Professor reveals Rwanda atrocities

School • Children peer out of a window at a private primary level school in Butare, Rwanda. They were excited to have a guest visiting from the United States. Professor Crystal Olson

 

By Ginny Galvin
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer

Cal State Long Beach English professor Nancy Sheley presented an examination of post-genocide Rwanda on Nov. 9 in the multicultural building. Sheley and 14 other individuals traveled through Rwanda for five weeks and talked to government officials, educational directors and various other organizations with a focus on education.

In 1994, 1 million citizens of Rwanda were slaughtered within 100 days in a genocide that led to homeless children, tortured women and a country filled with trauma and distress.

During her trip, Sheley had the opportunity to speak to survivors and witness some of the emotional despair firsthand.

Sheley was overwhelmed with the realization that something such as this could be allowed to happen. "The genocide was caused by social divisions established though colonization, exacerbated by poverty and mistrust, and perpetuated through the ideologies of church and state," Sheley said in a journal entry she shared.

Sheley's journal entries described the people of Rwanda and the effects of post-genocide. She participated in a wedding, church meetings and an art show and found herself integrating into Rwandan culture.

"I miss being in Rwanda. I felt safe in Rwanda. I felt respected in Rwanda," Sheley said in another journal entry. "Educators are important in Rwanda. I can make a difference there."

During her stay, Sheley's focus was on education and Rwanda's primary and secondary schools. The schools were closed for a year following the genocide. When they reopened, education regarding the genocide remained unspoken.

Ten years later, textbooks and teachers in Rwanda still do not discuss the genocide in the classroom. A plan is currently in the works to discuss placing information of the genocide in the textbooks. Sheley was silent for so long because she was uninformed. Now she expresses the importance of "becoming aware, giving money where you can and to inform others."

Through her detailed slideshow Sheley revealed the simplicity of the people and the constant reminders of the genocide. The photos revealed graphic memorials both in urban and rule areas.

As an English professor who finds her outlet through words, Sheley was overcome with so much to take in that she was unable to express her feelings on paper or in words for the first three weeks of her stay.

Talking to people, experiencing the culture, learning from others, and interacting with everyone she could, Sheley did not need to express herself with words right away; she lived the experience.

Sheley's goal is to ensure awareness and educate youth on the conditions that built up to the genocide. She would also like to teach Rwandan teachers how to educate students about the genocide because a formal education plan still needs to be constructed.

Sheley hopes to return to Rwanda so she can help make a difference, essentially in education.

"Perhaps, the country can reconcile its painful past to a peaceful future, especially through education," she said. "Certainly, that is my hope for Rwanda, and to be part of that transformation is the reason I want to return."