ACI Africa, Apr 20, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).
Women who were sexually assaulted, infected with diseases, and forced into exile, among other brutalities during the 1994 genocide against Tutsis, remain deeply scarred three decades later, and their stories must be told, a Rwandan-born Jesuit priest has said.
According to Father Marcel Uwineza, telling the stories of the women, “who have endured deep wounds and carried heavy burdens all their lives,” gives a voice to the women who, he said, “were practically silenced by the genocide.”
In an April 14 interview with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, Uwineza, who serves as principal of the Nairobi-based Hekima University College, said that Rwandan women have wounds that manifest today as the country marks 30 years since the April 7–July 19, 1994, genocide against the Tutsis.
“Many women in Rwanda have had to carry with them long years of suffering because of bringing up children who were conceived through rape,” Uwineza said. “Others were infected with HIV and have had to live with the condition all their lives. Many carry scars on their bodies because of the beatings they endured. Others had to carry the burden of their families because their husbands were killed. They not only carry the wounds of history but the burden of having to tell the story of their resilience as well.”
Some of the women, for fear of reprisal, have not shared about their horrifying encounters in the genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed and millions displaced. An estimated 75% of the Tutsi population are said to have died in the mass killings.
Other women who were sexually molested also preferred to keep silent fearing that they would never find a husband if they opened up about the rape, Uwineza said, adding that others feared that they would be rejected by their families. Still, he said, others were afraid that by speaking about the abuse, they would be asked to testify in public.
Uwineza said it is important that the stories of resilience of women who suffered the genocide against Tutsis and moderate Hutus be told “because 30 years is a big milestone.”
“It is important that the world knows how women can turn a test into a testimony, and a mess into a message,” he said.
Alluding to title of his book “Risen from the Ashes: Theology as Autobiography in Post-Genocide Rwanda,” he added: “In what had appeared as complete brokenness, resurrection has happened for many of these women.”
Uwineza recalled that in Rwanda’s 100 days of genocide against Tutsis, many women went into exile. Some, he said, joined the armed struggle in their effort to come back home when they felt they had no rights in their host countries.
According to Uwineza, women in Rwanda still carry with them wounds from a Church that abandoned them, where many were killed after they went to seek solace.
Rwanda’s story of affliction is better told by those who experienced it, Uwineza, who also lost his parents in the 1994 genocide, shared with ACI Africa. “History is often told from the perspective of winners,” he said. “But it is important to listen to the stories of the wounded.”
“Survivors are often the best authority when stories of struggle and resilience are told. When we speak, we give voice to those who were meant to be silenced in the genocide. Speaking is giving witness to their lives,” he said.
Those who suffered in the genocide also “left an unfinished agenda,” he said. “Telling their stories is joining their fight for dignity.”
Uwineza said the story of the genocide against the Tutsis must also continuously be told to counter the narratives of genocide deniers, who he said are on the rise, especially on social media platforms.
It is also important that other countries learn from Rwanda that violence leaves behind deep wounds, and some of these wounds never heal, Uwineza further said.
“Unfortunately, the only lesson we learn from history is that we don’t learn anything; we don’t seem to have learned from what happened in Rwanda,” he lamented.
Uwineza underlined the need for Rwanda to engage with its history, painful as it may be.
“After the genocide, we stopped teaching the history of Rwanda because the history we had was very divisive. But we can’t continue ignoring our past if we have to move forward,” he said. “Messy as it has been, it is our past. We therefore must engage it and own it. We all were wounded, and therefore, we need constructive history that will unite us.”
To heal, Rwanda also needs “a prophetic Church,” he told ACI Africa.
“At the time of the genocide, the Rwandan population was around 80% Christian. Yet all these merciless killings happened, some at religious places. As a Church, we must stop and ask ourselves what went wrong,” Uwineza said.
“We must develop a theology of hope and reparation that looks back to where we went wrong and one that envisions a better future so that these things are not repeated,” he continued.
“We must also acknowledge that some leaders in the Church made mistakes and that they do not represent the Church. We must also recognize Christian heroes who were killed trying to save lives,” he said.
