Christianity and the Rwandan Genocide

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Main article: Rwandan Genocide

In 1994, the Rwandan Genocide began. The majority Hutu began the systematic killing of the Tutsi minority. Rwanda is the most Christian country in the whole of Africa. A greater proportion of Rwandans are Christian than in any other African country. According to the 1991 census, not less than 90% of the population was Christian, out of which 63% were Catholic, 19% Protestant and some 8% Adventist. ^[1] The role of the Christian churches in the genocide has been a source of great controversy.

A report by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) claims that: "Church leaders failed to use their unique moral position among the overwhelmingly Christian population to denounce ethnic hatred and human rights abuse." Although the ethnic divisions and tensions between Hutu and Tutsi predate the colonial era, the OAU report goes on to state that: "In the colonial era, under German and then Belgian rule, Roman Catholic missionaries, inspired by the overtly racist theories of 19th century Europe, concocted a destructive ideology of ethnic cleavage and racial ranking that attributed superior qualities to the country's Tutsi minority, since the missionaries ran the colonial-era schools, these pernicious values were systematically transmitted to several generations of Rwandans. . ."

A Human Rights Watch report notes that "Far from condemning the attempt to exterminate the Tutsi, Archbishop Augustin Nshamihigo and Bishop Jonathan Ruhumuliza of the Anglican Church acted as spokemen for the genocidal government at a press conference in Nairobi." ^[2]

"Some clergy who might have been able to save lives refused to even try to do so. On April 15 Abbé Pierre Ngoga, who had fled the Kibeho church after soldiers and local people had begun massacring thousands of Tutsi there, called the Bishop of Gikongoro. Abbé Ngoga asked him to rescue the Tutsi who had survived and faced renewed attack. The bishop reportedly refused to help, saying that he had no soldiers to accompany him to Kibeho and that the Tutsi had been attacked because they had arms with them."

"Some clergy, Rwandan and foreign, turned away Tutsi who sought their protection, whether from fear, from misjudgment of the consequences of their action, or from desire to see them killed. In other cases, the clergy protected most who sought refuge with them, but nonetheless sacrificed others."

"A small number of clergy and other religious persons have been accused of having incited genocide, delivered victims to the killers or even of having killed themselves. Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana has been indicted before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in connection with the massacre at Mugonero and Abbé Wenceslas Munyeshyaka of the Sainte Famille Church in Kigali has been charged in France with torture. Two Rwandan priests have been found guilty of genocide and condemned to death by a Rwandan court."^[2]

The Christian church has started the first step on the long road towards atonement for its crimes by accepting that its actions were wrong; "The archbishop of Canterbury has apologized on behalf of the Anglican church and the pope has called for clergy who are guilty to have the courage to face the consequences of their crimes." ^[3]