Research and Religious In Rwanda

Save Catholic church, Gisagara, Rwanda
Not Rated
Duration

5 hours

Cancellation

No Cancellation

Group Size

5 people

Languages

English

Overview

Christianity is the largest religion in Rwanda. The most recent statistics on religion were published by the US Government in 2013, yet the source information dates back to the national Census of 2002, which reports that: 56.9% of the Rwanda’s population is Roman Catholic, 26 % is Protestant, 11.1% is Seventh-day Adventist, 4.6% is Muslim (mainly Sunni), 1.7% claims no or other religious affiliation, and 0.1% practices traditional indigenous beliefs.

The figures for Protestants include the growing number of members of Jehovah’s Witnesses (36,000 in 2013) and evangelical Protestant groups. There is also a small population of Baha’is. There has been a proliferation of small, usually Christian-linked schismatic religious groups since the 1994 genocide.

There are small and secretive communities of Hindus and Buddhists, comprising mostly foreign adherents, typically businessmen from China and India as well as university professors and students. Neither religion seriously attempts

Current context.

Foreign missionaries and church-linked nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) of various religious groups operate in the country. Foreign missionaries openly promote their religious beliefs, and the Government welcomes their development assistance.

The Constitution of Rwanda provides for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respects this right in practice. Local government officials sometimes detain Jehovah’s Witnesses for refusing to participate in security patrols. In 2007, the US government received no reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious belief or practice. conversion in Rwanda or has places of worship

Highlights

  • History Colonial period
  • Although the ethnic divisions and tensions between Hutu and Tutsi predate the colonial era, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) report on the genocide states,
  • In the colonial era, under German and then Belgian rule, Roman Catholic missionaries, inspired by the overtly racist theories of 19th-century Europe, concocted a destructive ideology of ethnic cleavage and racial ranking that attributed superior qualities to the country’s Tutsi minority since the missionaries ran the colonial-era schools, these pernicious values were systematically transmitted to several generations of Rwandans
  • When the Roman Catholic missionaries came to Rwanda in the late 1880s, they contributed to the “Hamitic” theory of race origins, which taught that the Tutsi were a superior race. The Church has been considered to have played a significant role in fomenting racial divisions between Hutu and Tutsi, in part because they found more willing converts among the majority Hutu.
  • Role of religion in 1994 genocide
  • An estimated 800,000 Rwandans died during ethnic violence over a brief span of 100 days between April and July 1994.[5] Most of the dead were Tutsis, and most of those who perpetrated the violence were Hutus.
  • The genocide started after the death of the Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, in the shooting down of his plane above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994. The full details of that specific incident remain unclear; however, the death of the president was by no means the only cause of the mayhem. (Ethnic tension in Rwanda is not new. Disagreements between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis are common, but the animosity between them grew substantially after the end of the Belgian colonial regime.)
  • Timothy Longman has provided the most detailed discussion of the role of religion in the Rwandan genocide in Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda, published in 2010.[6] Longman argues that both Catholic and Protestant churches helped to make the genocide possible by giving moral sanction to the killing. Churches had longed played ethnic politics themselves, favoring the Tutsi during the colonial period then switching allegiance to the Hutu after 1959, sending a message that ethnic discrimination was consistent with church teaching. The church leaders had close ties with the political leaders, and after the genocide began, the church leaders called on the population to support the new interim government, the very government supporting the genocide.
  • At the same time, churches did not uniformly support the genocide. In the period leading up to the genocide, 1990–1994, major splits emerged within most churches between moderates who promoted democratic change and conservatives allied with the Habyarimana regime. Many of the clergy were Tutsi, and they generally supported democratic reform, but many moderate Hutu within the churches supported reform as well. Churches provided major support to the formation of the new human-rights groups that emerged in the early 1990s. When the genocide began in 1994, some clergy and other church leaders opposed the violence,even at the risk of their own lives.
  • Some individual members of the religious community attempted to protect civilians, sometimes at great risk to themselves. For example, Mgr. Thaddée Ntihinyurwa [fr] of Cyangugu preached against the genocide from the pulpit and tried unsuccessfully to rescue three Tutsi religious brothers from an attack, while Sr. Felicitas Niyitegeka of the Auxiliaires de l’Apostolat in Gisenyi smuggled Tutsi across the border into Zaire before a militant militia executed her in retaliation.
  • In her book Left to Tell: Discovering God in the Rwandan Holocaust (2006), Immaculée Ilibagiza, a Tutsi woman, describes hiding with seven other Tutsi women for 91 days in a bathroom in the house of Pastor Murinzi – for the majority of the genocide. At the St Paul Pastoral Centre in Kigali about 2,000 people found refuge and most of them survived, due to the efforts of Fr Célestin Hakizimana. This priest “intervened at every attempt by the militia to abduct or murder” the refugees in his centre. In the face of powerful opposition, he tried to hold off the killers with persuasion or bribes.
  • On November 20, 2016, the Catholic Church in Rwanda released a statement signed by nine bishops apologizing for the role of its members in the genocide of 1994.

