Kigali memorial center, Rwanda | the Polynational War Memorial

MEMORIALS

KIGALI MEMORIAL CENTER, RWANDA

Type: Physical memorial
Location: Kigali
Country: Rwanda
Creator: Aegis Trust
Dedication year: 2004

Photo by Fanny Schertzer, 2007.
License: CC-BY-SA 2.5 | By: Fanny Schertzer | Source: link | enlarge

Photo by Fanny Schertzer, 2007.
License: CC-BY-SA | By: Fanny Schertzer | Source: link | enlarge

Photo by Fanny Schertzer, 2007.
License: CC-BY-SA 2.5 | By: Fanny Schertzer | Source: link | enlarge

Photo by Fanny Schertzer, 2007.
License: CC-BY-SA | By: Fanny Schertzer | Source: link | enlarge

Kigali Memorial Center was inagurated on April 7, 2004, ten years after the genocide that left approximately 800 000 people dead in Rwanda. The planning and management of the memorial center was made by the UK charity Aegis Trust, an organisation that, ”works towards the prevention of genocide with survivors, decision-makers and the next generation through commemoration, education, awareness-raising and research”, after a request from the Rwandian Governement. The centre is a burial ground for around 250 000 of the victims, whose remains rest in ten mass graves in a memorial garden. It also comprises a series of exhibitions and a the National Genocide Documentation Centre.

On their web site, Aegis Trust points out the difficult task of building a memorial for an event that happened only a decade ago: "The proximity of the exhibition to the site of the actual events ´only being separated by ten years´ makes it a difficult museological challenge. The history is still emerging. This is why Aegis took the decision to call it a ´contemporary exhibit´ and built into its features the ability for it to grow and develop over time. The Rwandans are aware that they need to institutionalise their history and to formalise its educational mechanisms, hence their drive to create the centre. It also must not fix the detail too early, as every day, research is revealing new material on the genocide."

Kigali Memorial Centre: web site
Aegis Trust´s web site: Aegis in Rwanda
Aegis Trust: Rwanda 10 Years On (slide show)

Part of the series ''Rethinking the Role of Memorials in Africa''

There are a few, but ambitious, African projects that seem to points out a new role for the memorial in society. We will take a closer look on them in this series. All articles.

Memorials

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POSTED BY JON BRUNBERG ON 1/29/2009

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