Sunday March 25th - A very moving experience. There is an exhibition building giving the history of Rwanda since before colonial times to now. It seems that the Hutu/Tutsi names were originally a tribal socio-economic title. Dependant on how much land or cattle you had. The Germans initially, then Belgian colonials took that and made it a psuedo-racial divide. The colonials, the church, the local administration all acted to strengthen the divisions between the two over decades. After independance the divisions were deeply rooted and exploited.
There were several genocides actually, over many years. The biggest and last started on April 6th, 1994. It was meticulously planned, orchestrated and executed, and all manner of people became killers - the most shocking for me being priests and nuns who killed their own congregations. Religion just didn't seem to be factor in preventing it.
Around Kigali, you can see people who are convicted of crimes during this time - they wear pink prisoner overalls and are taken to do work around the place (like in brick factories). Some 80,000 are in jail. 1M were killed. Of course, people are still being exposed and convicted. Bodies are still being found - like 300 who were found in one well just last week.
People do talk about it very openly here. There has been a national facing of the issue which is hugely impressive, and the divisions are being taken down and peoples energies redirected - one example being 'Muganda', 1/2 a day on the last saturday of each month when all people, nationally, get together in their local area to clean, tidy, fix potholes etc. Everyone I've asked seems to really enjoy it too. Non-crucial work and travel is not allowed for those hours. Some people at work still say that some people work better with some than with others (meaning the Hutu/Tutsi divide), perhaps, I am sure that 14 years isn't enough to turn the tide on 150 years of propaganda, though what has been acheived in this time seems very impressive.
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