William Penn Remembers The Rwandan Genocide
Discussion about how Rwanda is moving forward after the genocide of 1994, and the lessons others can take away from what the country is doing to heal itself.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The bond developing between William Penn University and the people of Rwanda becomes stronger every year. On Monday evening, members of the community, faculty from William Penn University, and students, including some from Rwanda, came together to remember the genocide that claimed one million lives in 100 days, or nearly 1/3 of the population of Rwanda.
A film titled, ‘As We Forgive’ was played to those in attendance. The film focuses on the reconciliation that is taking place within Rwanda today.
It shows and discusses how those that murdered and the families of the victims are learning to once again live together, in the same town and neighborhoods.
“We’re talking about a very serious event and a very serious human problem,” William Penn Vice-President Steve Noah said in his opening statement. Noah outlined the timeframe of how the genocide came to be, stemming from colonialism and the defeat of Germany in WWI, when Rwanda was then given to Belgium to rule.
According to Noah, the Belgium government used a method of separating and diving the country on a social-economic basis, and along ethnic lines between the Hutu and Tutsi.
The Tutsi were typically more of the leaders and herders and the Hutu were typically the farmers and workers.
Noah said that before Belgium completely withdrew from Rwanda in the 1950’s, the country used a propaganda campaign “telling the Hutu’s that they had been exploited by the Tutsi’s for generations… and they sowed the seeds of ethnic hatred.”
“We as the west have a great deal of culpability in this. Not only because we helped sow those seeds, but because in the west, we watched it happen and we did nothing to intervene,” said Noah. “In fact, our Secretary of State, three times during the genocide, vetoed UN resolutions to send aid to Rwanda for political reasons.”
Noah believes that the current Rwandan government is trying to develop a “magnificent story” of economic success by “trying to reintegrate all parts of the Rwandan population,” under the basis that there is no social or economic class, “there are just Rwandans”. “They are doing to the best of their ability, creating a society, trying to eradicate any of this hated that has been been fostered over the last 100 years.”
The genocide is remembered every year, “with the knowledge that this can never happen again in the world,” expressed Noah, saying that the motto of the Rwandan genocide commemoration is, “Never Again.”
