KigaliWhen you visit the Rwandan capital, Kigali, for the first time, the city captivates you with the beauty of its nature, the cleanliness of its streets and alleys, the regularity of its buildings, and the smoothness of traffic through its roads.
Wherever you turn your face, your eyes fall on trees, flowers, or green spaces that fill every side, and there is no color other than green.
This may be the case in many countries and regions, especially those in which rain falls constantly at a time when water has become more difficult due to climate change, but what is interesting about the story of Rwanda – which is located in the east of the center of the African continent – is that this African country has not yet witnessed the events of genocide in it. Only 3 decades.
A period may not be sufficient for many governments to plan and launch projects, while here – where more than 800,000 people were killed in just 100 days in 1994 – 30 years were sufficient to heal the wounds, forget the painful past, achieve unity and reconciliation, and build an economy that is among the fastest growing on the African continent.
There is no prosperity without peace
“We cannot imagine development or a prosperous economy in a country like Rwanda that is burdened with wounds without achieving security and peace, and this is what the current government is doing,” says Serge Rwigamba, head of external relations at the Genocide Memorial Center in the capital, Kigali.
Rwigamba added to Al Jazeera Net – during a tour inside the Kigali Museum – that the government’s current policy is based on a set of goals, the most important of which is achieving unity among members of Rwandan society and working to overcome the pain left by the genocide that began on April 7, 1994, until mid-July. The same year, when extremist Hutu militias launched a genocide campaign against the Tutsi minority.
The most important thing that the current government is doing – Rwigamba confirms – is to devote the principles of reconciliation and the spirit of teamwork to building an economically strong and development country, and to try to re-educate members of society on the values of tolerance, unity and positive participation, in addition to achieving justice and punishing the perpetrators as a basis for healing the wounds of the past and anticipating a better future for the current generations. And futurism.
The Kigali Museum received more than 144,000 visitors during the 10 months of this year, 64% of whom were from outside Rwanda, to learn first-hand about the extent of the tragedy caused by the genocide in the country and the events that led to this genocide and to draw lessons from them in the hope that the like of it will not return in the future. The future, explains the official at the memorial museum.
Stories and lessons
Every corner of the Kigali Center – which opened in 2004 – contains a story in itself, merging with the rest of the stories and painting a picture of the horror of the genocide in Rwanda.
In this center, officials estimate that more than 250,000 victims have been buried, while research is still underway to discover more bodies of victims to bring there.
At the heart of the center, there are numerous gardens that tell the stories of child victims and inspire hope for a better tomorrow for current and future generations. They reflect moments of honor for Rwandan women in the past, present and future, and symbolize the need for Rwandan society to reject violence and protect individuals and groups from the doctrine of genocide.
Some of the gardens symbolize the state of division in the country in the wake of the genocide after an era of unity despite colonial attempts to divide members of society, and others send messages about the values of reconciliation and unity.
The museum has 3 main sections: a section dedicated to the genocide in Rwanda, another to cases of genocide in a number of regions of the world, and a third dedicated to monitoring images of the genocide of children.
The center has been strengthened by a program to train professors to teach students “self-criticism, empathy and personal responsibility from the curriculum,” according to Rwigamba.
The Kigali Center is not the only one undertaking the task of recalling the horror of genocide and its psychological, social and economic effects. Rather, all similar museums across the country play the role of informing local and international visitors about the tragedy and its repercussions on society, and trying to prevent similar painful stories from occurring in the future.
In another corner of the capital, there is the Campaign Against Genocide Museum, one of several museums in Rwanda that traces the history and culture of Rwandans.
The museum is located in the country’s parliamentary building and was opened in 2017 with the aim of presenting the history of Rwanda during the campaign against the genocide against the Tutsis. The museum monitors in detail how a plan was implemented to make the campaign against this genocide a success.
Significant economic numbers
Between the Memorial Center and the Museum of the Campaign Against Genocide – where the visitor spends moments with the painful history of Rwanda – life beats outside, as tourism, agricultural and industrial activity continues in many areas of the country, in a collective desire to advance an economy that has achieved a growth rate of 8% in 2023.
An economy that depends mainly on the agricultural sector, which contributes 27% of the country’s gross domestic product, along with the industrial sector (18%) and then the tourism sector, as Rwanda receives more than 1.4 million tourists annually on average, generating hundreds of millions of dollars for the state treasury to meet the growing needs of a population of Their population is more than 14.5 million people.
This collective desire to achieve prosperity was summarized by the Director of the Campaign Against Genocide Museum, Medard Pashana, in a number of points – which he described as essential – including the unity of society, providing security and building a strong economy by formulating more just and democratic strategies and policies.
In addition, according to Pashana, there is the role of eliminating corruption, establishing strong diplomatic relations with abroad, and expanding the network of relations to support the economy and enhance social welfare.
