The Long Shadow of Genocide

I have been traveling throughout the country the past few days meeting with dozens of leaders discussing the past and future of Rwanda. The meetings have been incredibly hopeful and positive and there is an undeniable optimism about the direction of the country.

But wherever one goes one cannot escape the long shadow of genocide. It continues to impact the fabric of the country in ways small and big. Last week we visited the National University of Rwanda in Butare and met with the dean, law faculty and law students. Dean Didas Kayihura is doing wonderful work at NUR and I greatly enjoyed speaking with the students there. They had numerous insightful questions about international criminal law, universal jurisdiction, and the ICC.

We spent time at the law school’s legal aid clinic to hear some of the stories of the poorest of the poor in Rwanda. One woman sought legal help because of a vexing property issue relating to the genocide. The man she is now living with had committed acts of genocide and served his time in prison. He was freed and met the woman and they started a family. They were never legally married but she alleges the government is now trying to go after her small plot of land to compensate the victims of the genocide. Is it legal to do that if they are not married?

Another woman with several small children had a property dispute with her husband’s family. The man she was living with had fled the country during the genocide and she does not know if he is dead or alive. She was not legally married to him but the children’s birth certificates all identify him as the father. Can she stay on his land and use it for the benefit of her children? Under Rwandan law the answer is yes, and the law students were working to guarantee her those rights.

A third man had been homeless for years because he had fled the country during the genocide and came back as a young man only to find that his father had married another woman and started a new family. His father and the other children of this second marriage do not want to have anything to do with this man and refuse to share the property with him.

Stories like this abound. There also are many wonderful stories of victims of the genocide who are successfully moving on with their lives. Earlier this week a friend told me the story of a young couple, both aged eighteen and orphaned from the genocide, who grew up together in an orphanage and fell in love. They wanted to get married and start a family, but the law prohibits marriage before the age of majority, which is twenty-one years old. The solution they found was a special dispensation from the Ministry of Justice to allow this couple to marry. They now have a small child together and are happily married.

One of the highlights of the day today was visiting a microfinance project on the outskirts of Kigali established by local churches for widows and orphans of the genocide. The women use all-natural local products such as banana leaves and paste to make amazingly beautiful Christmas cards that they sold to us for fifty cents each. They took great pride in their work, which gives them a means to survive on their own with dignity.

The shadow of genocide is long, but with great courage the country is moving on.