“Your story is our story.”
That’s what a group of visitors from global partners Nile Theological College (NTC) and RECONCILE (Resource Center for Civil Leadership) in South Sudan told members of the staff at Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences (PIASS) when they visited Rwanda recently. Rwanda had just marked the 25th anniversary of the 1994 genocide that killed more than 800,000 Tutsi at the hands of the majority Hutu population.
“Your story is our story.”That’s what a group of visitors from global partners Nile Theological College (NTC) and RECONCILE (Resource Centre for Civil Leadership) in South Sudan, told members of the staff at Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences (PIASS) when they visited Rwanda recently. Rwanda has just marked the 25th anniversary of the 1994 genocide that killed more than 800,000 Tutsi at the hands of the majority Hutu population.
In Rwanda, “this present age” means living in a post-genocide world, where everything is colored by the brutality and betrayal of neighbor killing neighbor with machetes and clubs in the horror of 100 days in 1994.
To say “no” to the worldly passions that surround these memories is no easy task. The fear of “the other” and the desire for retaliation, even after all these years, is strong.
Growing up in Rwanda, Joshua Karangwa often saw rural women and children carrying heavy cans of water on their heads for miles, just so their families could survive.
Presbyterians interested in learning about conflict and reconciliation, from both an active and historical perspective, have an opportunity to do so by participating in one of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program’s travel study seminar series upcoming in Spring 2019. Reconciliation Work in Rwanda: Healing the Trauma of the Genocide is scheduled for March 11–23, 2019, and Ukraine and Russia: Peacemaking on the Front Line is scheduled for April 22 – May 6, 2019. The due date for applications is November 15 for the Rwanda seminar, and December 15 for the Ukraine-Russia seminar. After those dates, applications will be considered if space remains available.
Tired and weary-eyed from four weeks of travel, strange food and nonstop itineraries in a foreign country but bolstered by their faith and a powerful sense of accomplishment, the 2018 Peacemakers gathered together one final time at Laws Lodge on the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary campus. Seven of the 10 peacemakers met for two days of conversation and a debrief session to talk about their experiences with congregations, students and other organizations over the past month before heading back to their respective homes.
“All of Rwandan identity and history is divided into pre-genocide and post-genocide,” mission co-worker Kay Day said at the 2018 New Wilmington Mission Conference at Westminster College.
“Division has been part of our history,” Day said. “You see, before the Germans and Belgians came, there were two people groups. There were the Tutsi who owned cattle, and there were the Hutu who had land.”
The horror of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is still fresh for Jerome Bizimana Nkumbuyinka. That’s when more than 800,000 people were slaughtered during the 100-day period following the assassination of the country’s president. The attackers came from the ranks of the Rwandan army, government-backed militias and national police and grew from a conflict between two groups: the Hutus and Tutsis.
‘All of Rwandan identity and history is divided into pre-genocide and post-genocide,’ said mission co-worker Kay Day during Friday evening vespers at the 2018 New Wilmington Mission Conference at Westminster College.
The horror of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is still fresh for Jerome Bizimana Nkumbuyinka. That’s when more than 800,000 people were slaughtered by perpetrators over a 100-day period following the assassination of the country’s president.
