Contentious vulnerability: The case of Rwandan genocide memorials.

This article examines the political aesthetic of bodily vulnerability in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide memorials, which uniquely display human remains and artifacts of violence. While European and North American scholars often criticize these memorials for reinforcing exclusionary state narratives—particularly the official "Genocide against the Tutsi" framing that marginalizes other victim groups—the article argues that such critiques conflate the aesthetic of vulnerability itself with its problematic political framing. Drawing on the theories of Judith Butler and Achille Mbembe, it proposes that, when inclusively and critically framed, the aesthetic of bodily vulnerability can foster hope by emphasizing shared human precariousness, resisting the disposability of bodies, and opposing debasing forms of power. The article highlights the complex commemorative politics in Rwanda, the heterogeneous responses of survivors and communities, and advocates for reframing memorial narratives to include multiple victim groups, encourage nuance, and support pluralistic memory work as part of broader political commemoration.