Looking to the Past to Understand the Present: Legacies of Inequality, Status Changes, and Collective Memory in Burundi’s Post-War Schooling

How do efforts to reduce ethnic inequality in schooling interact with narratives of inequality and past grievances in schools after ethnicity-based conflict? In this paper, I analyse interviews with 114 youth in Burundi to explore the intersection of these narratives given a power-sharing agreement and changes in group status in post-war Burundi. I show that despite government efforts, narratives of exclusion and inequality in the past persist, and have become more complex. This study has implications for our understanding of the role of redressing education inequalities in short- and long-term peacebuilding processes.