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This shadow box was created in memory of the Rwandan genocide survivor Immaculee Ilibagiza. The small compact space in the box is supposed to symbolize how small and cramped the bathroom she was hidden in was. There is a pattern framing the inside of the box that represents bathroom tiles. The blue curtain that is covering half the picture of Immaculee is also a symbol. it symbolizes that she was hidden but could be seen by anyone who opens the door to the bathroom. This is because she could have been killed at any moment if someone opened the door and saw her. On the cover of the box is a cross. This can represent two things. One, she was hidden in the bathroom of a church. Two, she was Roman Catholic and used her faith to push her through the emotional stress. In the shadow box you will notice a small knife. This represents how the Hutus were only armed with machetes, clubs, and knives to kill the Tutsis.
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Essay
"There's a little window in the bathroom. I went up and I looked through the curtains. And I saw like people running, running, running … inside the house. And we heard them. I can see the spears," said Immaculee. Immaculee Ilibagiza was hidden by a Hutu pastor in the bathroom of the church during the Rwandan genocide. She lost forty pounds waiting in a bathroom measuring three feet by four feet with six other women. The Hutus nearly caught her and killed her with their knives, spears, and machetes. For 91 days she was trapped, witness to thousands being murdered. She was constantly in fear of what they would do to her if they found her.
The Rwandan genocide was a mass slaughter of the Tutsis done by Hutus. It was 100 days of murder, torture, and rape. It started April 7 and ended mid-July 1994. Why would the Hutus kill the Tutsis when for a very long time they have been neighbors and lived in harmony?
There was always controversy between the two ethnic groups. The Tutsis had better jobs and better opportunities. These controversies were not traditional and began with colonialism. It started when the Belgian began to colonize the country and the Catholic church started to convert Tutsis to Catholicism. The converted were allowed to go to missionary schools which qualified them to have government jobs. This was the start of why the Tutsis had an advantage in terms of jobs and education. This difference in opportunity led to resentment between the two groups. In 1933, the Belgians made the differences between the Tutsis and Hutus more concrete by making everyone carry an identity card that said Hutu or Tutsi. They then gave the Tutsis all of the leadership positions when they took over the country.
As Rwanda started to become independent, the Belgians then put the Hutus in charge, and the Tutsis were not allowed leadership positions. This led to a lot of resentment between the Hutus and the Tutsis. On April 7th the president's plane was shot down. He was killed alomg with many other people. The Hutus blamed the Tutsis and began this mass killing spree. The Hutus were promised a banana plantation and money to kill as many Tutsis as they could. They armed themselves with studded clubs, machetes, and knives. Since they didn't have enough money for bullets, you were lucky if you were just shot, for if not, you were instead mutilated by a hand held weapon. Some Tutsis were asked if they wanted to pay for a bullet. Around 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsis were killed. Hutus that were caught hiding Tutsis or who refused to join were murdered also. The rest of the world stood still as this genocide occurred. The only reason it stopped was that RFP, which was an opposition group made up mostly of Tutsis, took over the government.
Immaculee's whole life was turned around when the genocide happened. Her father, who told her to go to the pastor, was shot as he tried to go and get the rest of his family food. Only after the genocide did Immaculee find out that her father's body was used as a road block, and the rest of her family was killed by Hutu Interahamwe soldiers. Her only family member who wasn't killed was her brother, who was out of the country at that time. Her neighbor whom she had known was a Hutu, slaughtered her two cousins.
At the age of twenty two she was raised a Roman Catholic. She kept her religion close to her heart every day during that 91 day time frame. She used her faith as a way to be able to forgive the Hutus who during that time were searching to kill her and killed her family. After the genocide she became an author and a motivational speaker. She is letting her voice be heard so nothing like that could ever happen again. She was a victim, but is a survivor of Genocide.
"There's a little window in the bathroom. I went up and I looked through the curtains. And I saw like people running, running, running … inside the house. And we heard them. I can see the spears," said Immaculee. Immaculee Ilibagiza was hidden by a Hutu pastor in the bathroom of the church during the Rwandan genocide. She lost forty pounds waiting in a bathroom measuring three feet by four feet with six other women. The Hutus nearly caught her and killed her with their knives, spears, and machetes. For 91 days she was trapped, witness to thousands being murdered. She was constantly in fear of what they would do to her if they found her.
The Rwandan genocide was a mass slaughter of the Tutsis done by Hutus. It was 100 days of murder, torture, and rape. It started April 7 and ended mid-July 1994. Why would the Hutus kill the Tutsis when for a very long time they have been neighbors and lived in harmony?
There was always controversy between the two ethnic groups. The Tutsis had better jobs and better opportunities. These controversies were not traditional and began with colonialism. It started when the Belgian began to colonize the country and the Catholic church started to convert Tutsis to Catholicism. The converted were allowed to go to missionary schools which qualified them to have government jobs. This was the start of why the Tutsis had an advantage in terms of jobs and education. This difference in opportunity led to resentment between the two groups. In 1933, the Belgians made the differences between the Tutsis and Hutus more concrete by making everyone carry an identity card that said Hutu or Tutsi. They then gave the Tutsis all of the leadership positions when they took over the country.
As Rwanda started to become independent, the Belgians then put the Hutus in charge, and the Tutsis were not allowed leadership positions. This led to a lot of resentment between the Hutus and the Tutsis. On April 7th the president's plane was shot down. He was killed alomg with many other people. The Hutus blamed the Tutsis and began this mass killing spree. The Hutus were promised a banana plantation and money to kill as many Tutsis as they could. They armed themselves with studded clubs, machetes, and knives. Since they didn't have enough money for bullets, you were lucky if you were just shot, for if not, you were instead mutilated by a hand held weapon. Some Tutsis were asked if they wanted to pay for a bullet. Around 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsis were killed. Hutus that were caught hiding Tutsis or who refused to join were murdered also. The rest of the world stood still as this genocide occurred. The only reason it stopped was that RFP, which was an opposition group made up mostly of Tutsis, took over the government.
Immaculee's whole life was turned around when the genocide happened. Her father, who told her to go to the pastor, was shot as he tried to go and get the rest of his family food. Only after the genocide did Immaculee find out that her father's body was used as a road block, and the rest of her family was killed by Hutu Interahamwe soldiers. Her only family member who wasn't killed was her brother, who was out of the country at that time. Her neighbor whom she had known was a Hutu, slaughtered her two cousins.
At the age of twenty two she was raised a Roman Catholic. She kept her religion close to her heart every day during that 91 day time frame. She used her faith as a way to be able to forgive the Hutus who during that time were searching to kill her and killed her family. After the genocide she became an author and a motivational speaker. She is letting her voice be heard so nothing like that could ever happen again. She was a victim, but is a survivor of Genocide.