Trust in the aftermath of genocide: Insights from Rwandan life histories
| Author | Marijke Verpoorten,Bert Ingelaere |
| Published date | 01 July 2020 |
| Date | 01 July 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0022343319899136 |
| Subject Matter | Regular Articles |
Trust in the aftermath of genocide: Insights
from Rwandan life histories
Bert Ingelaere
Marijke Verpoorten
Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of Antwerp
Abstract
We study changes in inter- and intra-ethnic trust in Rwanda. We focus on the impact of the 1994 genocide against
Tutsi, which is a case of group-selective violence marked by a clear perpetrator-group and victim-group as well as
within-group variation with respect to exposure to violence. In our empirical analysis, we rely on more than 400
individual life histories in which intra- and inter-ethnic trust were systematically ranked for all life history years.
Overall, we find that, while intra-ethnic trust remains largely unchanged, inter-ethnic trust decreases with the
onset of violence and sharply so for those targeted in the genocide. Inter-ethnic trust gradually recovers over time.
Only members of a subset of the victim-group, namely those with the highest probability of individual physical
exposure to violence, portray signs of continued out-group mistrust, 17 years after the genocide. Our results
suggest that taking into account the element of time, establishing a fine-grained differentiation of the relevant in-
and out-groups in the conflict, and identifying the level of exposure to violence, are necessary steps to better
understand the impact of political violence on trust. Regarding theory, our findings further qualify what is known
about the twofold theoretical foundation of trust relationships, namely that changes in interpersonal trust reside in
altered personal predispositions due to traumatic experiences and/or evolving experiences of trustworthiness in
social interaction.
Keywords
ethnicity, genocide, Rwanda, trust
Introduction
‘I don’t know where the trust comes from but I feel it in
my heart.’ (Hutu, neither accused nor convicted for
genocide crimes, 55 years, female, life history year 2010)
‘I can’t see what they [Tutsi] carry in their hearts. But I
am sure they are not happy with us. They still cultivate
ethnic “ideologies”. They think they are superior.’
(Hutu, male, convicted for genocide, 40 years old, life
history year 2011)
‘I don’t trust them. They are all the same. They can kill
us like they did in the past.’ (Tutsi genocide survivor,
56 years old, female, life history year 2011)
‘The Gacaca [community courts dealing with genocide
crimes] have clarified things. We have noticed that some
of them are innocent, and I did no longer fear the entire
group.’ (Tutsi returnee, 50 years, female, life history
year 2006)
Does the experience of political violence result in
changes in inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic trust over time?
This question lies at the heart of this article.
Violent conflict kills and maims people, destroys
physical capital, and reduces human capital. Much less
is known about the effects on less tangible factors such as
civic and political participation, altruism and collective
action, trust and trustworthiness. These factors are often
captured under the umbrella term ‘informal institutions’
and relate to so-called ‘prosocial preferences’, thus the
inclination to behave in the best interest of other
Corresponding author:
marijke.verpoorten@uantwerp.be
Journal of Peace Research
2020, Vol. 57(4) 521–535
ªThe Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0022343319899136
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