Revisiting the Rwandan Genocide: How Churches Became Death Traps
 Author
Peter Gwin
 Photographs
David Guttenfelder
28  More »
O
n a summer afternoon in 1994, David Guttenfelder took a taxi from the
Rwandan capital Kigali to the nearby region of Bugesera. He walked
inside the Ntarama Church and began taking photographs of people who
had been murdered by their neighbors. They had come to the small,
red-brick church from all over the area seeking refuge—just as their
parents and grandparents had come in the past when violence broke out
between the ethnic majority Hutus and minority Tutsis. But this time
the church, like many others in Rwanda during the genocide, became a
killing ground.
Left: The clothing of thousands of victims are piled on pews inside
the Nyamata Church near Bugesera, Rwanda. Right: A spear-pierced skull
is lined up with hundreds of other victim remains inside the church.
Launch Gallery
Thousands of bodies—old men and women, young men and women, boys and
girls, toddlers and infants—filled the entire sanctuary. "People piled
on top of one another, four or five deep, on top of the pews, between
the pews, everywhere," he said.
Outside, the grounds were overgrown, and victims lay where they had
fallen. "People had been hacked to death and left slumped against
trees. I remember one woman with her underwear pulled down lying on
the ground. You didn't have to be a detective to see how people were
killed," he said.
An hour later, as they drove back to Kigali, Guttenfelder asked the
taxi driver if he had known anyone in the village. "Oh yes," he
replied. "My father and mother are in that church. And my
grandparents."
He went on to list most of his extended family as they followed the
dirt road back to the capital where it had all begun.
In this archival photograph taken in 1994, survivors of a massacre in
Nyakizu, Rwanda, stand outside the Cyahinda parish church where
villagers said 4,000 to 5,000 people were killed.
Launch Gallery
Young Rwandan women leave the Sainte-Famille Catholic church in Kigali
after morning mass, March 30, 2014.
Launch Gallery
Before that day, Guttenfelder had seen the conflict from a very
different vantage point. He arrived in Rwanda after the Tutsi-led
Rwanda Patriotic Front had chased the Hutu-dominated army and militias
over the border into Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo),
which prompted an estimated two million panicked Hutus to follow them,
creating one of the greatest humanitarian crises in modern African
history.
"I hitchhiked straight through Rwanda to the refugee camps and spent
many weeks photographing the people who had done this," he said. "And
then I came back to Rwanda, and I didn't have a clear perspective on
what the Hutus had really done until I walked into that church. You
can be told the enormous number of those murdered (estimated at
between 800,000 and a million), but numbers don't mean anything until
you see something like the scene at Ntarama firsthand," he said.
"What compounded the shock of it was that not only was it the most
horrifying hell that I could imagine, but my first view of it was at a
church. Rwanda is one of the most religious countries I've been in.
It's also one of the most physically beautiful countries I've ever
traveled through. But this beautiful, seemingly pious nation also
holds one of the darkest, most evil things I've seen in my life. I
couldn't understand or believe what had happened here."
The experience set Guttenfelder on a career path of photographing
conflict. "Up to that point, I didn't really think of myself as any
kind of war photographer. I had been a student in Tanzania. I was
focused mainly on documenting normal African life. But this was the
beginning of me understanding that to live in Africa and care about
Africa, I had to cover the massively important stories that were
unfolding during the 1990s. It was one after another, and in many ways
they were interrelated: the genocide in Rwanda, the fighting in
Burundi, the fall of Mobuto in Zaire. Later, there were the civil wars
in Sierra Leone and Liberia."
This week, Guttenfelder and I visited Ntarama Church, which has been
turned into a genocide memorial. It was his first time back since that
day in 1994. The bodies have been removed from the grounds, which have
been fastidiously groomed. But the church and its outbuildings have
been left largely as they were the day he entered 20 years ago.
The brick facades are pocked gunfire and large jagged holes remain
where Hutu soldiers used grenades to force their way inside. In the
sanctuary, some of the bodies have been placed into coffins. The
victims' bloodstained and ripped clothing has been arranged into neat
piles. Large metal shelves at the back contain rows of skulls and
bones.
