Visiting the Kigali Genocide Memorial

The Kigali Genocide Memorial at Gisozi is the burial place of more than 250,000 people killed in the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. It is also a museum, an archive and a research centre, and it is the single most important place a visitor to Rwanda can go.

This article is practical rather than descriptive. What the memorial has to say, it says far better than we can.

Go at the start of your trip

Most itineraries schedule it on the last morning, before an afternoon flight. That is the wrong way round, for two reasons.

First, it gives context to everything else. You will spend a week meeting Rwandans — guides, trackers, porters, cooperative members — and almost everyone over a certain age lived through 1994. Understanding what that means changes every conversation you have afterwards.

Second, it is a demanding visit and you should not have to go straight to an airport from it. Give yourself the rest of the day.

What is there

• The permanent exhibition on the genocide against the Tutsi: how it was planned, how it unfolded over roughly a hundred days, and what followed.
• A section on genocide elsewhere in the world, which places 1994 in a wider frame.
• The children's room, which is the hardest part of the building. Photographs of individual children, with their names, ages, favourite foods and how they died.
• The mass graves in the gardens, where the more than 250,000 are buried.
• The wall of names, still being added to as victims are identified.

Allow two to three hours at minimum, and take the audio guide. It is measured, well made, and it lets you move at your own pace.

How to behave

• Dress as you would for a funeral or a place of worship: covered shoulders and knees, nothing casual to the point of disrespect.
• Photography is not permitted in parts of the building. Follow the posted signage; do not photograph the exhibitions or the graves.
• Keep your voice down and your phone away. This is a cemetery.
• It is normal to need to step outside. The gardens are there for exactly that.

Language matters here

The formal term used in Rwanda, and internationally, is the genocide against the Tutsi. Use it. Phrases like "the Rwandan genocide" or, worse, "tribal conflict" flatten what happened into something it was not: this was planned, organised and carried out by a state apparatus against an identified group.

Do not ask people whether they are Hutu or Tutsi. The distinction is not used in public life in Rwanda and the question is offensive. If someone chooses to tell you their own story, listen; do not go looking for it.

Practical

• At Gisozi, around twenty minutes from central Kigali depending on traffic.
• Entry arrangements, opening hours and the audio-guide fee are set by the memorial and change from time to time; we confirm the current position before your visit.
• There is a cafe and a garden. Use them afterwards.
• The commemoration period, Kwibuka, begins on 7 April each year and runs for a week of national mourning. Much of the country is closed and subdued. Travelling then is entirely possible but do so knowingly.

Should you take children?

Parents know their own children. Many families find it appropriate for teenagers and not for younger ones, and there is no obligation either way. If you are travelling as a family, the memorial is one of the few things in Rwanda worth splitting up for.

Other sites

There are memorials across the country, including at Nyamata and Ntarama churches outside Kigali, where killings took place and where the sites have been left much as they were found. They are considerably more confronting than Gisozi and are not a casual add-on.

If you want to visit one, tell us and we will arrange a guide who can do it properly. Do not turn up on impulse.

Almost every visitor says afterwards that it was the most difficult part of their trip and the part they would least want to have skipped.