This week, Rwandans are marking the of the Hutu
In a three-month killing spree that began on April 7, 1994, extremist Hutus murdered more than a million members of the Tutsi minority, as well as Hutus who refused to participate in the slaughter or tried to protect their Tutsi neighbors.
This week, survivors and perpetrators of the are coming together to commemorate and reflect on a crime against humanity that rocked a nation, and indeed the world.
When making friends is a minefield
which makes up a large part of the population today, did not experience the genocide first-hand. Most of what young people know they have heard from family and friends or learned at school. But many are troubled by the issue.
“It is my duty and my responsibility to respect every single moment of the commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsi,” 19-year-old Francis Mugisha told DW.
“And secondly, as a Rwandan, I feel concerned about everything happening in my country, so I take it not only as a responsibility, but as something like something I should live with, something I should socialize with,” he explained.
But what does that mean? How does one “socialize” with the demons of the past?
For Emmanuel Ishimwe (30) this question is to be understood quite literally. He told DW that the act of socialzing with new people and making friends could be tricky.
“Some may choose friends based on ethnicity but will not openly show or say it,” he said, adding that people often had to tread carefully along ethnic lines — lest they be perceived as sectarian.
He stressed that personally he did not “think ethnicity plays a role because we now understand that we are all Rwandans,” but said that not everybody agreed with that assessment.
Genocide studies in school
After reports of students scribbling hate speech messages in washrooms or even on school blackboards, the government decided to introduce genocide studies in high schools in the hope of promoting unity.
Freddy Mutanguha, a former vice president of IBUKA — an umbrella group of genocide survivors — told DW that it was “incomprehensible” to see certain people being divisive.
“The young generation is the future of this country,” Mutanguha explained, adding that the introduction of the genocide studies was supposed to counteract such polarizing currents.
A survivor of the genocide himself, Mutanguha advocates bringing Tutsis and Hutus together in a constructive ways, focusing on dialogue and remembrance.
Not enough guidance
But the problem often starts at home. Despite Rwanda’s many efforts to foster unity and reconciliation, there remains a cloud of silence in many families when it comes to the past.
“Some parents don’t want to explain to their children what happened in 1994. That means most children hear about the genocide only during the commemoration period,” Ishimwe told DW, highlighting that this was partly why he feels he lacks the skillset to address issues such as ethnicity.
Others said that what they learn might be too little, too late — or even too much, but too late: 27-year-old Christian Nshimiyimana told DW that he only grasped the full extent of the genocide that took place in his country when he was 16.
“From the discussions I heard from my family and friends, I think the youth need to be taught more about the country’s history and the genocide that happened in Rwanda,” he said, adding that there was a danger that the ideology that had led to the genocide still existed.
A new Rwanda?
Most Rwandan adolescents say they want to put Rwanda’s dark history behind them and build a new country where all ethnic groups can live together.
This is also how President Paul Kagame wants Rwanda to be seen by the outside world: as a united nation, where Hutus and Tutsis live together in peace, where there is a flourishing economy, and where the streets are always clean.
For critics, it is a manicured present in which dissident voices are muted. Many say that the country is becoming increasingly authoritarian.
And some young people who feel haunted by the past and have the sense that they have lost their identity are particularly worried about the future.
Edited by: Sertan Sanderson
The post Rwandan youth grapples with aftermath of genocide appeared first on Deutsche Welle.