My Journey to Rwanda

*Warning* this is not the world’s most happy blog post, but I feel it is necessary to discuss this experience so that others can understand how the West impacts the rest of the world.

Rwanda is a tiny landlocked country to the West of Uganda. It is best known by the genocide that occurred there in 1994 (For those of you who haven’t heard about it please Wikipedia it). The second we crossed the border of Rwanda, we could immediately see differences between the two countries. For example, Ugandans drive on the left side of the road and Rwandans drive on the right. Other things such as the way people grow crops, the mountainous green landscape and the infrastructure of the newly paved roads. We spent our time in Rwanda in Kigali, the capital city. Kigali is a huge city that has developed very rapidly over the past 20 years. It looks more Western than some American cities, with really cool pedestrian crossing signs with timers (like an electronic person physically walking, and then stopping when it’s time to stop). We were shocked as we walked through the city and saw so many places that resembled a Starbucks or an H&M, so much so that we forgot we were in Africa for a minute (until we would see women in traditional dresses, at which we would quickly snap back to reality). After a day of taking it all in, we woke up the next morning with an eyrie feeling as we got ready to visit the many genocide memorials, which I quickly realized I wasn’t prepared for.

I had first learned in depth about the Rwandan genocide when I took a course on Humanitarian Aid and Sexualized Violence my freshman year at Emory (if you are interested, Ghosts of Rwanda is a really great documentary!). During the genocide from April-July 1994, Hutu (majority ethnicity in Rwanda), massacred over a million Tutsi (minority ethnicity) and Hutu sympathizers. In 4 months, over 10% of the population was killed and many to this day remain refugees in the surrounding countries. The genocide was committed not only by the government, but by neighbors, coworkers and friends of the Tutsi people. Before I get into the genocide there are two very important things to note: First, the terms Hutu and Tutsi were created by the Belgians under colonial rule to separate ethnicities so that they could rule Rwanda more easily (with the Tutsi as the minority in a position of power, and the Hutu as the subordinate working class). Second, the genocide did not begin suddenly. Instead tensions had grown over decades and the genocide was the culmination of many historical underpinnings. 

During my day we attended 3 memorials: the National genocide memorial in Kigali, and 2 memorials at churches where genocide was performed. The first explained the social history leading up to the genocide, the timeline of the genocide itself, artifacts remembering the events, and stories of victims and perpetrators. Although it is not culturally appropriate to cry in Rwanda, it was impossible to look at images of children with machete cuts through their heads without breaking down. One of the rooms of the memorial had a wall full of missing persons posts and photos remembering loved ones. I came across a birth certificate of a baby whom was killed that’s birthday was December 22^nd, 1993 (just a day before mine). The reality was that my world in the US was so inherently different than this baby whom was my age and never got a chance to grow up because of the place she was born. The 2 church memorials were full of coffins for the bodies of the lives lost, clothes of the victims and the weapons used during the genocide. The churches remained exactly as they were left with broken stained glass, bullet holes in the wall, hacked through doors and even blood stained floors. Churches became the primary place for killing as many Tutsi sought refuge within their walls (which disgustingly was more convenient for the Hutu). Crosses were used as weapons, and even some priests committed genocide. I will stop my explanation to spare you the trauma, but as you tell the genocide was horrific.

One of the Genocide Memorial Churches. Out of respect for the bodies within, we were not allowed to take photos inside

The worst part of all of it, was that the genocide was not committed in masses like the gas chambers of the Holocaust, but instead on an individual level (victims knew their killers). The social history and propaganda engrained so strongly within individuals that they were able to gruesomely take another human life. If you are now asking yourself how the UN or the United States could allow something so horrific to happen, I am sorry to say that they knew. The UN not only knew about the genocide, but they knew it was being planned months before, and after the genocide began they chose to pull out peacekeeping troops. The US took 5 months to define the word “genocide” which now many political officials within the government attribute to the lack of interests the US had in Rwanda. Instead of helping, Americans (all but one) fled the country while Rwandans working for the US Embassy were slaughtered. The international community’s response to the genocide is almost more tragic than the event itself.

I am writing this post because I feel it is important to understand what happened to this country and maybe even more so how a nation can come together to rapidly develop into modern day Rwanda. I have realized that often Americans live in their own little bubble, but there is a huge world around us with many other nations and cultures. The genocide went on so long because no one knew, and those who knew chose to ignore. We are Americans but we are also human beings, and the interests of the individual should never come above the interests of humanity. If you get a chance to go to Africa and want a tourist-friendly, more western version a Sub-Saharan African city, Kigali is a beautiful place to visit. Since the genocide, the people have worked hard to move past and reconcile, focusing on development as Rwandans, not Hutu and Tutsi. Although it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, I’m glad I got a chance to see the past and the present in person so that I may share this story with you and learn for the future.