Bellancilla Uwitonze was 16 years old when the genocide began in 1994.
Today, she works as a guide at the genocide memorial at Ntarama
Church, where more than 5,000 people were massacred by Hutu soldiers
and militias.
Launch Gallery
Skulls are lined up with hundreds of other victim remains inside
Ntarama Church.
Launch Gallery
Bellancilla Uwitonze, a 36-year-old genocide survivor and a visitor's
guide at the memorial, explained the events and described how the
curators had sought to preserve the scene as much as possible. The
remains of some 5,000 victims are here, she said.
She led us to the altar at the front of the church. Some of the
weapons used by the killers were displayed on the floor: rusty
machetes, spear points, knives, a wooden club, and a shot put used to
crush the skulls of some of the victims.
She directed our attention to a purple and white banner bearing a
phrase in Kinyarwanda. She begins to translate: "If you know me, and
you know yourself, you do not kill me." Her voice broke on the last
line and she calmly walked out of the church. We could hear her
muffled sobs.
Later she told us that even though she recounts what happened at
Ntarama every day, several times a day, it is painful every time. "It
is very difficult to relive the genocide every day," she said. "I do
it because young people must know what happened and that they can
never let anyone divide us as Rwandans ever again."
In Kigali we visited another church that had seen the massacre of its
parishioners. In the first chaotic days of the genocide, more than
2,000 people had sought shelter in Saint Famille, Rwanda's largest
Catholic church. Later, many were handed over to the killers by one of
the parish priests, who witnesses said colluded with the Hutu
militias.
Rwandans congregate inside the Sainte-Famille Catholic church in
Kigali for Sunday mass on March 30, 2014. During the Rwandan genocide
of 1994 thousands took refuge in the church but very few survived the
massacre. Witnesses said that the priest in charge of the church armed
himself and helped Hutu militias take people away to be murdered.
Launch Gallery
Guttenfelder photographed the services there on Sunday. The pews in
the cavernous church were filled with Hutus and Tutsis, women in
sundresses, men in suit jackets, and children of all ages. They sang
hymns, clapped their hands, and recited the Lord's Prayer in
Kinyarwanda.
"I was grateful to come back to Rwanda after 20 years," he said, "and
see a church full of life."
David Guttenfelder and National Geographic staff writer Peter Gwin are
currently in Kigali documenting the 20
th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide for National Geographic. This
week, they share their words and images from Proof. Guttenfelder is
posting these and other iPhone photographs in real time on Instagram
at
@dguttenfelder and @natgeo.
THERE ARE 28 COMMENTS. ADD YOURS.
 Cole Tierney
April 5, 2014
Good work
Myles would love this. 
 mithelesh
April 4, 2014
Financial , Educational and Moral support should be continuosly given
to the people of Kigali especially.
Every country must help the people of Rwanda.
 Paul
April 4, 2014
At the beginning of the book "Left to Tell" it says if you read this
book you will never be the same. Very true. I encourage everyone to
read it.
 Thomas J
April 4, 2014
If anyone sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; For
in the image of God has man been made. (Gn9:6 )
 pat chan
April 4, 2014
Father forgive us all
 maria agueci
April 3, 2014
Mother Mary appeared in Rwanda in the early 80′s (church approved the
apparition). She warned them that if man did not change, horrible
things would happen. Alphonsine, Natalie and Marie Claire were the
visionaries and were shown the horrible future which was waiting their
country. Let us open our hearts and listen to what our Lady is still
saying to us today. Mary, our Mother, please pray for us.
 Chloe
April 3, 2014
I still can not believe that when I was 6, living a happy and carefree
childhood in the UK, this atrocity was happening. The threat of
genocide is only too real for our generation, it is our responsibility
to do everything in our power to prevent it affecting future
generations.
 Noah
April 3, 2014
I think rewandans and the world at large should have learnt a lot of
lessons from the ethnic aparty that ended up in a blody
genocide.united will stand divided will fall.ethnic descrimination
amongs us is far greater n deadly betwen the racial
descrimination{black and white race.}
 concetta
April 3, 2014
it just breaks your heart to see this
 john bills
April 3, 2014
Amazed that very few of my family or friends know anything about this
and many other atrosities in our "modern" times !
 shirani jayatilaka
April 3, 2014
I pray for all the souls of the victims of the genocide,that they are
in the kingdom of God.I also pray for all who committed the genocide
that they will repent of their sins so that they could be saved by the
precious blood of Jesus Christ.
