Dr. Richard Benda. Academically, I identify myself as political philosopher who is interested in the complex interactions between religious and political agency. My passion has always been understanding of core foundations that hold societies and body politics together. So I studied Latin and Modern Languages in High school before undertaking legal studies in tertiary education. After graduating in Law and teaching Criminal law and Constitutional Law (Independent University of Kigali), I became increasingly dissatisfied with the legal as a critical interpretive framework of post-genocide Rwanda. This led to doctoral studies in Religious Philosophy and Political life at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. My research looked at the agency of committed and practicing religious faith in situations of extreme political violence like the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

E-mail: bmrick@gmail.com Call: +27 21 808 4047

Current Research Projects

Alongside teaching Contextual and Practical theology at Luther King House Theological College and Chester University, my post-doctoral research explores different tropes of the aftermath of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. More particularly, I am interested in (a) intergenerational narratives/dialogues around issues of guilt, shame, transformation and accountability, (b) transitional temporalities, and (c) the study of resistance and rescue as Positive Deviance. My current work with the Historical Trauma and Transformation Unit stems from the first category. I will be translating and critically engaging with the work of Edouard Bamporiki, a Rwandan artist, author and politician. I will be translating in English his two books Icyaha kuri bo ikimwaro kuri njye and mitingi jenosideri; both of which look at intergenerational narratives and dialogues arising from within the ‘perpetrators’ in-group.

Recent Publications

Book Chapters

Benda, R. (2018). Time to hear the other side: Transitional temporalities and transgenerational narratives in post-genocide Rwanda. In N. Mueller-Hirth & S. R. Oyola (Eds.), Time and Temporality in Transitional and Post-Conflict Societies. Routledge. https://doi.org/9781315208930

Journal Articles

Benda, R. (2019). Promising generations: From intergenerational guilt to Ndi Umunyarwanda. In H. Grayson & N. Hitchcott (Eds.), Rwanda Since 1994: Stories of Change (pp. 189-210). Liverpool University Press. https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781786941992.003.0011

Benda, R., & Pells, K. (2020). The state-as-parent: reframing parent‐child relations in Rwanda. Families, Relationships and Societies, 9(1), 41–57. https://doi.org/10.1332/204674319X15740695651861
Contribution (Translation)