RELIGION IN THE REMAKING OF RWANDA AFTER GENOCIDE

In order to understand how religion and spirituality affect both the present and the future in Rwanda, we must also understand Rwanda’s past and particularly how religion has played a role in that history. A brief description of pre-colonial history, including the nature of the ethnic divides that led to Rwanda’s genocide, and the religious and political landscape of the time. The significant changes in Rwandan society precipitated by the arrival of both European colonial powers and Christian missionaries are an essential element in understanding the eventual genocide, so that period in more detail. Institutional religion and politics were highly intertwined in post-independence, but the relationship remained largely unchanged for nearly thirty years.