The travels of Tim and Megan: Africa Safari: Rwanda

Day 8: Rwanda

After an exhausting day visiting gorillas, we had another big day ahead with an optional day trip to Rwanda, which most of our tour group (16 of us) decided to do. We were up at 5am, had breakfast, made a packed lunch and then set off in two minvans. It took about an hour to get to the border, but then it was a frustrating process to actually enter Rwanda. The whole border crossing consumed over two hours of our day - partly because of inefficient border control staff and partly because the minivan operators did not have adequate insurance on their vans and were not allowed to cross the border until they paid bribes to the appropriate people. It did not help that people were queue jumping in front of us at every opportunity and that many of them stunk of the worst body odour imaginable.

Rwanda is a country in central Africa with a population of approximately 11.5 million people. The country is very small and is one of the most densely populated in Africa. Rwanda is located just below the equator and is bordered by Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, Burundi to the south and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west. Rwanda is at high altitude with a geography dominated by mountains in the west, savanna in the east and lakes throughout the country - it is beautiful. Rwanda gained its independence from Belgium in 1962. The official languages are English, French and Kinyarwanda. The capital and largest city is Kigali, which has a population of about 1 million people.

Once we eventually made it across the border, we drove for another two hours to the capital city of Kigali. The countryside was very green and hilly and there were plenty of people working in the tea fields. It all looked very gren and lush. Kigali itself was a pretty city: fairly clean even though busy. There was a big flood across one of the main streets, not sure what caused it, but we just drove through the water like everyone else. Nobody seemed too concerned! Our first stop in Kigali was at the Museum of Genocide.

Rwandans form three groups - the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. The Hutu are the largest group, making up over 80% of Rwandans. The division between the Hutu and the next largest group, the Tutsi is based more on social class than ethnicity. The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 was the culmination of longstanding ethnic competition and tensions between the minority Tutsi, who had controlled power for centuries, and the majority Hutu peoples, who had come to power in the rebellion of 1959–62 and overthrown the Belgian-sponsored Tutsi monarchy.

In the space of just three months in 1994, over 1 million (mainly Tutsi) people were systematically beaten, tortured, raped and murdered by the Hutu, while the UN (and the rest of the world) stood back and watched. Men, women and children were beaten and hacked to death with clubs and machetes. Many more Rwandans died in the refugee crisis that follwed the end of the genocide, as there was insufficient humanitarian aid for the huge numbers of refugees, leaving many to die of hunger and disease.

The Museum of Genocide was well presented and we learned a lot about the Rwandan genocide and how it had come about. There were some very disturbing photos and stories of the horrific events that had unfolded in the beautiful city around us. The museum also had information on other genocides from around the world, including the Bosnian massacre of the 1990s, which we had learned about when we visited Sarajevo. Outside the museum there were some memorial gardens dedicated to the victims of the genocide and next to the gardens were rows of mass graves, which contain thousands of bodies. They are covered with huge slabs of concrete.

After our museum visit, we drove about an hour east of Kigali to the Nyarubuye Catholic Church, the site of a massacre in which 10,000 civilians were murdered in the space of a couple of days. Thousands of Tutsi has fled to the church for refuge, but its defences were breached by Hutu attackers and the sheltering Tutsi were killed with grenades and guns. Horrifically, many of the women were brutally raped and tortured before dying and some of the babies and children were grabbed by their legs and smashed against the brick walls, which still bear their blood.

Along with bloodstains on the walls, there are bullet holes and grenades explosion marks all over the church, making for a highly disturbing atmosphere. The clothing from the victims has been kept and is heapped all over the floor and the seats in church to show the magnitude of the assault and as a memorial to the victims. It was extremely difficult hearing about what had happened in the church and seeing the remnants of mass murder all around us. There are mass graves beneath and behind the church. In the basement beneath the church, there is a memorial to the victims, which shows cracked and broken skulls and bones of some of the victims - rows and rows of skulls and bones. It was all very upsetting, but we appreciated the opportunity to learn about an episode of history that we previously did not know much about.

Our final stop on our whirlwind tour of Rwanda was back in Kigali, at the luxurious Sabena Hotel des Mille Collines. It was there that a Rwandan man, Paul Rusesabagina, used his influence and connection as manager of the hotel to save 1,268 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the genocide. He has since been internationally honoured for his bravery and courage. In 2004 a film called "Hotel Rwanda" was released, which was based on Rusesabagina's efforts.

We had a look around the hotel, which was very nice, and took a few photos before hopping back in the van and heading out of Kigali. It was a fairly long drive back through Rwanda, across the border and then through Uganda back to our camp at Lake Bunyonyi. We were all shattered after not only a big day but such an emotional day learning about the shocking events which took place so recently in our lifetime.

If anyone is interested in learning more about how the genocide came to pass while the world stood by and watched, Megan recommends Romeo Dallaire's "Shake Hands with the Devil: the failure of humanity in Rwanda", detailing account of his time as Force Commander of the UN's peacekeeping mission in Rwanda between 1993 - 1994.