AbstractIn this essay, I offer a reception study of the varied responses to and interpretations of a burning church in the town of Eldoret following the 2007 Kenya presidential election. Specifically, I study responses from the U.S. and British media, U.S. officials, and Kenyan politicians. My analysis illuminates how different uses of the term “genocide” mobilize particular sensibilities about the relation between ethnicity and politics and demonstrates how the label of genocide constrains interpretations of violence. In the media and discourse of U.S. politicians, the identification or denial of genocide was made by setting ethnicity and politics as opposing explanatory factors of the violence. Discourses in Kenya, however, demonstrate that understanding the violence required understanding the intersection and permeability of these same categories. This analysis has important implications for understanding how conflicts are and are not named genocide. It demonstrates the importance of attending to the nuanced rhetoric of genocide and calls our attention to the contingent relationships among ethnicity, politics, and genocide.

Book Review| June 01 2016 From Apartheid to Democracy: Deliberating Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa From Apartheid to Democracy: Deliberating Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa. By Katherine Elizabeth Mack. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2014; pp. 176. $64.95 cloth. Lindsay Harroff Lindsay Harroff University of Kansas Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2016) 19 (2): 337–340. https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.19.2.0337 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Lindsay Harroff; From Apartheid to Democracy: Deliberating Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa. Rhetoric and Public Affairs 1 June 2016; 19 (2): 337–340. doi: https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.19.2.0337 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveMichigan State University PressRhetoric and Public Affairs Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2016 Michigan State University Board of Trustees. All rights reserved.2016 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Book Reviews You do not currently have access to this content.