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“Thou Shalt Not Kill”

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“Thou Shalt Not Kill” “Thou shalt not kill” The History of the Catholic Church and Racial division in Rwanda Name: Helmi Moret Student ID: 10837965 Date: 11-7-2016 Degree: Master Thesis History, Holocaust and Genocide studies Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nanci Adler 1 Contents Introduction 3 Chapter one: History of European settlement in Rwanda from 1890 to 1945 5 Chapter two: The new Rwandan society 13 Chapter three: The Genocide and Radicalized priest 24 Chapter four: The Rwandan regime and the Catholic bishops 34 Chapter five: The Vatican and the 1994 Rwandan genocide 44 Conclusion 58 Bibliography 63 2 Introduction During the spring of 1994, the small African country of Rwanda was center stage of one of the most brutal genocides in human history. During a period of approximately 100 days, an estimated 800,000 people were massacred by machete. The Rwandan genocide is set apart from other genocides by its sheer brutality and the high speed with which the perpetrators killed their victims. It is also set apart by its intimacy because most victims knew their killers. Most victims and perpetrators came from the same village, had gone to the same school and, perhaps most surprisingly, went to the same church. This is an important aspect that makes the Rwandan genocide different from other genocide the world has seen to date, namely that both victims and predators of the genocide had the same religion. Almost 90% of Rwandans were, at the time, Christians, making Rwanda the most Christian nation in Africa. In addition, more than 70% of the population was Catholic. Attendance at Holy Mass was also very high, about 95% of the Rwandan Catholics attendant church at least once a week.1 During the genocide, these churches became the primary killing sites. Victims were murdered inside churches or on church property where they had hoped to find sanctuary. Where Nazi Germany had its “death camps”, it seems that Rwanda had its “death churches”.2 The focus of this thesis is on the role of the Catholic Church in the 1994 genocide. Research into the actions of the Catholic Church during the genocide is important because of its pivotal role in Rwandan society at the time of the genocide. Although some research has been done to determine the role of the church and in particular the Catholic Church in the genocide, there are some issues that need further examination. For instance, why was the Catholic Church with so much influence in Rwandan society unable to stop the violence between its own parishioners? In her book ‘Leave none to tell the story’ Alisson des Forges makes the following statement about the clergy in time of the Rwandan genocide: “By not issuing a prompt, firm condemnation of the killing campaign, Church authorities left the way clear for officials, politicians, and propagandists to assert that the slaughter actually met with God’s favor.”3 However, the emphases of this thesis is that the Catholic Church had a greater role in the genocide than just failing to speak out against the violence. First of all the Catholic Church by 1 “International mass attendance,” Cara services, accessed at October 19, 2015, http://cara.georgetown.edu/CARAServices/intmassattendance.html. 2 Timothy Longman, Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010) 5. 3 Alison Des Forges, Leave none to tell the story; Genocide in Rwanda (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999) 245-6. 3 its own history in Rwanda, was both a force behind ethnic discrimination as well as an instrument of ethnic radicalization. Secondly, not only did the Catholic Church fail to intervene, some members of the clergy openly showed their disdain for the Tutsi minority and actively sided with the génocidaires. And finally the international leadership of the Catholic Church has had trouble accepting a retributive justice system to punish those responsible in the genocide. This combination of silence at the top and grassroots participation transformed the fifth commandment from “Thou Shalt Not Kill” into “Thou Shalt Kill” for 100 days in Rwanda. The thesis is written in two parts; the first part consists of two chapters that give a general, historical overview of the way the Catholic Church established itself in Rwanda. The story of the Rwandan genocide and the role of the Catholic Church cannot be told without explaining the history of the country. The first part explains why the early history of colonization in Rwanda created an atmosphere in which the Catholic Church was able to secure political and societal power. In the second part of the thesis, which consists of chapters 3, 4 and 5, the actions of the Catholic Church during and after the genocide is examined. The intention is to look to the how and why the Catholic Church failed in upholding its own moral principles during the genocide. The chapters are divided into the hierarchal levels of the Catholic Church. Chapter 3 looks at the action taken by locale priest, chapter 4 looks at the role of Bishops and Archbishop in Rwanda and finally chapter 5 looks at the role the Vatican had in the Rwandan genocide. 