Post-genocide – How a university is fostering unity

Aline Umutesi lost her parents and all her siblings during the 1994 genocide that took place in Rwanda when she was seven. She could not understand why it was important to reconcile with those who had orphaned her – until she went to university and participated, in her third year, in a course on unity and reconciliation at the Centre for Conflict Management (CCM) at the University of Rwanda.

“I had hatred and anger towards all people with a different ethnicity to mine. I thought all were bad and I could not socialise with them or talk freely with them. This [hatred] affected me a lot. But when I participated in a two-week training session that the CCM had organised, I felt relieved and, up to now, the history changed,” she told University World News.

“CCM helped me forgive and reconcile with the people who killed my family members and those who committed genocide in general. Now I can befriend and work with anyone regardless of their history and roots as it all depends on the interests we share,” she said.

Knowledge gap

As part of its bid to become a leader in unity and reconciliation in the wake of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi people, the University of Rwanda set up the Centre for Conflict Management (CCM) in 1999 with a mandate to address the knowledge gap in the field of genocide, peace and conflict studies, and post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation through research, teaching as well as service to the community.

Almost 20 years since its establishment, University World News spoke to various stakeholders about the impact of the centre in reuniting and reconciling Rwandans.

According to Fidele Ndayisaba, executive secretary of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC), the CCM has been “a key partner in fostering unity and reconciliation, especially through research, surveys and studies related to the matter”.

“Through their regular research and studies that reflect on how Rwandans reconcile, CCM gives us recommendations which we count on to look at what can be done to help Rwandans reconcile and live in harmony,” he told University World News in an interview.

Falling under the College of Arts and Social Sciences, the centre has three departments – research, academic affairs and community services. It provides both formal and informal training and hundreds of people, mainly locals, have benefited from it.

As part of its social responsibility programmes, the centre also plays a role in community outreach programmes, engaging communities in dialogue geared towards promoting unity and reconciliation.

The CCM is also involved in the Rwanda Reconciliation Barometer, a national annual survey which provides a general image of unity and reconciliation in the country.

Published by the NURC, the survey assesses different variables looking specifically at how Rwandans understand the past and present, and how they envision the future.

It also helps citizens understand their own status of citizenship and identity, their views on political culture, security, justice and social cohesion.

“When it comes to brainstorming and giving inputs on unity and reconciliation, we really appreciate the support of the centre’s experts,” Ndayisaba said.

According to Ndayisaba, the Rwanda Reconciliation Barometer showed that unity and reconciliation stand at 92% among Rwandans. The target is 96% by 2024.

“The only remaining challenge is about healing history’s scars and we hope that together with our partners like CCM and the university as a whole, we will achieve that,” he said.

Regional centre

In an interview with Professor Nelson Ijumba, the deputy vice-chancellor in charge of academic affairs and research at the University of Rwanda, he said the centre has played a role in bringing together people who, like Umutesi, would otherwise find it hard to reconcile, given the country’s dark history.

“It has a unique position because it is based in Rwanda where the conflict occurred but where there have also been successful post-conflict initiatives which brought reconciliation and peace,” he said.

“The centre is very relevant. It is growing. We offer courses in peace studies which are also attended by people from outside Rwanda. It is very popular and we are going to raise its mandate to become a centre of excellence for security and peace studies for people from the region and beyond,” he said.

“Besides, it is like a laboratory with real life examples. The centre is in the Great Lakes region where there are a lot of peace and security concerns,” he added.

Ijumba said the centre serves as a bridge between academic teaching and research and contributes significantly to policy development in the areas pertaining to its mandate.