Phil: This past month I traveled to Gikongoro numerous times to oversee the remaining work at the Murambi Genocide Memorial, preparing for the opening of the exhibition that our team from the Kigali Genocide Memorial has been working on since I came to Rwanda last April. We worked to the last minute, making sure that everything was clean and organized and that everything was working.
Up to 50,000 Tutsi were massacred here in April 1994. There are twelve known survivors. But on this day, May 26th, Murambi is visited by the living.
They have come to participate in the official ceremony that marks the opening of this exhibition by the National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide. Finally, the public is able to view this exhibition that tells the story of the genocide and of what happened here on Murambi hill.
The official opening - with its protocol and speeches - is for dignitaries and elected representatives from the district level up to the President of the Senate, the guest of honour and second highest official in Rwanda.
A local holiday has been declared, with shops closed tight and school kids conspicuous in their absence along the roadways, and local people are encouraged to attend. Over a thousand assemble at the site - mostly young people of different backgrounds and comprising two-thirds of the audience. And it is the attendance of the people of these hills, where the extermination of the Tutsi was so complete, that is most significant.
The ceremony begins with the reburial of four coffins at the mass graves. The crypts that held these coffins needed repair, and the removed coffins are now being lowered ceremonially back into the vault. Flowers are laid; there is a moment of silence, and tears.
As the dignitaries are guided through some of the rooms holding preserved bodies, then into the main building to view the new exhibition on the Murambi genocide. The rest of us sit and wait: invited guests in a giant white tent, local people under a beating sun, sheltering under the odd umbrella or article of clothing draped over the head.
As the guest of honour concludes his remarks, everyone rises to sing the national anthem and suddenly it's over. Big shiny 4 x 4's appear, the dignitaries are whisked away and the doors to the exhibition are opened to all.
After months pouring over the minutiae of history, of the truth of what happened at Murambi, in search of a perspective or turn of phrase that might make a contribution to securing a peaceful future in Rwanda, watching the crowd entering the space - looking this way and that - brings a deep joy. They stand packed together in the reception, waiting to enter the exhibits, hundreds outside pressed against the glass doors and windows, waiting for their turn.
They have come to see what is here at Murambi. Some may come again.
Another door has opened, another step on a long journey that must of necessity be negotiated by Rwandans themselves. Today, passing through the doorway of the exhibition many of the young are learning their history for the first time, and while some visitors are triggered - numerous trauma cases, four sent to hospital - their future lies through, and beyond, what occurred here on Murambi hill.
We are grateful to have been involved in this project and to share this day.
1 comment:
Phil and Maggie, thanks for making the Murambi exhibition possible.
BE BLESSED
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