CONCLUSION
The purpose of this chapter is to pave the way for a closer interpretÂation of gacaca's objectives and a critical analysis of its success so far in the following chapters. Understanding the nature of detainees' journies toward gacaca, starting in prison and travelling to their home commuÂnities, is important for comprehending some of their key experiences and personal developments as they face justice through gacaca.
The ingando are especially important for understanding the ideas about Rwandan history, the genocide, gacaca, and justice and reconciliation generally that the government imparts to detainees and the wider comÂmunity. As subsequent chapters will show, however, the government's mishandling of key stages of the gacaca journey - particularly its lack of explanation to the community of why and how detainees would be proÂvisionally released and suspects' lack of preparation for often fractious returns home - created unnecessary confusion and tensions in many places, thus dulling gacaca's effectiveness. The narratives in this chapÂter highlight that people's personal, emotional experiences have a sigÂnificant impact on their participation in nationwide processes of justice and reconciliation such as gacaca. Given the central role that genocide suspects play in these processes, the ways in which the gacaca journey affects them will also affect their communities and consequently the entire post-genocide reconstruction process.