Simon Bikindi

“Rwandan singer Simon Bikindi (right) with his lawyers Wilfred Nderitu (left) and Jean de Dieu Momo (centre), before the UN-ICTR, arusha, Tanzania, 18 September 2006.”

Simon Bikindi

Simon Bikindi (1954-2018) was the foremost singer in Rwanda immediately before and during the genocide. His music was repeatedly broadcast on the Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). RTLM broadcast his songs alongside direct encouragement to kill Tutsi. Bikindi would eventually be put on trial by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Bikindi’s music often consisted of veiled metaphors that equated Tutsi with external threats, curses, and even animals who were encroaching upon what he believed Hutu were entitled to. Despite Bikindi’s claim that his songs were meant to bring peace and unity to the people of Rwanda, they clearly had the opposite effect, as the songs were strongly linked to the genocide against the Tutsi. The songs had tremendous appeal to RTLM broadcasters and their listeners—among them genocidaires. Tutsi report experiencing emotional trauma from the songs, which sheds further light on their power to exacerbate racialized tensions and anti-Tutsi sentiment. Bikindi’s main and strongest argument was that he could not control the fact that RTLM had played his songs and had used them to encourage murder.

In his 2008 trial, 14 years after his music was banned throughout Rwanda, the prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda charged Bikindi with six counts. They only found him guilty of one, however: incitement to commit genocide, due to a speech he gave in which he called for the death of Tutsi. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail. This was neither because the ICTR found his work non-genocidal nor due to his argument for freedom of speech. The court stated that while it agreed that his songs had an intention to incite genocide, it could not convict him, as he had recorded the songs before 1994; the court could not hold him responsible for how RTLM subsequently used his music.

Quick Links

Simon Bikindi

The Prosecutor v. Simon Bikindi

Bibliography

Herr, Alexis. “Bikindi, Simon.” In Rwandan Genocide: The Essential Reference Guide, 23–25. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2018.

McCoy, Jason T. “Mbwirabumva (‘I Speak to Those Who Understand’): Three Songs by Simon Bikindi and the War and Genocide in Rwanda.” Florida State University Libraries, 2013.

“The Prosecutor v. Simon Bikindi.” International Crimes Database, December 2, 2008.

Photo Source

Sukhdev Chhatbar/IRIN, Mon, 09/18/2006, via The New Humanitarian.