Jen, Dano and I went to the Kigali City Memorial today - it's the biggest and "best" one - very much a nice, modern museum. (No fee!) It was, of course, prohibited to take pictures inside, but I couldn't resist sneaking a few on my phone. I took them after I had seen the whole thing and walked back to take them, so I didn't get as many as I wanted, and I didn't take any of the more gruesome scenes, or any of the room they had filled with bones. I didn't cry at all but felt pretty numb throughout the whole thing. All of the text was written pretty dramatically, but I thought it was a very well done exhibition. They had pictures and history, then a video in every section with interviews with about 6 survivors. Those were pretty intense. One guy whose wife and children were murdered said he could forgive them if he saw the murderers today, while one of the women who watched her sisters get killed said she could never forgive, that only God could, and she was only human. She said "I am not some sort of air." I liked that.
There was a whole section on how no one helped, how the Interhawme killed the five Belgian peacekeepers cause they knew all the whites would withdraw then. The UN sent 5,000 soldiers to evacuate all the foreigners, it was said that that would have been more than enough soldiers to stop the violence. Also, as you know, the whole Hutu/Tutsi thing was something determined by the Belgians in 1932 - if you had more than ten cows you were Tutsi, if you had less than ten you were Hutu.
(I am not really writing in any continuity - just what I think of.)
They had a nasty video of footage of piles of bodies and people's freshly killed bodies or rotting bodies. There was also some of survivors with massive open wounds in their head or somewhere in their body, and then some actual footage of someone being hacked and killed from a distance. It was disgusting. They had a whole case of machetes and clubs with blood on them, they had a room with blood spattered clothing, and as I said, a whole room with bones and skulls. It was all very exhibition and museum like, though, like, nice glass cases and well laid out. Out in the country there are some memorials (and the church at Natarama) where they left the bodies in the place they fell when they were killed, so everything is just laying there, and there's bloodstains on the walls and ground. Don't know if I could manage that. They also had a big picture of Natarama where the pastor accepted 2,000 refugees, then ordered the church to be bulldozed and killed everyone.
There was a room with eight little nooks where people could hang photos of their lost families members (lost as in dead, not missing). This was really sad. The pictures were so normal and personal. 80s and 90s fashion, kids at birthday parties, school photos, family photos, holiday photos, whatever they had - and there were so many. It was impossible to look at every one.
As if that all wasn't enough, they had another exhibition where they highlighted other genocides. (The museum is also a genocide research center, lots of graduate students doing work there.) That was pretty hard - it's like, if everything wasn't enough, let's show you how this has happened all over the million a few times over. So they profiled the Khmer Rouge, Bosnia, the Holocaust, Armenia, the Hereros, and I think that's it. The Cambodian one was so gross - it was mainly about all the torture that happened. 2 million people died from 1975-1979, a quarter of the population of Cambodia. Pol Pot died in his sleep in 1998.
The last part before you were led outside into extensive gardens was dedicated to children. They had big photos of 14 kids (I took photos of every pair - all included) and plaques in front with their names, their hobbies, their favourite foods, their age when they were killed, and how they were killed ('machete to head' 'raped and beaten' 'bludgeoned to death' 'drowned'). Then they had another wall again where families had posted photos of children who had died. There was a plaque with the words "Children, you could have been our national heroes." That's true. We don't know what these kids could have been - they would all be my age now. The entire children part was painted yellow and close to the gardens, with light coming in from outside. The entire rest of the museum was dimly lit and the walls were a steel blue.
Outside there were a lot of gardens (wouldn't be Rwanda if it wasn't completely lush), and then some huge slabs of concrete that were mass graves - 1820 were buried in these 8 or 10 pits. That's the last photo I included.
This is quite long. I am starting to feel more negative as I wrote this. Hope you wanted to know.
There was a whole section on how no one helped, how the Interhawme killed the five Belgian peacekeepers cause they knew all the whites would withdraw then. The UN sent 5,000 soldiers to evacuate all the foreigners, it was said that that would have been more than enough soldiers to stop the violence. Also, as you know, the whole Hutu/Tutsi thing was something determined by the Belgians in 1932 - if you had more than ten cows you were Tutsi, if you had less than ten you were Hutu.
(I am not really writing in any continuity - just what I think of.)
They had a nasty video of footage of piles of bodies and people's freshly killed bodies or rotting bodies. There was also some of survivors with massive open wounds in their head or somewhere in their body, and then some actual footage of someone being hacked and killed from a distance. It was disgusting. They had a whole case of machetes and clubs with blood on them, they had a room with blood spattered clothing, and as I said, a whole room with bones and skulls. It was all very exhibition and museum like, though, like, nice glass cases and well laid out. Out in the country there are some memorials (and the church at Natarama) where they left the bodies in the place they fell when they were killed, so everything is just laying there, and there's bloodstains on the walls and ground. Don't know if I could manage that. They also had a big picture of Natarama where the pastor accepted 2,000 refugees, then ordered the church to be bulldozed and killed everyone.
There was a room with eight little nooks where people could hang photos of their lost families members (lost as in dead, not missing). This was really sad. The pictures were so normal and personal. 80s and 90s fashion, kids at birthday parties, school photos, family photos, holiday photos, whatever they had - and there were so many. It was impossible to look at every one.
As if that all wasn't enough, they had another exhibition where they highlighted other genocides. (The museum is also a genocide research center, lots of graduate students doing work there.) That was pretty hard - it's like, if everything wasn't enough, let's show you how this has happened all over the million a few times over. So they profiled the Khmer Rouge, Bosnia, the Holocaust, Armenia, the Hereros, and I think that's it. The Cambodian one was so gross - it was mainly about all the torture that happened. 2 million people died from 1975-1979, a quarter of the population of Cambodia. Pol Pot died in his sleep in 1998.
The last part before you were led outside into extensive gardens was dedicated to children. They had big photos of 14 kids (I took photos of every pair - all included) and plaques in front with their names, their hobbies, their favourite foods, their age when they were killed, and how they were killed ('machete to head' 'raped and beaten' 'bludgeoned to death' 'drowned'). Then they had another wall again where families had posted photos of children who had died. There was a plaque with the words "Children, you could have been our national heroes." That's true. We don't know what these kids could have been - they would all be my age now. The entire children part was painted yellow and close to the gardens, with light coming in from outside. The entire rest of the museum was dimly lit and the walls were a steel blue.
Outside there were a lot of gardens (wouldn't be Rwanda if it wasn't completely lush), and then some huge slabs of concrete that were mass graves - 1820 were buried in these 8 or 10 pits. That's the last photo I included.
This is quite long. I am starting to feel more negative as I wrote this. Hope you wanted to know.
1 comment:
Hey Caroline, I've finally been catching up on your blogs and I am amazed (and sorry for not "staying near"). The museum description is incredible and moving. Especially impacting was, as you said, the photos of the victims, posted by their families, living every-day events - picnics, birthdays, etc. Powerful.
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