Genocide Research

July 10, 2008

Morning meetings at the Kigali Memorial Centre to begin to establish a research relationship between the centre and my research partner.

While I am there, a young lady who works at the centre as an executive secretary chatted with me while I waited for the meetings to begin. She told me how much she loves her country and how other Africans from the Great Lakes region—Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi—don’t believe it is safe here.

On Tuesday, when I visited the centre for the first time, a young man who was there on a field trip with his university asked me questions on a similar riff. After he found out I am American, he wanted to know what I knew about Rwanda before I came, then wanted to know what was different after I experienced the country firsthand. Then he wanted to know what Americans think of his country—and he politely pressed me for details.

To both of these proud, young Rwandans, I said the same things: The Genocide is the dominant image the Americans have of Rwanda and when I mention this country to people at home, they think of “Hotel Rwanda.” And Americans have a difficult time understanding how Rwandans can live together peacefully after such bad history. This living together, this peace, is what young Rwandans need to teach to the world.

That’s what Research Partner and I are trying to learn to do as well. And after I’ve described what we are studying here and hoping to communicate to a larger audience, more than one Rwandan has extended thanks for doing Genocide research.

Thank you. It’s so good to be part of this big team.