Kigali is the main tourist hub for Rwanda. Apart from the genocides and there are several local and cultural markets you can visit in Rwanda. Kigali being very strategically city you do walks, boda boda tours or self drive in Kigali.
Kigali Genocide Memorial
As aforementioned, this memorial site documents the genocide, but it also describes the history of Rwanda that preceded the event. Comparisons are also made with similar sites in Germany, Japan, Cambodia, and Bosnia. Unlike the ex-concentration camps at Auschwitz Birkenau, the Rwanda site includes human remains and the tools and weapons used in their destruction.
The upstairs floor the centre includes three permanent exhibitions, the largest of which documents the genocide in 1994, helping to give Rwanda’s nightmare a historical context. There is a children’s memorial, with life-sized photos, accompanied by intimate details about their favorite toys, their last words and the manner in which they were killed.
There is also an exhibition on the history of genocidal violence around the world. The Education Centre, Memorial Gardens and National Documentation Centre of the Genocide contribute to a meaningful tribute to those who perished and form a powerful educational tool for the next generation.
The Kigali Memorial Centre is international. It deals with a topic of international importance, with far-reaching significance, and is designed to engage and challenge an international visitor base. Audiovisual and GPS documentation projects record and substantiate survivor testimony and recording the Gacaca court process. The Memorial has had hundreds of thousands of visitors though out the years. The memorial concludes with sections on the search for justice through the international tribunal in Arusha as well as the local Gacaca courts (traditional tribunals headed by village elders).
The informative audio tour includes background on the divisive colonial experience in Rwanda and as the visit progresses, the exhibits become steadily more powerful, as visitors are confronted with the crimes that took place here and moving video testimony from survivors.
The commission from the Kigali City Council was to develop the memorial site, where up to 250,000 genocide victims were interred in mass graves, into a memorial centre and permanent exhibition for the benefit of survivors and young people. The Aegis Trust manages the Kigali Genocide Memorial and is developing it with a school of education.
