Simon Turner - Politics of Innocence: Hutu Identity, Conflict and Camp Life

STUDIES IN FORCED MIGRATION

General Editor: Roger Zetter, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford

Volume 1

A Tamil Asylum Diaspora: Sri Lankan Migration, Settlement and Politics in Switzerland
Christopher McDowell

Volume 2

Understanding Impoverishment: The Consequences of Development induced Displacement
Edited by Christopher McDowell

Volume 3

Losing Place: Refugee Populations and Rural Transformations in East Africa
Johnathan B. Bascom

Volume 4

The End of the Refugee Cycle? Refugee Repatriation and Reconstruction
Edited by Richard Black and Khalid Koser

Volume 5

Engendering Forced Migration: Theory and Practice
Edited by Doreen Indra

Volume 6

Refugee Policy in Sudan, 19671984
Ahmed Karadawi

Volume 7

Psychosocial Wellness of Refugees: Issues in Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Edited by Frederick L. Ahearn, Jr.

Volume 8

Fear in Bongoland: Burundi Refugees in Urban Tanzania
Marc Sommers

Volume 9

Whatever Happened to Asylum in Britain? A Tale of Two Walls
Louise Pirouet

Volume 10

Conservation and Mobile Indigenous Peoples: Displacement, Forced Settlement and Sustainable Development
Edited by Dawn Chatty and Marcus Colchester

Volume 11

Tibetans in Nepal: The Dynamics of International Assistance among a Community in Exile
Anne Frechette

Volume 12

Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey
Edited by Rene Hirschon

Volume 13

Refugees and the Transformation of Societies: Agency, Policies, Ethics and Politics
Edited by Philomena Essed, Georg Frerks and Joke Schrijvers

Volume 14

Children and Youth on the Front Line: Ethnography, Armed Conflict and Displacement
Edited by Jo Boyden and Joanna de Berry

Volume 15

Religion and Nation: Iranian Local and Transnational Networks in Britain
Kathryn Spellman

Volume 16

Children of Palestine: Experiencing Forced Migration in the Middle East
Dawn Chatty and Gillian Lewando Hundt

Volume 17

Rights in Exile: Janus-faced Humanitarianism
Guglielmo Verdirame and Barbara Harrell-Bond

Volume 18

Development-induced Displacement: Problems, Policies and People
Edited by Chris de Wet

Volume 19

Transnational Nomads: How Somalis Cope with Refugee Life in the Dadaab Camps of Kenya
Cindy Horst

Volume 20

New Regionalism and Asylum Seekers: Challenges Ahead
Edited by Susan Kneebone and Felicity Rawlings-Sanei

Volume 21

(Re)constructing Armenia in Lebanon and Syria: Ethno-Cultural Diversity and the State in the Aftermath of a Refugee Crisis
Nicola Migliorino

Volume 22

Brothers or Others? Muslim Arab Sudanese in Egypt
Anita Fbos

Volume 23

Iron in the Soul: Displacement, Livelihood and Health in Cyprus
Peter Loizos

Volume 24

Not Born a Refugee Woman: Contesting Identities, Rethinking Practices
Edited by Maroussia Hajdukowski-Ahmed, Nazilla Khanlou and Helene Moussa

Volume 25

Years of Conflict: Adolescence, Political Violence and Displacement
Edited by Jason Hart

Volume 26

Remaking Home: Reconstructing Life, Place and Identity in Rome and Amsterdam
Maja Korac

Volume 27

Materialising Exile: Material Culture and Embodied Experience among Karenni Refugees in Thailand
Sandra Dudley

Volume 28

The Early Morning Phone Call: Somali Refugees' Remittances
Anna Lindley

Volume 29

Deterritorialised Youth: Sahrawi and Afghan Refugees at the Margins of the Middle East
Edited by Dawn Chatty

Volume 30

Politics of Innocence: Hutu Identity, Conflict and Camp Life
Simon Turner

Published in 2010 by

Berghahn Books

www.berghahnbooks.com

2010, 2012 Simon Turner
First paperback edition published in 2012

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Turner, Simon, 1967-

Politics of innocence : Hutu identity, conflict, and camp life / Simon Turner.

p. cm. -- (Studies in forced migration ; v. 30)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-84545-691-7 (hbk.) -- ISBN 978-0-85745-609-0 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-84545-845-4 (ebk.)

1. Hutu (African people)--Tanzania. 2. Refugees--Tanzania. 3. Humanitarian assistance--Tanzania. I. Title.

HV640.4.T34T87 2010

305.896'39461--dc22

2010018503

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-84545-691-7 hardback
ISBN 978-0-85745-609-0 paperback
ISBN 978-1-84545-845-4 ebook

Acknowledgements

This book has been a long time in the making, and although it has at times been a lonely process, lots of people have been involved in one way or another. First, I am grateful to all the people in Lukole refugee camp who shared their thoughts with me, although I had little to offer in return. They would often ask me to tell the people in the big nations about our situation. Although I could not promise them that the important people in the big nations would listen to me, and I could not promise them that I would agree with their points of view, I hope with this book to shed some light on their lives, their hopes and their fears. I am especially grateful to Ramadhan Abbas, my assistant for more than a year, with whom a friendship grew. I am also grateful to the UNHCR and the Camp Commandant who let me come and go as I liked in the camp.

Although the thrust of this book is its fieldwork, it is first and foremost shaped by academia. Countless people have been involved in this long process: supervising, inspiring, commenting on chapters, reviewing the book, suggesting titles, or plainly giving moral support when things looked dark. Thomas Blom Hansen acted as a magic mirror; making my messy thoughts look impressively clear and clever. Steffen Jensen has been there 24/7 ready to discuss anything from page layout to Zizek. Christian Lund, Jeremy Gould, Liisa Malkki, Peter Geschiere, Ren Lemarchand and Patricia Daley have all read the entire book at one stage or another and given valuable suggestions that I hope I have been able to incorporate into the final book. Others who have offered valuable critique on parts of the book include Finn Stepputat, Fiona Wilson, Giorgio Blundo, Pierre-Yves Le Meur and Marc-Antoine Perouse de Montclos. At Roskilde University my colleagues at the Institute for Development Studies gave me inspiration and moral support in the initial phases, while colleagues and friends at the Danish Institute for International Studies have helped me through the endless revisions towards the final product. Names that come to mind include Jesper Linell, Ane Toubro, Dietrich Jung, Thomas Brudholm, Nauja Kleist and Lars Buur. Finally, I was very fortunate to have my family with me while doing fieldwork, and our two years in Tanzania stand out as some of the best times we have had together.