Day 84 – Never Again

Kigali, Okapi Hotel

The good thing about the Okapi hotel is that it’s close to the centre of town – but the downside is the street noise – which is often the case with downtown hotels anywhere. However we still managed to sleep reasonably well regardless – and at least there are no 5am prayer calls or crowing roosters here in this part of Kigali!

Today’s plan was to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial, which we’d heard was a must-see. We both hopped onto the back of a couple of moto-taxis (the only way to travel in Kigali!) and arrived at the memorial at what seemed to be a relatively quiet time.

The memorial was interesting and also incredibly moving. There were three areas – the first was an account of the events related to the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis, before, during and after. This included some engrossing video footage of people recounting their stories – most of the people were still young, so they would have been children at the time.  Accounts of how they witnessed their family being killed, friends and neighbours turning against them, and of how they felt ten years afterwards. Very sobering stuff.

The second part was a burial site with mass graves, strewn with many wreaths, some carrying statements such as “Never Again”. We headed down to this area at around the same time as a church group arrived, dressed almost identically.

The final section was an overview of other genocides through history, including Armenia, Cambodia, Namibia, Germany, and Bosnia, and of the organizations and efforts working to detect and prevent such atrocities from reoccurring.

As we were leaving we passed a room with a number of mattresses piled outside, and the sound of sobbing coming from within – it was a place for people to grieve. That shook us a little, but we then heard some intense crying coming from outside the memorial, then witnessed a very distressed woman being brought in to the grieving room. We both pretty much lost it at that point. When you consider that the genocide happened just 17 years ago, and realise that almost everyone you come across in Rwanda would have been involved and/or affected in some way, you come to understand how amazing and resilient the Rwandan people are. We both agree that the memorial is one of the most intense and moving “museums” we’ve ever been to.

The rest of the day was uneventful – back onto the motos and into town for lunch, and an easy afternoon of working on our planned Ethiopia trip and various other internet based activities (including uploading one of our gorilla videos), while sitting in one of the better coffee places we’ve visited in Africa, before sundowners at Hotel Des Mille Collines ("Hotel Rwanda"), and dinner.