Highlights

  • Discover Hollywood and celebrate its iconic landmarks such as the Walk of Fame.
  • Soak in the views of the ever vibrant City of Angels.
  • Marvel at the spectacular Hollywood Sign, the quintessential symbol of Los Angeles.

08:00When and where does the tour start?

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10:00 When and where does the tour end?

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12:00Do you arrange airport/Hotel transfers?

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  • Price negociable
  • Entrance fees
  • Specialized bilingual guide
  • Private Transport
  • Additional Services
  • Food & Drink

3 – 5 hours

English

art and culture
community
History

Activity's Location

Save Catholic church, Gisagara, Rwanda

When and where does the tour start?

The activity of starts at the time agreed between Tour operator and travelers/ researcher

When and where does the tour end?

At the place and time agreed

Do you arrange airport/Hotel transfers
YES!
But Airport and Hotel transfers are not included in the price of this Activity, however you can book for an arrival transfer in advance. In this case Green Zest Travels representative will be at the airport to greet you. To arrange this please contact our customer service team once you have a confirmed booking.
from $10,00

Owner

adminzest

Member Since 2023

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CANCELLATION TERMS

Applied cancellation fees differ between packages (including accommodation and/or car rental) and tours.

  • For cancellations received up to 30 calendar days before the scheduled departure, a 5% cancellation fee will be charged.
  • For cancellations received 15 -29 calendar days before the scheduled departure date a 10% cancellation fee will be charged.
  • For cancellations received 7 -14 calendar days before the scheduled departure date an 15% cancellation fee will be charged.
  • For cancellations received within 7 calendar days before the scheduled departure date a 20% cancellation fee will be charged.
  • Note that all these charges are not applied for National Parks activities/permits, so in case of cancelling your package or tour, refunds will not be applied for paid park visiting permits. This means that before making any refund, Green Zest Travels will first share a detailed quotation of what is to be refunded.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

GREEN ZEST TRAVELS is a full-service travel and tourism company. It has an aim to help tourists to discover Rwanda destinations including country’s stunning scenery and warm beauty, rich heritage and vibrant culture offering you a truly unique vacation experience.

Green Zest Travels is a certified member of the Rwanda Tours and Travel Association (RTTA) and Licenced under Rwanda Development Board (RDB) with its Head Office located in Kigali-Nyarugenge KN 50 ST (Next to Chez John Restaurant, opposite Impact Hub in Kiyovu-Rugunga)

Before making any reservation with us, we suggest you to read these Terms and Conditions carefully, as they constitute a contract agreement between us and you from the time the booking is made. The person who makes the booking accepts these conditions on behalf of all the people in the group and is responsible for all payments due.

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Once you have submitted your booking and personal details through www.grenzest-travels.com, you will receive a confirmation and pro-forma invoice of your booking to the e-mail you will provide. Please note that all online bookings require payment of 30% of the total package price at the time of the booking. If the total price is less than 1000 USD or booking occurs less than 15 days before your arrival date full payment is required.

 

If you prefer to pay for your booking with a bank transfer, please contact us and send detailed information regarding the booking (Tour, Car type, Arrival date…)

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If by any chance our travel consultant is unable to obtain confirmation (car rental/accommodation is not available) an alternative will be offered by Green Zest Travels but on the same level with the previous confirmation item.

Booking services with Green Zest Travels are available only to persons aged 18 years and older. By submitting a booking, you agree and confirm to us that you comply with these arrangements.

Note: Booking and payments apply only for tours, activities and transport; for hotel reservation, all you need is to send an enquiry.

TERMS OF PAYMENT

Please note that all online bookings require payment of 40% of the total package price at the time of the booking. If the total price is less than 1000 USD or booking occurs less than 30 days before your arrival date full payment is required.

You will be informed by e-mail when you need to pay the balance of your booking which is 30 days before your departure date.

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  • Bank Transfer or Cash payment on arrival

If you prefer to pay for your booking with a bank transfer, please contact us here and send us all the information regarding the booking, name of the tour, type of car, accommodation and arrival date.

There is a service fee for processing Visa or MasterCard payments and American Express card but a service fee of 3.9% applies and will be added to the final invoice.

All Prices quoted by Green Zest Travels are in USD for Internationals & in RWF for local Tourists and per person, unless otherwise specified. All payments and refunds are due to the mentioned currencies. Green Zest Travels is not responsible for any changes in currency exchange rates that might occur from the time of booking until a refund is made.

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    If a day tour, package or group tour is cancelled due to circumstances outside our control or minimum numbers are not reached, we will refund the money you have paid, and Green Zest Travels shall then have no further liability towards you.