IRRC No. 910
Dark tourism: The “heritagization” of sites of suffering, with an emphasis on memorials of the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi of Rwanda
Reading time 36 min read
Abstract
Nowadays, there exists an international movement towards the extensive recognition
as cultural heritage, or “heritagization”, of areas where wars, genocides and
massacres have taken place. The phenomenon of “seeing” mass death, called “dark
tourism” or the “tourism of desolation”, has become both an aim and a
destination for visitors. The article examines this heritagization, with an emphasis
on the memorials of the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi of Rwanda.