| Sumario: | One of the most significant aspects of Rwanda's recovery from the 1994 genocide has been the gacaca court system, which was established to handle the overwhelming number of genocide-related trials and to arrive at the truth of what happened. Unfortunately, a large gap exists in scholarly understanding of the exchanges in gacaca trials and how the emerging narratives shape the country and its citizens going forward. This article helps address that gap through a Fantasy Theme Analysis of gacaca trial transcripts. That analysis uncovers two competing rhetorical visions constructed by Rwandans to explain the genocide—one providing a macro, top-down vision of the genocide and another providing a micro, bottom-up vision of the crimes and impact of genocide. Important differences and agreements between the two visions are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.
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