Long before visiting the Kigali Genocide Memorial, even before stepping onto Rwandan soil, I had so many questions.
Questions every visitor to Rwanda must ask to begin the journey to understanding a country that has been to hell and back.
What led to the unconscionable, systematic slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans — mostly ethnic Tutsis — over just 100 days in 1994? How does a country not just survive but recover from such a harrowing human catastrophe? How does the atrocity influence the interactions between Rwandans today and what deep, dark holes are left in their hearts?
In his gentle voice, my Ugandan guide Baker explained that although there is no explicit animosity displayed between Tutsis and Hutus now, who knows the depth of pain and sense of injustice buried inside? If anyone has a right to feel bitter, I thought, it’s Rwandans — some children at the time — who have seen their entire families murdered by militia groups and even neighbours. Men hacked with machetes like cattle at the butcher. Women forced to kill their husbands before being raped and killed themselves. Children clubbed to death.
Remarkably though, Rwanda today is a country rebuilt. As I was driven into Kigali, I found a clean, developed city (Rwanda is one of the cleanest countries in Africa) with a strong infrastructure, modern buildings and well-paved roads — the very streets where Tutsis were openly maimed and killed just 21 years ago. I wanted to learn more, to reconcile the Rwanda of progress with the Rwanda of 1994 and its blood-stained past. There was only one place to start: the Kigali Genocide Memorial.
Sites of this kind aren’t new to me. I’ve visited the Anne Frank House in the Netherlands, a former Nazi concentration camp in Austria, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia, but this? The Rwandan genocide was not just shockingly rapid, it was alarmingly recent. I was a university student at the time, anxiety-ridden about my exams and grumbling about my commute between home, school and my part-time job — all while the greatest atrocity of my time was being committed on a distant continent.
Inside the Kigali Genocide Memorial
Opened a decade after the genocide, the memorial is a solemn, tear-inducing museum. With giant wall displays, archival documents, photos, video footage and weapons encased in glass, the indoor exhibit sheds light on the Rwandan genocide, as well its pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial roots. The room filled with human skulls and bones was chilling but most heart-wrenching was the children’s memorial. From the details displayed next to their photos, I learned each child’s favourite foods and activities. It was like viewing a family album — except it abruptly ends with how the youngster’s life was violently snuffed out.
To provide an historical perspective, the indoor exhibit also delves into the sinister ideologies that provoked the world’s largest genocidal massacres from the Namibian genocide to the Holocaust. The Kigali Genocide Memorial is an important reminder that ethnic cleansing of this kind is a global phenomenon.
The Outdoor Exhibit
By the time I reached the exit of the indoor exhibit, I was yearning for daylight and fresh air. I stepped outside. Surrounding the centre are peaceful gardens for quiet reflection, created as if the developers knew visitors would need to recompose themselves after such a core-rattling experience.
I inhaled and exhaled with intention and a sense of relief until I came upon the tombs. Covered by giant plates of concrete, mass graves for over 250,000 victims serve as a place for visitors to honour those lost, and for the loved ones of the victims to grieve and remember.
Visitors can also take a rose (by donation) and place it on a grave to pay their respects.
I walked further and a vast, black marble wall etched with the names of those who perished appeared before me.
How the Rwandan genocide could have happened as the international community looked on just over two decades ago is unfathomable but it’s incumbent upon us to at least try to understand.
The Kigali Genocide Memorial should be included on everyone’s Rwanda travel itinerary. It may leave you struggling for words, in tears — or both. It may infuriate you. It may destroy your faith in humanity.
But one thing is for certain: this place matters. The victims and survivors matter, and they deserve our time and respect.
What You Should Know:
- I strongly suggest visiting the memorial at the beginning of your trip to Rwanda. The perspective gained from your visit will provide valuable historical, social and cultural context as you explore the country further.
- Entrance is free but do consider offering a 10 USD donation. The centre, managed by the UK-based Aegis Trust (an NGO committed to genocide prevention), relies on monetary gifts to maintain the memorial, educate the world about the dangers of racism and support survivors of the genocide.
- Dedicate at least 2-3 hours to complete the tour.
- For a more informative experience, an audio guide (headset) is available for 15 USD at the beginning of the tour.
- Complete your visit by sipping coffee or, if you don’t lose your appetite after viewing the exhibits, eating lunch at the onsite café. Proceeds help the centre fulfill its mission.
- Photography inside the building is not permitted but you’re free to take photos outside.
- To learn more about the genocide, consider reading We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, as well as Shake Hands With the Devil, a personal account written by Roméo Dallaire, Lieutenant-General of the Canadian Armed Forces who led the UN mission in Rwanda. A feature-length documentary about his experience can also be viewed on YouTube here.
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If you’ve been to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, did you have the same reaction as I did? How did the experience change you?
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I hope everyone understands or attempts to understand the suffering of those who were killed and endless sorrow of those who survived. Living nextdoor to your family’s killer is beyond human understanding. Only forgiveness and commitment to move on greatly explain the difference between now and then for Rwanda in its journey to resilience.
Very meaningful words, Rugambwa. What Rwanda has endured is indeed beyond imagination. My visit was sobering, but it was also deeply inspiring. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
An excellent summation and wonderful pictures. I have been to Kigali Genocide Memorial twice, and will no doubt visit again in the future. The area that struck me the most, almost central within the memorial is the room where photographs line the walls and inshots. Photos of all of those killed; murdered during the genocide. Wedding pictures, family photographs, school photographs, sporting events – yet all of those ordinary, innocent people gone. My life has never been the same again since my first visit to Rwanda, and it never will return to how it was before that trip. I wonder – did you visit Murambi during your travels? Perhaps the only place still more powerful and emotional to visit than here.
Oh yes, that room spoke to me too. It is, indeed, important to put a human face on the victims, no matter how many were killed. The site was a life-altering experience for me as well. I didn’t make it to Murambi, although it’s hard to imagine a place that could be more powerful than the Kigali Genocide Memorial. What was it exactly that made it more impactful, Allan?