The Foundations of Humanity

More than thirty years have passed since 1994, when one of the most ferocious genocides in history took place in Rwanda. Following the downing of the presidential plane by surface-to-air missiles and the subsequent death of Juvénal Habyarimana on April 6, Hutu extremists began coordinated action against Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The toll was atrocious: between 800 thousand and one million victims in just one hundred days. The vast majority of them were slaughtered with sword shots: a macabre paradox in an era of full technological development.

THAT MASSACRE STILL QUESTIONS THE COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE TODAY, imposing a profound reflection on the role of Western powers, the Church and international organizations. It was one of the most terrible and complex events in our recent history that – despite the ascertainment of many faults, the achievements of historiographical research and the process of reconciliation initiated in the following years by President Kagame – continues to challenge our ethical sensitivity.

THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE IN FACT TRANSCENDS THE MERE CHRONICLE DIMENSION and stands as an experience that goes beyond the geographical context and the people involved. Like the Shoah, it is an intrinsically human event that cannot fail to challenge our conscience, asking us to take a stand. A cold historiographical analysis is not enough: the gravity of what happened goes beyond mere knowledge and shakes the very foundations of our being.

IN THIS SENSE, IT IS WORTH MENTIONING THE VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION OF THE REPORTER JEAN HATZFELD, published ten years after the massacre: A colpi di machete. The Perpetrators of the Genocide in Rwanda (Bompiani, 2004). In the book , with the intention of investigating the nature of evil, the author chooses to give voice to the executioners; not to justify them, but to show us the abyss that can swallow anyone when we stop questioning our own nature and forget what it means to remain human.

THE TESTIMONIES OF THE EXECUTIONERS

AN ENVOY OF THE CITY COUNCILOR PASSED BETWEEN THE HOUSES to summon us to an immediate meeting. There, the councillor announced to us that the purpose of the meeting was the massacre of all Tutsis without exception. He said it with simplicity and it was simple to understand. Pancrace Hakizamungili, 25 years old in 1994

IN THE SWAMPS YOU COULDN'T HEAR THE CHILDREN CRYING or even whining. They waited in the mud, in silence. [...] A great many Tutsis no longer begged for mercy; they welcomed death in this way, in the depths of their souls, within themselves. They no longer hoped for anything, they knew they no longer had any hope of being spared, and they left like that, without a prayer. [...] It was really strange, there was something supernatural about it! Even animals, who know nothing about pity, suffering, evil, even they, cry out terribly when they receive the fatal blow. Pio Mutungirehe, 25 years old in 1994.

WE HAD TO HURRY, WE HAD NO RIGHT TO HOLIDAYS, especially on Sundays; We had to finish. All ceremonies had been abolished. We had all been hired on the same level for a single job: to eliminate all cockroaches (editor's note: that's how the cockroaches were called). Élie Mizinge, former soldier, 50 years old in 1994.

I HAD KILLED CHICKENS, NEVER AN ANIMAL AS BIG AND BIG AS A MAN, a goat or a cow. I carried out the killing of the first person in a hurry, without thinking of anything in particular, even though he was one of my neighbors and lived right next to me, on the hill. Pio Mutungirehe, 25 years old in 1994.


NP February 2026
Renato Bonomo