Trauma, sociogenesis, and the work of societal healing after conflict: “All Rwandans are wounded”

Abstract This article explores recurring problems in post‐conflict studies of trauma through the lens of evolving discourses of psychic woundedness in post‐genocide Rwanda. Research suggests that global psychiatric discourses did not enter the Rwandan public sphere until after the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, at which point local iterations of trauma focused on (Tutsi) survivors of the genocide. However, in recent years Rwandans have begun to use an expanded notion of trauma to analyze individual and collective responses to not only the genocide but also other forms of historical and material violence. At the forefront of this trend are Rwandan “societal healers” who study trauma at a country‐wide level. I argue that in order to overcome entrenched social divisions, societal healers deploy a “sociogenic” approach to trauma, or one that focuses on how structures of oppression produce psychic “wounds” across levels of society. Broadening their understanding of both trauma and identity, societal healers are invested in exploring how cycles of violence—physical and metaphorical—have shaped the lives of all Rwandans over time and how those cycles may end.