The genocide of 1994 resulted in complete devastation. It decimated families and destroyed communities. It had divided the country into perpetrators and victims and left raw and complex political, social and jurisprudential issues. It resulted in survivors without homes, children without parents, parents without children. The legacy of genocide was utter confusion, a lack of trust in human values and relationships. The loss of hope.

Aegis observed that if is to make a sustainable recovery, memory and education are critical factors. Memory, because survivors need time and space. They need to be heard within their own society and further afield. So too, Rwandan society needs to reckon with its collective conscience, to be clear about what it is remembering and why. Education, because new and emerging generations, on all sides of the genocidal divide, need to feel comfortable confronting the country’s past and absorbing its demanding lessons.

This process is personal, because remembering family and friends is painfully necessary for healing and readjustment. It is national, because genocide affects everyone in in some way. It is international, because the wider world needs to demonstrate that it has learned from its own mistakes.

The Aegis project in focused its attention on several areas:

National Memorial Sites: Aegis was invited to manage some of the key memorial sites, with local partners such as the National Museum and Kigali City Council. A number of sites have had plans drawn up, aiming to preserve the past without excessive intervention, and to provide public spaces for remembrance and education.

Memorial Centres: Two international centres of reflection and learning, the Kigali Memorial Centre at Gisozi and the Murambi Genocide Prevention Centre, have been created.

Documentation of Gacaca: These village courts are being filmed by Aegisin conjunction with the Ministry of Culture to document local-level experience of the genocide, including perpetrato rs and survivors, and to witness the impact of local-level efforts of justice.

Filming Project of Survivor Testimony: This audiovisual collection of testimonies will be catalogued and translated into French and English.

Genocide Documentation: The collection of documents, names and family trees as well as artefacts and eyewitness statements.

GPS Satellite Mapping: To create an interactive internet-based map of the genocide, documenting mass

graves, killing sites, road blocks and memorials.

Education Programme Development: Using the centres in Kigali and Murambi as facilitators of programmes for school children and mature learners.

National Commemoration: Assisting in the preparations and execution of the 10th anniversary commemorations.

Media Support: Assisting with the creation and running of the national media centre on the occasion of the 10th anniversary commemorations.

“Having met a handful of

genocide survivors in

and visited a few of

more than 200 genocide

sites there, we were acutely

conscious of how little we

had really absorbed of the

Rwandan experience.”

James M. Smith, Executive Director, Aegis Trust.

Stephen Smith has published a presentation commemorating 10 years in Rwanda. If you would like to see the presentation please click here or click the picture below.