Works on post-genocide Rwanda are largely dedicated to top-down initiatives aimed at the construction of post-conflict justice; be they stemming from international institutions (e.g. ICTR) or the Rwandan government (e.g. gacaca or National Unity and Reconciliation Commission). So far little attention is paid to how indigenous actors interact with these institutions and make sense of norms such as “reconciliation”, “justice” and “truth” promoted by them. The proposed paper aims to fill this gap by studying the ways in which local ‘leaders of reconciliation’ translate these norms into grass-root initiatives aimed at the “guérison des cœurs” of Rwandans. Based on a qualitative field-study (semi-directive interviews & participant observation) conducted in 2009 and 2010 in Rwanda (Kigali and selected rural areas), the paper examines how local actors invest these norms with new meanings while evolving in a very specific local context, where victim and perpetrator live door-to-door. The politics of “unity and reconciliation” are skilfully used by local actors to enrich the concept of reconciliation by the promotion of ''ubuntu'', which can loosely be translated by the essence of the human, in order to go beyond mere peaceful cohabitation. Most of them have founded NGOs that propose reconciliation activities in rural areas (ranging from Tai Chi to peasant ‘coopératives’ bringing together genocide widows and wives of ‘génocidaires’). In this way, they mobilise for the (re-) construction of the social tissue and widen the scope of post-conflict justice by including a spiritual or new age meaning. This reflection therefore breaks with global models of reconciliation and post-conflict justice – evolving around structural, political or economic mechanisms – developed so far by illuminating the use made of them by local actors and by contributing, with the help of empirical data, an innovating and critical view on these ambiguous concepts.
