Intergenerational trauma refers to the phenomenon of children absorbing the psychological burden of a trauma experienced by their parents. An estimated 25% of the Rwandan population suffers from clinically significant levels of psychological distress (Munyandamutsa et al. 2012) but the extent of the violence of Rwanda’s past would suggest that most Rwandans have been affected by trauma in some way.
While such traumatic legacies may be transmitted to the next generation, Natan Kellerman (2001) argues that the presence of mitigating factors may lessen the transgenerational impact. One mitigating factor is the parental communication style, with relatively higher functioning found among children exposed to open discussions of their parents’ experiences in non-frightening ways. According to Ciara Downes et al. (2012:598), ‘unawareness of trauma, and a lack of a coherent narrative about the trauma, may be related to poorer psychological well-being’ because, in the absence of information, children ‘create fantasies to complete their own narrative of the story’. Similar findings have been reported in Rwanda. In their research with Rwandan children born from sexual violence, Jemma Hogwood et al. (2017) argue that not knowing one’s birth history resulted in a lack of agency and coping ability. The researchers reported that all the young people in their research ‘valued knowing the truth about their birth history’ (Hogwood et al, 2017:14). Despite the therapeutic effects of disclosure, research in other contexts suggests a tendency in families to remain silent about their traumatic histories (Daniele, 1998; Downes et al 2012). Rwandan people too are often characterized as culturally secretive and silent (Thompson 2011) yet, to date, no empirical research into disclosure practices in Rwandan families has been carried out. This paper presents the findings of a survey conducted by Williamson and Irakoze into disclosure practices in Rwandan families.