The relation between social construction of ethnic identities and violence: A comparative analysis of Rwanda and Burundi

This study investigates the relationship between the social construction of ethnic identities and violence. The forms of construction of identities associated with violence and the conflicts that have emerged are analyzed comparatively in the historical process through the Rwanda and Burundi examples. The mass participation of ordinary people in genocides and other forms of violence in Rwanda and Burundi can be understood by revealing the mechanisms by which identities are socially constructed. In this study, ethnic identities as well as other categories of identity have been included since it is believed that ethnic identities are not fixed and unchanging, and identities can be changed, transformed and reproduced with changes in historical and political conditions. In addition, primordial, instrumentalist and social constructivist approaches that give different answers about the definition, nature, function and qualifications of ethnic identities are included, and it is argued that social constructivist perspective is better in explaining the tranformation of ethnic identities and occuring violence in Rwanda and Burundi. Adopting a social constructivist approach, the transformation of ethnic identities and political structure has been examined in pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods of the two countries. In both countries, there were not the same transformations in the process of constructing ethnic identities; it is seen that the effects of political structure on ethnic identities are different and therefore the incidents of violence are not similar. Compared with Burundi, it is observed that in Rwanda, there was a more rigid, discriminatory and exclusionist ethnic identity constrcution in the historical process, identity building was affected more by political processes and violence cases developed more intensively. Keywords: Social construction, Violence, Rwanda, Burundi