So here's my problem, and i can't really tell any Rwandans:
It's difficult not to constantly have 'genocide' on my mind as I walk around. The images and stories that have become so familiar from books and media coverage during the genocide are now my only references as I discover this place - and i can't help but feel like I’m being unfair to Rwanda, that's trying so hard to move on.
Every time I see the pickups with men piled in the back as they go to/from work, I remember the images of truck loads of Interahamwe that would patrol the streets. The same thing happens every time i see a machete, which is quite frequent as this is an agricultural society (machetes were the main weapons used during the 1994 genocide). Today I confessed this to Elizabeth and she told me it happened to her too.
Perhaps the thing that strikes me the most are the gangs of prisoners doing public works - cutting grass, trimming trees or doing construction work under the watchful eyes of the guards. The prisoners are dressed in bright pink and sort of paraded around. The consensus is that the majority of them are people who took part in the killing. It's strange being so close to them in your day-to-day routines.
I wonder whether Rwandans have this problem too - or is it something you get used to? The genocide wasn't restricted to any one place that you could avoid today - there were bodies everywhere, checkpoints at every corner. I'm told there was a checkpoint right at the bottom of my office’s hill, where I get off every day. Most of the sites of the big massacres - churches, stadiums, schools and universities - are still open. To get into town I drive by the church of the St. Famille, where 18000 refugees were massacred as the priests looked on. The church - the same building - is still open and Rwandans continue to worship there.
Maybe this is why it's hard to find any overt references to the genocide - you have to go out of your way to see the memorials, there are no monuments in the center of town, and Rwandans certainly don't talk about it.
And here I am - like those voyeuristic misery tours people I always get so annoyed with that visit the Occupied Territories and get disappointed when they see that refugees are no longer living in tents - expecting to be constantly confronted by the Genocide. And I can't help it.
So there you have it, my confession.
It's difficult not to constantly have 'genocide' on my mind as I walk around. The images and stories that have become so familiar from books and media coverage during the genocide are now my only references as I discover this place - and i can't help but feel like I’m being unfair to Rwanda, that's trying so hard to move on.
Every time I see the pickups with men piled in the back as they go to/from work, I remember the images of truck loads of Interahamwe that would patrol the streets. The same thing happens every time i see a machete, which is quite frequent as this is an agricultural society (machetes were the main weapons used during the 1994 genocide). Today I confessed this to Elizabeth and she told me it happened to her too.
Perhaps the thing that strikes me the most are the gangs of prisoners doing public works - cutting grass, trimming trees or doing construction work under the watchful eyes of the guards. The prisoners are dressed in bright pink and sort of paraded around. The consensus is that the majority of them are people who took part in the killing. It's strange being so close to them in your day-to-day routines.
I wonder whether Rwandans have this problem too - or is it something you get used to? The genocide wasn't restricted to any one place that you could avoid today - there were bodies everywhere, checkpoints at every corner. I'm told there was a checkpoint right at the bottom of my office’s hill, where I get off every day. Most of the sites of the big massacres - churches, stadiums, schools and universities - are still open. To get into town I drive by the church of the St. Famille, where 18000 refugees were massacred as the priests looked on. The church - the same building - is still open and Rwandans continue to worship there.
Maybe this is why it's hard to find any overt references to the genocide - you have to go out of your way to see the memorials, there are no monuments in the center of town, and Rwandans certainly don't talk about it.
And here I am - like those voyeuristic misery tours people I always get so annoyed with that visit the Occupied Territories and get disappointed when they see that refugees are no longer living in tents - expecting to be constantly confronted by the Genocide. And I can't help it.
So there you have it, my confession.
posted by Diala at 1:31 PM
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