Stories of Rwandan Women “scarred by genocide” Must Be Told: Jesuit Priest on 30th Anniversary of Mass Killing

Other women who were sexually molested also preferred to keep mum fearing that they would never get a husband if they opened up about the rape, the Nairobi-based Jesuit Priest said, adding that others feared that they would be rejected by their families. Still, others were afraid that by speaking about the abuse, they would be asked to testify in public, Fr. Uwineza said.

The Rwandan-born Catholic Priest said it is important that the stories of resilience of women who suffered the genocide against Tutsis and moderate Hutus be told “because 30 years is a big milestone.”

“It is important that the world knows how women can turn a test into a testimony, and a mess into a message,” he said, and alluding to title of his book “Risen from the ashes”, added, “In what had appeared as complete brokenness, resurrection has happened for many of these women.”

 Fr. Uwineza recalled that in Rwanda’s 100 days of genocide against Tutsis, many women went into exile. Some, he said, joined the armed struggle in their effort to come back home when they felt they had no rights in their host countries.

According to the Priest who previously served as the Formation Assistant of the Jesuits of Rwanda- Burundi region, women in Rwanda still carry with them wounds from a Church that abandoned them, where they were killed after they went to seek solace.

Rwanda’s story of affliction is better told by those who experienced it, Fr. Uwineza who also lost his parents in the 1994 genocide shares with ACI Africa, and explains, “History is often told from the perspective of winners. But it is important to listen to the stories of the wounded.”

“Survivors are often the best authority when stories of struggle and resilience are told. When we speak, we give voice to those who were meant to be silenced in the genocide. Speaking is giving witness to their lives,” he says.

Those who suffered in the genocide also “left an unfinished agenda,” the author of “Risen from the Ashes: Theology as Autobiography in Post-genocide Rwanda” that Paulines Publications Africa published in 2022 says, and explains, “Telling their stories is joining their fight for dignity.”

Fr. Uwineza says that the story of the genocide against the Tutsis must also continuously be told to counter the narratives of genocide deniers, who the Catholic Priest says are rising, especially on social media platforms.

It is also important that other countries learn from Rwanda that violence leaves behind deep wounds, and that some of these wounds never heal, Fr. Uwineza further says, and continues, “Unfortunately, the only lesson we learn from history is that we don’t learn anything; we don’t seem to have learnt from what happened in Rwanda.”

Fr. Uwineza underlines the need for Rwanda to engage with its history, painful as it may be. 

“After the genocide, we stopped teaching the history of Rwanda because the history we had was very divisive. But we can’t continue ignoring our past if we have to move forward,” he says, and adds, “Messy as it has been, it is our past. We therefore must engage it and own it.  We all were wounded and therefore, we need constructive history that will unite us.”

To heal, Rwanda also needs “a prophetic Church”, the Jesuit Priest who researches on ecclesiology, genocide studies, religion and ethics, among other topics told ACI Africa during the April 14 interview. 

“At the time of the genocide, the Rwandan Population was around 80 percent Christian. Yet all these merciless killings happened, some at religious places. As a Church, we must stop and ask ourselves what went wrong,” Fr. Uwineza said. 

“We must develop a theology of hope and reparation that looks back to where we went wrong and one that envisions a better future so that these things are not repeated,” he further said. 

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He continued, “We must also acknowledge that some leaders in the Church made mistakes and that they do not represent the Church. We must also recognize Christian heroes who were killed trying to save lives.”

According to the Rwandan Catholic Priest, a prophetic Church must also look at who is missing at the table of dialoguing into a better future. “Are women included at this table given that they have made a lot of contribution in the civil society spaces,” he poses.

On April 11, Fr. Uwineza gave an address at the Villanova University on the topic “Women peacebuilders in Rwanda since Genocide”, highlighting how a section of the Rwandan women affected by the genocide have risen above their wounds to contribute to the healing process of the landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge.

He said that since the genocide, the status of Rwandan women has improved. “Alongside their male counterparts, women chose to look beyond the horizon of tragedy. Women’s participation in associations, credit groups and farm cooperatives has grown greatly,” Fr. Uwineza said, adding that women in the Rwandan Parliament have promoted laws that protect women against gender-based violence (GBV).

Additionally, after the genocide, women joined support groups and organizations such as Pro-femmes (in support of women), an advocacy organization for women; Abasa, an Association of women who were the sole survivors of the genocide in their families; and Ineza, a sewing cooperative of women living with HIV as a result of the genocide.

“These women created a new landscape where they could breathe new air through their work and sharing of experiences. Others forged a new future for their children,” Fr. Uwineza told ACI Africa on April 14.