SILENT REFLECTION. "Sofonie Dala visits the Kigali Genocide Memorial - A place of remembrance and learning"

Kigali Genocide Memorial - a place of remembrance and learning

Ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to our platform. Our program for today leads us to reflect on the Kigali Genocide Memorial.

My name is Sofonie Dala, Angolan delegate at the Youth connekt Africa Summit, for socio-economic transformation. The event took place in Kigali, Rwanda from October 13 to 15, 2022.

After the summit we decided to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial, a very important place not only for Rwanda but for all of Africa and the world in general.

The elegance of its simplicity allows people to both focus on the history of the 1994 genocide as well as grieve.

The memorial is a place of remembrance and learning where more than 250,000 victims of the Genocide have been laid to rest. Many people who lost loved ones in the Genocide visit to remember and grieve. There is no entrance fee and donations are gratefully accepted.

Our visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial - A place for learning

“For the international community, the Kigali Genocide Memorial is a crucial place to see when they visit Rwanda,” says Gatera. “If you come to Rwanda to travel through the ‘land of a thousand hills’, explore the beauty of our nation and meet its people, it is important to understand where they are coming from. If you don’t understand the genocide then you won’t understand the population.”

The Kigali Genocide Memorial museum includes three permanent exhibitions, the largest documents the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. There is also a children’s memorial, dedicated to the children who were killed during the genocide and an exhibition on the history of genocidal violence around the world. “This part of the exhibition shows that this kind of tragedy is not a phenomenon only in Rwanda.” It is an international issue – and this is a place for humanity to think deeply about who we are as human beings.

Nobody remained indifferent after visiting the children's room people left in tears, we learned each child’s favourite foods and activities. It was like viewing a family album — except it abruptly ends with how the youngster’s life was violently snuffed out.

Opened a decade after the genocide, the memorial is a solemn, tear-inducing museum. With giant wall displays, archival documents, photos, video footage and weapons encased in glass, the indoor exhibit sheds light on the Rwandan genocide, as well as its pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial roots. The room filled with human skulls and bones was chilling but most heart-wrenching was the children’s memorial.

Surrounding the center are peaceful gardens for quiet reflection, created as if the developers knew visitors would need to recompose themselves after such a core-rattling experience.

We inhaled and exhaled with intention and a sense of relief until we came upon the tombs. Covered by giant plates of concrete, mass graves for over 250,000 victims serves as a place for visitors to honor those lost, and for the loved ones of the victims to grieve and remember.

“It is important to take the time to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial to learn about the background of the country.

The memorial not only offers a place for remembrance and reflection, but also the opportunity to better understand this tragedy and the impact it had – and continues to have – on the country and its people. It is possible to understand the efforts the country has made to bring people together, and to educate people not to hate but to love. 

Rwanda has transformed into one of the safest and most eco-aware countries in Africa. It's capital, Kigali, is a creative hub home to a vibrant art scene and a thriving fashion industry – but it's just as important that visitors engage with the devastating events in the country's recent history to understand how they have shaped Rwanda and ensure that they don 't happen again.

The Youthconnekt Africa Summit is one such example.

Remarkably though, Rwanda today is a country rebuilt. Kigali, is a clean, developed city (Rwanda is one of the cleanest countries in Africa) with a strong infrastructure, modern buildings and well-paved roads — the very streets where Tutsis were openly maimed and killed just 28 years ago.

The history

In 1994, the devastating mass slaughter of the Tutsi people of Rwanda took place. The Rwandan Genocide lasted from 7 April to mid-July, and more than 1 million Tutsis were killed, many of them in their own towns by neighbors and fellow villagers.

“The genocide against the Tutsi was an effect of the seeds of hatred sown in colonial times and the three decades that Rwanda was under very oppressive leadership,” says Honoré Gatera, Director of the Kigali Genocide Memorial. “There was an ideology of hatred spread against the Tutsis, and people were learning to hate rather than to love one another. If you teach people this hatred, this is the result.”

In 2001, in collaboration with Rwanda’s National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide (CNLG), the Aegis Trust raised the $2 million required to build the Kigali Genocide Memorial. The center was officially opened on 7 April 2004 to mark the tenth commemoration of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The memorial is the final resting place for up to 259,000 victims of the genocide and serves as a place where people can grieve for their lost loved ones and remember them. It also serves as a museum where both local and international visitors can learn about the history, implementation and consequences of the genocide.

The Kigali Genocide Memorial is an important place of remembrance and learning about the Genocide against the Tutsi. It is through education that we can prevent mass atrocities from occurring in our communities. A number of education programmes are run by the memorial, both onsite and in communities across Rwanda.