A Walk Through The Village

This post is a little late, but I felt it was necessary since we recently visited the Genocide Memorial in Kigali. A few weeks ago I had this experience with my headmistress:

My Headmistress, Beata, walked me around the town to show me her village. We walked up the hill towards a very large white building resembling a church. There was a large fence surrounding the building which was locked. Beata began to dial the number of someone I assumed was inside. I walked around the building to the front and saw one sign ‘Genocide Memorial’ and I realized what Beata wanted me to see so badly. I will admit right now, I know very little about the Genocide in Rwanda and have no right to speak about others experiences, only my own experiences when encountering the after effects.

A women came to the gate an unlocked it. We quickly greeted each other and were ushered into the building. Beata led me down the stairs directly to the right of the doorway. I walked down these stairs expecting a sort of museum, instead I was in a room full of skulls. Floor to ceiling, ten deep. I was shocked. Beata walked me through the room and back out without saying a word and quickly walked back out. When we were outside again she quietly pointed to 2 large tiled slabs on the side of the building and said there are 30,000 more bodies under them and turned to leave. I couldn’t believe over 30,000 deaths occurred in this tiny rural area I was moving into and that this was the first person I had encountered in Rwanda that said anything about the Genocide. I couldn’t think of anything to say and Beata didn’t make any move to talk either we continued to walk up the hill until we reached a large church, by far the largest I have yet to see in Rwanda.

This church stood tall with large stained glass windows and pointed roofs, unlike any church I have seen in Rwanda. Busses lined the roads surrounding the church and hundreds of people walked up the other road carrying their belongings. I was about to ask Beata why there were so many people when she started to explain. She told me that this church was placed here after the Virgin Mary had appeared twice at the school next to it. She told me in 1989, a student heard a voice saying ‘my child, my child’ and she looked into the sky to see the Virgin Mary telling her the people of Rwanda need to repent. Beata told me no one believed the girl and the next year the Virgin Mary appeared again and told another student the same thing. The story goes that a year later the Genocide began and many now believe that if the people of Rwanda had repented it could have been prevented. Beata continued to explain that this church is now a pilgrimage site for people around the world. It is said if someone hikes down into the valley there is a well of holy water that will heal you. Although many people didn’t believe these visions their authenticity was only confirmed by Catholic Bishop Augustin Misago in 2001.

Beata explained that after the Genocide the largest camp of internally displaced people in Rwanda was near Kibeho. This camp held 80,000 to 100,000 displaces Tutis and Hutu refugees including many who participated in the Genocide and were hiding from authorities. On April 22, 1995 exactly one year after the Genocide, the Rwandan Patriotic Front set fire on the camp killing between 338 (counted by the Rwandan Government) and 4200 (counted by the Australian Medical Corps). This was only days after the announcement that the camp will be closing immediately in order to forcibly separate Genocidaires hiding in the camp.

Beata continued to walk as we got to the top of the hill. On the top of this hill was a large school, the school Beata’s 4 year old daughter goes to. This school had a play ground and the nursery children were all playing with dolls and learning a traditional Rwandan dance. I began to smile as they raced to touch the Umuzungu.