4 Chapter 1 History of European settlement in Rwanda from 1890 to 1945 In this chapter there will be a description of how the European colonization took place. Special emphasis will be given to the history and settlement of the Catholic Church. This chapter aims to show how the Catholic Church struggled to convert the people of Rwanda and how eventually this led to a construction of an ethnic discourse and a top down conversion policy with far reaching consequences for the Rwanda society. Arrival of the Germans Rwanda is a small, landlocked country in East Africa which was colonized very late at the end of the 19th Century by the German empire. The history of Rwanda prior to the colonization remains somewhat unclear to this day. However, there appears to have been central control throughout the country, held by the mwami (king). 4 From 1895 onwards, the Rwanda kingdom experienced great turmoil. The old king, King Kigeli IV Rwabugiri who had ruled the country from 1860 died in 1895, and there were problems surrounding his succession. The King had designated his son, Rutalindwa, as heir to the throne. Rutalindwa’s own mother was found to be politically too weak for the role of Queen Mother, important in the Rwandan court, so Kigeli decided, just before his death that this position should be fulfilled one of his other wives. The King chose his wife, Kanjogera, as Queen Mother. She was supposed to protect Rutalindwa as heir to the thrown as well as being the manager of the royal household. After the death of Kigeli, Kanjogera used her power to depose and assassinate Rutalindwa in 1896, placing her own son on the throne. Given the youth of the new monarch, she effectively ruled Rwanda with her brother, Kabare. 5 In 1897, a small group of German soldiers appeared at the royal court. The German empire was searching for new colonial territories because, as it was just recently formed, it was somewhat behind in the race for territorial expansion in Africa when compared to France and Great Brittan. When the Germans arrived at court, they realized that the new King Musinga needed support to consolidate his power and they were quite eager to help. By 4 Gérard Prunier, The Rwanda Crisis; History of a Genocide (London: Hurst & Co, 1995) 9. 5 Ibid., 23-24. 5 helping the new king, the German empire was directly connected to the central power in Rwanda. 6 Arrival of the White Fathers With the German convoy was a group of missionaries called the White Fathers. The White Fathers was a missionary order founded by Monseigneur Charles Lavigerie (1825-1892), a Jesuit and former archbishop of Carthage and Algiers. He was a confidant of Pope Leo XIII and an outspoken crusader against slavery. After his appointment as archbishop of Algiers, he created a new Jesuit order, the Society of Missionaries of Africa (Société des missionnaires d'Afrique). Because of their white Arabic-style robes, the missionaries were locally called the White Fathers (Pères Blancs). The mission of the White Fathers was to spread the word of Christ in Africa. Lavigerie instructed the missionaries to form bonds with local people by adopting their language, diet and some of their customs. Given their mandate to learn the local language within six months of their arrival, the White Fathers became the leading European experts in African languages in their time. The mission of the White Fathers was, however, plagued by several problems. The main problem was a consequence of the Jesuits’ belief that the first duty of the Church was to care for the most weak in society. This was expressed, for example, by the number of orphanages founded by Lavigerie when he was archbishop of Algiers. However, many of these projects failed due to obstruction from local governments who were concerned that the conversion to Christianity of their subjects’ conversion to Christianity would ultimately undermine their own authority. In response to this resistance, Lavigerie changed the mission strategy to that of top-down evangelization in which the elite were fist converted to Christianity. This new approach was based on the premise that leaders would not fear the possible undermining effects of religion if they themselves were Christians.7 When the White Fathers petitioned the Rwandan court in 1897 for the start of a new mission in Rwanda, the Germans were reluctant to support this. The leaders of the German empire did not trust Catholics since the Catholic states in Germany had resisted German unification of 1871 and the majority of the German nobility was Lutheran.8 However, the German officials soon realized that they needed the help of the White Fathers since they had 6 Timothy Longman, Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010) 38.
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