When they said never again after the holocaust was it meant for some other people?
–Apollon Kabahizi
April 6, 1994 the day the genocide in Rwanda began, I turned 18 the day before. The first moment in history that I distinctly remember was the Challenger exploding the second the Rwandan Genocide. I remember standing in my kitchen baking cookies, I was grounded for smoking cigarettes, and the image of a river running blood red filled with bodies flashed before my eyes. Even at the selfish age of 18 I was angry that no one was doing anything I was angry that the media, governments and the UN refused to call it what it was: Genocide Once again we are reminded the dark deeds humanity is able to achieve. This should have been a wake up call to my generation, to all of us but we enjoy our passivity and refused to be inconvenienced by other peoples problems until they become out own, and then we want instant resolution without struggle.
Over the weekend I traveled with Beth, Jeff and Josh to Kigali, Rwanda to visit memorials of this dark mark on our world history.
Kigali Genocide Memorial
The first memorial we visited is now home to the graves of 250,000 victims on the genocide. Gardens surround the graves and buildings, each garden symbolic such as the Children’s garden 11 mass graves were created, many of the coffins and tombs hold the remains of multiple people and families.
Once inside, the exhibit artfully simplifies the complicated events before, during, and after the genocide.
The Photo Room
I entered an octagon shaped room. On each side there are two steps leading up six separate cubbyholes where two walls meet at 90 degrees. It is in these cubbyholes where 2,000 images of victims hang. I sit on a small stool gazing at the images. There are photos documenting lives of all these people who died. Some are happy and some are sullen. Some of them are taken from government issued ID cards that included the tribe of the owner of course, sentencing him or her to death. I slowly turn around and realize that I have become part of the exhibit that I have become one of the faces, I am involved I am part of it. That no matter where in the world these events take places we are involved because we are human. It is our responsibility and we must take action. The international community fails again and again. We always claim later that we didn’t know or there was nothing that we could have done. We did it after the holocaust, in Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Rwanda. With mumbled apologies we pour money in to cover out guilt.
The clothing room
Clothing hangs vertically casting the illusions of the shapes of people who used to wear them. There is an image above one of the display cases it is a white Adidas shell toe with baby blue stripes. Ironically I had the same pair in 1994. Video plays on one wall. Survivors remember their experiences. One young woman says “I have hope they are children and grandchildren will have a better life, for mine is already destroyed.” The emotional trauma will be passed along to every generation following a darkness washed over a country a sadness permeating everything like a weed. I hope and pray that the dark cloud will dissipate over future generations. and that with time and restoration future generations will have the capacity to move past this horrific event.
Another “You cannot forgive if your do not know who to forgive”. How are you supposed to move on if you are constantly surrounded by people who may or may not have killed your family? How are you supposed to forgive when you do not know which neighbor killed your family?
The bone room
Skulls line cases around a dimly lit room, tool marks can be seen as slices or holes in the bones. Bones from legs, arms and ribs fill other cases as barely visible images of victims are projected onto the dark gray walls fading slowly into each other while the names of victims are read in a soft monotone breaking the silence of the near dark room.
The Children
Sitting in the children’s room the walls are vibrant orange providing a feeling of hopefulness for the future. Children’s photos grace the wall details of the child listed below it. After working for a year on child sponsorship it is information that I am well versed in until the last line under each photograph:
Age: 12
Favourite sport: Swimming
Favourite food: Eggs and chips
Favourite drink: Milk and Fanta tropical
Best friend: Her elder sister Claudette
Cause of death: Hacked by machete
Others are different and include
Shot to the head
Or the last thing said:
“mother where can I run?
It is children like these that I am helping only they are lucky they are alive and it is only in the North where they face this type of inhumanity.
There will be no humanity without forgiveness with out justice. But justice will be impossible without humanity. – Yolande Mukagasana
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