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Through this personal story, the reader may find out how Christianity in one of the poorest countries is not just a spiritual thing, but also a social and psychological one. I believe that Christianity is more than what we read from the Bible, and yet, people have got different perceptions about the Bible. Therefore, you would not expect its implications to be the same for all individuals. In a culturally complex society like Rwanda, where sometimes people combine their Christian and traditional worships, there is a lot of confusing and compromising comparisons between Christianity and traditional belief. Although I was born in a Christian family, we would not ignore the surrounding environment we were living in, some of my close relatives were practicing traditional worship, involving the other gods (we call them Nyabinki). There were many occasions we had to compromise ourselves and join our relatives, such as weddings and other ritual ceremonies. However, generally speaking, Rwanda is a mainly Christian country. According to the 1990 national survey, at least three quarters of the population believe in one God, the Almighty, with 65% Roman Catholic, 9% Protestant, 1% Muslim and 25% indigenous belief.
Rwanda is a country where Christian expressions are present in everyday life. We have got too many proverbs related to God, like the one which says that: "God spends the day elsewhere, but He always spends the night in Rwanda". In greeting and hugging each other, one says "praise Jesus" and another replies "for ever". I recall here that it was in one of the smallest towns in Rwanda, called Gahini, where the 1930’s African Revival began. Every Sunday, the roads are full of people heading to churches. People dress casually, especially women, wrapped in a variety of brightly coloured African style clothes, barefoot kids, but in very clean clothes, you would almost think that the entire population was squeezed towards the churches. Due to the huge number of those wanting to go to church, on Sunday we normally have three services if not four for special celebrations like Christmas, New Year, Easter and so on. Going to church on Sunday has become a great custom in Rwandan life. Traditionally, church on Sunday serves as a meeting point for young people. Girls and boys prefer to meet at church because they are worried about how their parents might otherwise perceive their relationship. Young people need permission to go out and girls need a well founded reason to get this permission. Briefly speaking going to church on Sundays does not mean that people are committed Christians. It is just one way of socialising and meeting with other people. In addition, churches in Rwanda have a significant contribution in building social infrastructures, such as schools, colleges and hospitals. 60% of pupils and colleges are sponsored and monitored by churches or associated religious congregations.
I personally had all my education in a Roman Catholic school and college. When I was young, I was planning to become a priest. So, I combined my primary education with junior priesthood one. I was very active in my diocese’s work as a helper, in the choir and drama groups. I was very excited with this idea of becoming a priest and I couldn’t wait for the time to come. Being a priest in Rwanda is not an easy job. You have to be very disciplined and just live in the congregation’s hall. Your contact with the outside world is almost fully spiritual, never social. Being seen with a female was very suspicious as Roman Catholic priests cannot marry and so are not supposed to go out with women. Prematurely I was prepared to accept that and thought I should go ahead with my plans. However at the end of my eight years of primary education, I was very disappointed by the decision taken by my church leaders that I could not carry on with my priesthood, simply because my father is a polygamist. The problem with the Roman Catholic church in Rwanda is that they don’t treat people as individuals. They select priests according to the individual intellectual and disciplinary background, but also according to family circumstances. Tell me, what do I have to do with my father’s private life? How on earth can anybody victimise me because of my father’s actions? What responsibility to I have in his marital status? I asked myself, should I go and tell my father to finish with his second wife with whom they have five children, for the sake of my becoming a priest? Would I be pleased to see my lovely step-brothers and sisters abandoned by my father and going hungry? My father was a businessman and it was very common for such a person to have as many wives as he could, provided that he had the means of supporting his families. Both my mother and step-mother had no other jobs apart from raising their children and farming our father’s big land. They both depended solely on my father. Of course polygamy is illegal in Rwanda, but the law is very flexible. You just need to pay some tax to the government every year for any extra wives you have beside the legitimate one. It was due to such an unfair decision that I had to forget about becoming a priest. On the other hand, it is perhaps not what God has planned for me.
Although I successfully passed the national exam and was enrolled on an Economics course in the College of Gisenyi, monitored by the Father Jesuits, a Roman Catholic congregation, however, I could not bother any more with getting involved in anything to do with religion. At college, we lived in dormitories and food was provided by the college. A weekly two hours of Bible Study was compulsory to everyone, but most of us were doing it for the sake of getting good marks rather than really being concerned about the Message. Going to Mass on every Sunday was also an obligation, but quite a few students, including myself, were boycotting the Mass and going to the famous palm beach of Gisenyi to enjoy the sun and watch girls swimming instead. I was still very upset with the religious leaders in Rwanda to even sit down and listen to what they were preaching about. How on earth could anyone preach forgiveness and tolerance, but not tolerate me for what was my father’s responsibility? I just couldn’t stand it.
At college, I joined a group of scouts. This was more for fun than really following the objectives of Baden Powell. I wanted to belong to an association which was concerned about the poverty and illiteracy ravaging my compatriots. Two years later, I learnt from my cousin who was doing his doctorate in medicine at the Université Nationale de Rwanda that there was a movement of the Jeunesse Estidiantine Chrétienne (JEC) (Young Christian Students) emerging powerfully through Rwanda. With my friends I did some research about this JEC and decided to create a JEC group in our college. We immediately gained sympathy from the Headmaster, Father Alex, and we were given the opportunity to hold a conference for publicity and managed to attract a good number of young Christians from our college and later we introduced JEC to the nearby colleges.
Our objectives were much more humanitarian than spiritual. We were mostly involved in promoting a healthy society and fighting against hunger and illiteracy. It is so difficult, in reality, to talk to someone about the Gospel, while his hut is falling in on him and he has an empty stomach. Therefore, we decided to launch two projects, the first geared towards helping destitute people re-build their shelters and the second was teaching the illiterate to read and write. This last project was of paramount importance in a country where up to 50% are illiterate. As we had no funds to do the jobs, we formed a theatre group and started some performances to raise some money. In addition, the churches were supporting us financially. We were using the money to buy building materials, like corrugated iron and cement. For the rest of the job, like building up a house, we were doing the job ourselves. This is one of the best practical examples of Christianity, which we really enjoyed doing. It was a great joy to visit people living in the shelter you provided them with and to receive a letter written by those who were once illiterate and hopeless. We made a difference in those people’s lives and thank the Lord for helping us help the others.
When I left the college for University, my fellow colleagues continued this wonderful job. At the University a JEC group was already present, and I only had to join it. There was not much going on as the political tension and civil war was getting worse. Travelling, or visiting people in the villages was too dangerous. The civil war in Rwanda has affected everything it touched. First it destroyed the national unity and split up the population between their ethnic groups. Hate took the place of love, fear took the place of trust and people started hunting each other to death. I would like to invite the reader to keep their eyes open for the next issue of Christis. In it I will be analysing, from my personal experience and perception, the civil war and genocide in Rwanda and how the church leaders coped with it.
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Last modified: 25th November 2005