Life on Earth

(edited/updated:2/18)

Before coming to Rwanda, students in my world regional geography class were introduced to Rwanda, and breifly on the impact of Genocide. The brave ones asked, “What is genocide?” What to say…

The obvious answer is the UN definition of genocide, but I struggle, as well as I should, what genocide really is. As part of that struggle, I’ve read several books on the subject concerning Cambodia and Rwanda. But, as I’m discovering, one of the values of visiting a place where genocide has occurred so recently is the daily reminder, either through impersonal billboards (Work together so Genocide never happens again), or the more personal conversations when someone is in the process of introducing themselves and they must include the impact of the genocide on themselves. A simple question about a person’s family and their parents carries a lot of weight. Rwandans were not aware of the word genocide prior to 1994, but now it brings out a nod of recognition even amongst those who don’t speak English.

Besides the personal contacts and daily reminders, I’ve also tried to search out the meaning and impact of genocide by visiting significant sites and organizations. I mentioned earlier the visit to Speak I’m Listening (MbwiraNumva). Yesterday, I visited a Church in Kibuye where 11,400 people were slaughtered on a single day on April 17, 1994. The day before, I had visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial that was built on the mass grave of over 250,000. These daily experiences have stuck in my mind and it has been difficult for me to view the scenes of Rwanda, or the people I meet, in any other light. I’m always thinking about where they were in 1994 and how they were impacted.

At the end of the Kigali Genocide Memorial, a quote by Stephen Smith of Aegis Trust. (The Aegis Trust was established to combat genocide) has stuck with me as a reminder of how to grasp the question of what genocide is.

“If you must remember, remember this: The Nazi’s did not kill 6 million Jews, nor the Interahamwe kill a million Tutsis. in the genocide they killed one, then another and then another. Genocide is not a single act of murder. It is a million acts of murder.”

It is a human responsibility to be aware of what human beings are capable of doing to one another. What makes Rwanda’s war so difficult is that the murders were conducted by the victims’ neighbors. People that had shared dinners, watched each others’ children and worked on one another’s fields; and then all of a sudden they did not recognize one another. Today, many of them still live side by side. Many are able to forgive, and many others say it is not they who can forgive-only God. To visit Rwanda today, is to undoubtedly reflect on the past evil, but to also see those who remain and are rebuilding a fractured society struggling to maintain a unified identity.