Thursday, December 10, 2009

The kigali memorial centre tries to make sense of it all. What happeed in this country was the outcome of the events of many years. Fault can be placed on the colonial system, the western world who did nothing, and of course the population of this tiny country who turned on each other with the most horrific consequences.

The phrase 'never again' appears many times. The world repeated it for decades after the Second World War. And yet in 1994, the dead of Rwanda accumulated at nearly three times the rate of Jewish dead during the Holocaust.

At the end of the museum, you walk past perhaps 30 blown up images of children ranging from 7 months to 10 years old. Underneath, it lists their name, favourite food or hobby or just things they liked. At the bottom it starkly states how they died.

Machete attack, buried alive in pits and latrines, beaten against a tree, stabbed through the eyes.

I don't think any museum has moved us as much as this place on our travels.

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