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September 19, 2024 French

L'église de Kibeho au Rwanda, lieu de culte ou lieu de mémoire du génocide de 1994 ?

Card Number 24306

Number
24306
Author
Chrétien, Jean-Pierre
Author
Rafiki, Ubaldo
Date
Octobre 2004
Ymd
20041001
Title
L'église de Kibeho au Rwanda, lieu de culte ou lieu de mémoire du génocide de 1994 ?
Pages
277-290
Cote
n° 181
Extracted from
Génocides. Lieux (et non-lieux) de mémoire, Revue d'histoire de la Shoah, pp. 277-290
Size
2774257 bytes
Pages nb.
14
Type
Article de revue
Language
FR
Abstract
Unlike the other two massacres perpetrated in the last century, here assassins and victims share the same faith. We have quickly forgotten, reminds us the author, the strong resonance of religion in these killings ponctuated with hymns and visions of the Virgin. This brings us to the major question regarding the responsibilities of the Catholic clergy, and above that of the Church in Rwanda as well as that of the heads of the Vatican. Many prayer sites were turned into massacre sites. "African Ouradours" were to be found everywhere. Through the specific case of the Kibeho church, Chrétien studies the stakes of remembrance: can a church become once again a worshipping place as if nothing abnormal had happened (as claimed by the episcopal hierarchy) or should it be consacrated as a memorial site (as claimed by the survivors)? Far from being a formal argument, this controversy reveals how, in the name of "universal reconciliation", (certainly an honorable position), a kind of muted revisionism is apparent now-a-days, one covering-up the responsibility of the actors of this drama, while confounding killers and victims in prayer and sorrow.