 Deb
April 3, 2014
While it is often evil under the banner of religion, in this case it
was evil under the banner of racial/tribal divides. Religion was not
part of this conflict. The horror was because churches have always
been sanctuary where violence did not take place. This changed with
the Rwandan genocide conflict, where thousands were massacred in the
churches where they sought asylum.
 Terry Tempest Williams
April 3, 2014
Our hearts are with all those who remain and those who were taken, as
we honor this 20th commemoration of the genocide. Twibuke. Never
again. May we have the courage and the compassion and the moral
governance personally, collectively, not to avert our gaze. "Sentiment
without action is the ruin of the soul."
Edward Abbey
 Mary Strom
April 3, 2014
This didnt happen because of religion…it was pride and government
propaganda of hate which turned one group of people against another.
We must return God to His rightful place in our hearts and begin to
love one another again. United we stand, divided we fall. Search Our
Lady if Kibeho on the web and be amazed.
 B. F.
April 3, 2014
My heart is still heavy thinking about the inhumanity that happened 20
years ago. That was pure, unadulterated evil; the minion-ship of
Satan. Conversely, that last photo of all of those children is so
beautiful. Prayerfully they will rise up out of the despair of their
past.
 JESSIE
April 3, 2014
It is hard to rerview the whole thing,it is a human tragedy,it should
not happen again.
 Bianca
April 3, 2014
I might be wrong because I don't know the time zones in Africa, but in
the caption of the last photo of the kids standing together, it reads
that they congregated for Sunday mass on March 31st, 2014. Wasn't
March 31st a Monday? Please correct me if I'm wrong.
 Alexa Keefe
April 3, 2014
@Bianca,
Thank you for catching that. The Sunday mass was indeed on March 30. I
have updated the post with the correct date.
 Lynn Loyd
April 3, 2014
I agree with this comment: "Mans inhumanity to man, not new and is
still happening…humans ability to shock and repulse is nothing
new…pure evil under the banner of religion"
 Ashok Manvati
April 3, 2014
http://youtu.be/6YIYeR3pI20 …….
Link to the above site. You will have a glimpse of ethnic cleansing of
about one million Kashmiri Pundits – aboriginal inhabitants of
Kashmir, who have been brutalized and exiled from there ancestral land
by extremist Islamic zealots in the year 1990; and the world remained
silent. Vote and power politics is eating into the humane behavior of
the human beings. So sad… be it in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Syria, Egypt,
Afghanistan or any other place.
C. Castellanos
April 3, 2014
How does one even begin to understand how such things can happen?
 Engin Akis
April 3, 2014
I visited Ntamara Church in Sept.2010. I cannot find words to express
my feelings when I saw scene there… hard to believe what has happened
there…
 Nivedita
April 3, 2014
Makes one wonder- what is it to be 'human'?
 Milton
April 3, 2014
Do they have on trial or in prison the priest that helped the Hutu militia?
If they didn't , he will be judge by the highest judge ….GOD, with a
one way ticket to hell.
 Antonio
April 2, 2014
Very sad that this things are happening in this modern days.
 Stephanie Grenier
April 2, 2014
Very well written! Africa suffers to much! Im glad they now live in peace!
 Lisa Sky
April 2, 2014
This painful look back also shows the strength of those who for
religious and just plain human reasons hid/helped/protected each
other- Hutus helping Tutsis and vice versa. It shows that it's
possible and that in the face of horrifying evil people can do good
and rise above it.
 Alan
April 2, 2014
Mans inhumanity to man, not new and is still happening…humans ability
to shock and repulse is nothing new…pure evil under the banner of
religion…
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&wsc=yh&u=http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2014/04/02/revisiting-the-rwandan-genocide-how-churches-became-death-traps/&hl=en-CA&ei=zIlKU9itLse4sgeSroDACg
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