Le Chapelet et La Machette:

sur les traces du génocide Rwandais - by Camille Karangwa

Published 2003 by Editions du Jour, Pretoria, SA pp 122 ISBN 0-620-31144-4

Le Chapelet et La Machette (The rosary and the machete), a novel based on fact is the work of a first-time author. Simply, its aim is to explain through two characters how the Tutsi genocide of 1994 and the massacre of those Hutus who stood up to the extermination machinery occurred and how it was that the Catholic church became embroiled in the tragedy.
The author, many members of whose family were among the victims, has chosen to present two characters as examples: on one hand, Father Dominique, a Belgian missionary and fervent supporter of the 'Hutu cause' and, on the other, Célestin, President of the local branch of the Mouvement Révolutionnaire National pour le Développement, which orchestrated the genocide in his commune and in other nearby villages.
At first glance, the character of Dominique appears to be exaggerated. He is a missionary who sides with the terrible Radio-Télévision des Milles Collines (RTLM) - 'radio machete' - and who is prosecuted in Rwanda and elsewhere for incitation to/complicity in genocide. He is a fictitious character but the crimes that the author attributes to Father Dominique did indeed take place.
Since 1959 the supremacist Hutu cause has been supported by a majority of white fathers. During the war of 1990, many dozens of Belgian missionaries wrote to European newspapers which were critical of the ethnic dictatorship used by Juvénal Habyarimana to defend his regime. Those same missionaries were conspicuously silent when the Hutu journalist and human rights activist Silvio Sindambwé was the victim of a car accident caused by that regime's enforcers.
During the conflict, Belgian missionaries sided against and fought the cause of the Inkontanyi, the rebels of the Front Patriotique Rwandais. After the genocide, certain Rwandan priests on the run from justice, such as Father Wenceslas and the nuns of Sovu, found shelter and protection with church ministers in Belgium and in France.
On the airwaves of RTLM, a young Belgian with connections to the International Christian Democrats, whipped up hatred against the Tutsi people; he was later condemned to 12 years in prison by the International Court at Arusha, Tanzania.
Lastly, the standard chronicles of the genocide also omit certain facts mentioned by the author, such as the massacre of Tutsi clergy by their Hutu colleagues.
The character of Higiro, the surviving Tutsi priest who at the end of the story decides to denounce his criminal colleagues despite his Bishop's attempts to dissuade him, could easily be mistaken for Frère Damascene who really does exist. Likewise, the character of Célestin makes inflammatory comments which have indeed been articulated by leading figures in the MRND like Léon Mugesera.
Like Célestin, local leaders such as Jean-Pierre Gatete, Mayor of Murambi, advocated and orchestrated the massacre. All the horrors described in the book happened and much more besides. In the churches in Nyamata, in Kibuyé, in the church of the Sacred Family in Kigali, the massacres never let up. Camille Karangwa's depiction of these events as a 'fête du sang', is totally appropriate.
Some elements of the story - such as the repentance and conversion of Célestin, who cooperates of his own accord with the new authorities - are a little too politically correct, while the false charges of involvement in the genocide that have been levelled against innocent people are ignored. But this novel is not an historical record, it is a heart-rending scream from a Rwandan who lost his family - his goodbye kiss.
Despite Karangwa's simplicity and lack of tact, this book has the merit of giving a voice to survivors. They still try to find reason in that barbarity and are never satisfied by the answers given by their tormenters. The perpetrators, if they agree to detail what they actually did, remain too often self-conscious about their motives, claiming that the final responsibility lies with the MRND and its leaders.
This leads to a number of conclusions. The first is that ten years after the genocide the mourning is still not over. The victims aren't satisfied by technical type confessions. They want those responsible, regardless of rank, to deliver the truth and reveal the reasons which led them - personnally - to muder.
The second is that despite the inefficiencies of the International Court in Arusha, the trial of those who planned the genocide is useful. It is essential, in fact, so that the planners, named by so many as the real culprits, finally tell the real truth: without that, there can be no reconciliation.

Finally, the book reflects on the forgiveness too often demanded of or even imposed on the victims. Foregiveness takes time; it must follow repentance, the willingness to rectify - and it must be asked for. These are a few obvious facts that certain priests and missionaries still forget.