Tuzahura Tubibuka

June 16, 2012

This one is addressed to my sister in particular, but for anybody to read. It was also written yesterday, but I didn't have the chance to post it, so here it is.

Today, I walked through a rose garden. It wasn't particularly large, nor were the roses that stunning or even fully bloomed, but the significance of the garden was just as great as that of the one in Swarthmore, if not greater.

Today, I went to visit the genocide memorial site in Kigali. The memorial has an exhibition of the Rwandan genocide along with the graves over 250,000 people. There is a special rose garden that is an addition to the genocide memorial, as well as a collection of books written on genocides of the 20th century. The memorial is maintained by the Aegis Trust, which is an organization dedicated campaigning against crimes against humanity and genocide and which sponsors many other initiatives including a genocide education program, a program targeted to help Rwandan widows and orphans, an international grassroots organization for students, and the Discover Rwanda Youth Hostel that I have spent a few nights in.

After walking through the entire site, I was asked to fill out a survey describing my impressions of the site. How do I describe the feelings that I felt while walking through that place? Reading about the circumstances leading up, during, and in the aftermath of the genocide, watching videos of the testimonials of survivers, seeing the photos and bones and clothing of some of the countless people killed, knowing that the rest of the world did nothing but watch... I felt a combination of confusion as to how it could be possible for a person to kill another, much less several or tens or even hundreds of other people, anger that such an atrocity was permitted to happen after everybody declared "Never Again" after previous genocides like the Holocaust, shame that the U.S. and the rest of the world did nothing to prevent nor alleviate the killings, compassion for those who survived and live with the physical, mental, and emotional scars of 18 years, frustration that even now is a struggle for many Rwandans and that I can do next to nothing to help. If I could give money to every beggar on the street, if I could take every village child and feed and clothe him and send her to university, I'd be God. But I'm not, so I can't.

There was another exhibit at the memorial centre that described other genocides in the 20th century like Heteros, the Armenians, the Holocaust, in Cambodia, and in Bosnia and the nations of the former Yugoslavia. Each time, it's as if just by saying "Never Again", apologizing, and sending monetary aid to [some] of these places, it's as if the rest of the world feels like they can be let off for letting such a horror occur. How easy is it to forget after 10, 20, 30 years? The Holocaust was over 50 years ago, and after a few generations has passed, it becomes easier to let it slide into the past.

The Aegis Trust also has an education programme for teaching people in Rwanda about the genocide in order to ensure that it never happens again, and that people never forget. But tell me, which country that has endured genocide has undergone a second genocide? I don't think education programmes are necessary to ensure that Rwandans never forget the genocide. I think the broken homes, the shattered families, the missing neighbors and mothers and brothers and fathers and sisters and friends will be enough to make sure that they never forget. Maybe it would be more useful to target these education programmes towards other places where it is not as likely that they will have heard of genocide, particularly in countries where education is lacking (which is a far larger number of countries than I would care to count or identify), and even more so in areas where there is ethnic strife or tension that could potentially explode.

After my time in Rwanda, I will be traveling through Europe, with my primary focus on a programe which will take me through the countries of the Former Yugoslavia to learn about various interfaith initiatives for post-conflict conciliation. I'm not really sure what to expect, but it is a programme organized by the office of religious life at my university. I didn't know much about the Rwandan genocide before I came here, and I know even less about the Balkan Wars. I'll try to do some research if I can before I arrive in Serbia, but I have the feeling that I'll learn much more during the two-week programme as I travel to each state that was once a part of Yugoslavia.


Until then, there are many other memorial sites around Kigali that I would like to visit. I'll try to post some pictures along with descriptions of the other sites I have the opportunity to visit.