Genocide Memorials

Hello All! Back again to finish up my account of our Western Excursion. This post will include our trips to the genocide memorials as well as accounts of what happened. I had a fairly short mental debate about whether to write some of this stuff because it can be so graphic and is majorly disturbing, but I keep thinking about what everyone told us at the different memorials: that we were now ambassadors to our

So Wednesday was genocide day. We started off at Gisozi Genocide Memorial in Kigali. This memorial is part cemetery and part museum. We started off with a tour of the grounds. Almost 250,000 genocide victims are buried here. They have fourteen large cement plots that they are in. There are beautiful “reconciliation” gardens around the memorials where people can come and spend some quiet time. It was amazing because as we were walking through the birds kept on singing and signing.

Next we walked in to the museum. There are three exhibits. The first one details the Rwandan Genocide. It gives a historical background and discusess the 100 days of killing, as well as the aftermath. This was pretty intense, but for the most part it was a historical review for me. The second exhibit highlighted genocides throughout history, specifically: Cambodia, Nazi Germany, Chechnya, Namibia, and the Balkans. The third exhibit was the hardest as it highlighted the children who were caught in the genocide. It was a very simple exhibit. When you walked in there were about ten huge pictures of kids. Underneath was a very simple plaque. Written in Kinyarwanda, French, and then English were facts about the children. For example: favorite food, favorite drink, personality characteristic, best friend, last words, and way in which they were killed. The juxtaposition of the innocence of a child’s life with the manner in which they spent their last days was horrible. One kid’s final words were “UNAMIR will come for us.” One of the babies was killed by a machete while in his mother’s arms. Another baby was smashed against the wall. This exhibit was very simple and really allowed you to realize that even children were victimized in such a cruel manner.

Needless to say, after this memorial we were all very silent. We had a quick lunch and then set out for Namata Genocide Memorial. This was a church that people went to for protection thinking that no one would kill people on sacred grounds. But that did not stop the genocideres. There was a large massacre here. They have chosen to preserve all of the clothes that the victims were wearing, as well as anything they had with them. For example, there was a chest with kids’ books in it that were on display. Also, they had little things that people had on them: like pens, glasses, shoes, etc. Looking at those little things really hits you in the gut because you realized these were normal people like you and me. They also have chosen to put a large display shelf with all of the skulls and bones. Woah. There are very few words to describe how you feel when you walk into this church and the first thing you see are all these bones. Next, we walked behind to these two out-buildings where they would hold Sunday school class for kids. Many kids were killed in these buildings as well- some were smashed against the walls. (It’s weird writing those words because they’re so simple but hold so much violence, negativity, and hatred in them. It’s hard to imagine standing next to a simple wall and realizing that it was used to kill a child- to shatter innocence in the most absolute manner. Words just can’t come close.)

Next we went to Nyamata Genocide Memorial. This is another church that people went to for safety but were massacred again. The man told us about 10,800 people died here. Only two children survived as they were buried under all the bodies. This memorial also preserved the clothes of all the victims. Also, they had a little memorial downstairs that had a bunch of skulls and then underneath was one coffin with a beautiful white cloth laid over it. They explained to us that there was this woman who had a baby wrapped around her back. When the interhamwe arrived, they raped her countless times. He really stressed this as rape was (and still is) used as a way to degrade women and assert power over them. After they were done, they impaled her with a spear through her body in a vertical manner. Then they threw her into an unused pit latrine. Since it was unused, it was still cold and after the genocide, when people came to clean up the site, they found her perfectly preserved. Hearing this story was unimaginable to think of the pain and humiliation associated with this poor woman’s death. So they decided to bury her in a special location to allow her to have the peace that she was denied in her death. After walking around the church, we went outside. They have massive burial grounds there. You can walk down into them and see the lines of coffins. They have whole families buried in each coffin and knowing that was incredibly eery. There was a special memorial for approximately 65 people (they only had the names of 25). These people had been machete-d and then thrown into a pit latrine to eventually die. After hearing and seeing all of this, there are few words that you can muster to say to one another. We were silent for a long time.

So I’m sorry that that was probably the biggest buzz-kill for your day! But I really wanted to share a snippet of what happened in Rwanda. It is really hard to think about such violence- but it occurred in 1994 (and even before and since then). Everyone that we met just kept on asking us to bring this story back home with us to share. We can’t put our heads in the sand, as so many nations (including the U.S.) did in 1994. We have to face these horrible stories and learn from them.

So I hope, after all that, that you have a wonderful day! Know that someone in Uganda is thinking of you! And I hope that after these horrible stories you savor that cup of coffee even more and enjoy the funny shapes that clouds can make! I hope that you hug your friends, kids, and spouses a wee bit longer and harder.

Love,CM