The Genocide against the Tutsi, and the Rwandan Churches: Between Grief and Denial

This book explores the role of Christian churches in the Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi, examining why some sectors adopted an ambiguous attitude and how others attempted to remember and commemorate the genocide. It reveals more internal diversity within the Christian churches than is often assumed.

Format: Hardback
Length: 358 pages
Publication date: 18 February 2022
Publisher: James Currey

This book is a groundbreaking exploration of the role of Christian churches in the Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi, a pivotal work for historians, memory studies scholars, religion scholars, and Africanists. It delves into the complex and often ambiguous attitudes of certain sectors of the Rwandan churches towards the genocide, which claimed the lives of around 800,000 people in just three months between April and July 1994. The book seeks to answer the question of why these churches did not accept responsibility for their role in the genocide, and explores the efforts made by other sectors to remember and commemorate the genocide and rebuild pastoral programs.

Drawing on a wealth of interviews with genocide survivors, Rwandans in exile, missionaries, and government officials, as well as Church archives and other sources, this book offers a comprehensive analysis of Christianity and the genocide against the Tutsi. It reveals more internal diversity within the Christian churches than is often assumed, with some Christians taking risks to shelter Tutsi people, while others uncritically embraced the interim government's view that the Tutsi were enemies of the people. The book also highlights the church leaders' failure to denounce the genocide, with their condemnation of the war being the only explicit statement made.

The book focuses on the period of the genocide in 1994 and the subsequent years (up to 2000), examining in detail the responses of two churches: the Catholic Church, the biggest and most complex, and the Presbyterian Church in Rwanda, which made an unconditional confession of guilt in December 1996. A case study is devoted to the Catholic parish La Crête Congo-Nil in western Rwanda, led at the time by the French priest Gabriel Maindron, a man who played a significant role in sheltering Tutsi people during the genocide.

Overall, this book is a vital contribution to the understanding of the Rwandan genocide and the role of Christian churches in it. It provides a detailed and nuanced account of the complexities and contradictions within the Christian response to the genocide, and sheds light on the challenges faced by churches in navigating the moral and ethical dilemmas of their role in such a tragic event.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781847012906