According to Uwineza, a prophetic Church must also look at who is missing at the table of dialoguing into a better future. “Are women included at this table, given that they have made a lot of contributions in the civil society spaces?” he asked.
On April 11, Uwineza gave an address at Villanova University on the topic “Women Peace-builders in Rwanda Since Genocide,” highlighting how a section of the Rwandan women affected by the genocide have risen above their wounds to contribute to the healing process of the country.
He said that since the genocide, the status of Rwandan women has improved.
“Alongside their male counterparts, women chose to look beyond the horizon of tragedy. Women’s participation in associations, credit groups, and farm cooperatives has grown greatly,” Uwineza said, noting that women in the Rwandan Parliament have promoted laws that protect women against gender-based violence.
Additionally, after the genocide, women joined support groups and organizations such as Pro-Femmes, an advocacy organization for women; Abasa, an association of women who were the sole survivors of the genocide in their families; and Ineza, a sewing cooperative of women living with HIV as a result of the genocide.
“These women created a new landscape where they could breathe new air through their work and sharing of experiences. Others forged a new future for their children,” Uwineza told ACI Africa on April 14.
This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.
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It’s painfully obvious that the media do not consider all lives equally important. Celebrities are on top, of course, especially if they have the “correct” political and cultural views. Then come pretty, blonde, American girls, or people who can be shoehorned into the role of DEI martyrs. After this we have Americans in general (especially when traveling abroad), Israelis, and Brits; Canadians probably fall a tier below this. That tier includes Europeans in general, Australians, New Zealanders, and Japanese. Finally we have everyone else, but sub-Saharan Africans (maybe excluding South Africans) seem to be at the very bottom. A story about Taylor Swift having a sore throat is likely to get at least as much play as a story about 1000 Nigerian schoolkids being abducted.
Folks in places like Africa and Haiti only seem to garner media attention when they behave badly or are victims. And that often applies to their cousins in the States.
Stories about people eading decent, productive lives doesn’t sell airtime or get clicks.
*leading” decent lives…
Sorry. Early morning typing.
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Tribalism runs strong in Africa, especially in new nations where one tribe dominated another and the situation reversed with a developed state government. In the former Union of South Africa in which previous history saw the Zulu dominate other tribes and were used by the Dutch descendant Boers as a form of unofficial enforcement body. Tanzania where I served the Chaga tribe, advanced culturally and politically was the dominant tribe, at the time a tendency within the Church to attend to the warlike Maasai [although there were exceptional acts of charity by the Chaga to assist the Maasai].
Rwanda has no real rationale to justify the immensity of murderous hatred the Hutu majority had for the Tutsi. The Tutsi were the dominant warrior tribe that retained dominance during colonialism [Germany, Belgium] ruled by Tutsi kings who allegedly demeaned the Hutus. A dominance that existed prior to colonialism and during independence. Apparently a classic example of the Apostle’s warning, Do not hold on to your anger past sundown and let the Devil work on you. For the Hutus that anger went past a multitude of sundowns permitting Satan to encourage murderous rage of Catholic Hutus for Catholic Tutsis. Remarkably, a small army of surviving Tutsis were able to end the massacre, their general, Paul Kagame, became president of Rwanda and fostered a policy of forgiveness. Rwanda’s women victims were largely ignored. Healing requires a large spectrum of awareness as addressed by Father Marcel Uwineza SJ.
Father Uwineza is a Tutsi who witnessed his father, family members being slaughtered by Hutus. Years after he met with the primary Hutu assailant. He forgave him. Both wept.
Events in Rwanda leading to the massacres were more complex than cited. When independent from Belgium 1990 the majority Hutus were placed in power. Discrimination against Tutsis precipitated a Tutsi independence movement and civil war. Rwanda’s Hutu president was killed when his aircraft was shot down, which began the massacres of the Tutsis.
It was a tragic turn of events that perhaps could have been avoided if Belgium, and interested parties, especially the Church, had prepared both, mostly Catholic peoples, resentful Hutus and previously dominant Tutsis for independence. Thankfully, although the Church has been severely tested in Rwanda it nevertheless is the pathway for reconciliation.