their actions? What reasons did they provide?
•How would you integrate a discussion of “free will” and “social situation” or willing versus unwilling participant philosophy (or some type of combination)?
•Was there some kind of group mental illness that occurred?
•How did the genocide meet the psychological and social needs of the perpetrators and their collaborators?

Graduate level