Nyamata

Title

Nyamata

Description

The Nyamata photo collection covers a similar range of themes as Ntarama including Christian symbolism and site preservation. Unlike Ntarama, Nyamata also includes two walk-through mass crypts. The memory of sexual violence features primarily in the first walk-through crypt.

Collection Items

Nyamata: Clothes in Pew
Clothes cover the pews of the Nyamata church. The placement of clothes reminds the visitor of how many people died. In addition the clothes speak to how many victims remain unidentified.

Nyamata: Site Damage
Like at Ntarama, perpetrators attacked the barricaded church with grenades and artillery. The damage from the grenade attacks can be seen on the church's door and on the explosion imprint on the ground. Most of the windows inside the church are…

Nyamata: Religious Symbols
The Nyamata memorial displays recovered religious and secular artifacts at the church's altar. On one side rests the church's cross. Knives, machetes, Tutsi I.D. cards, and other weapons are displayed alongside the cross. On the other side of the…

Nyamata: Blood Stains
Blood stains cover the Virgin Mary statue in the church. These stains can also be viewed on the ceiling and along the brick walls. A graphic detail to preserve, the presence of blood at these memorials bridges the gap between the past and present.

Nyamata: Sexual Violence
After visiting the sanctuary, the tour descends into a memorial chamber dug into the sanctuary's floor. Built after the genocide, the chamber holds shelves displaying skulls. Below these shelves rests a single coffin. In the coffin lies a women who…

Nyamata: Interior of Mass Graves
After exiting the sanctuary, the tour takes the visitor behind the church to the mass crypts. Visitors walk through the crypts, viewing shelves upon shelves of bones and coffins of identified remains. The walk through has an overwhelming feeling as…

Nyamata: Exterior of Mass Graves
Every year new mass graves are uncovered in the Nyamata area. Those located near the Nyamata memorial are afterwards reburied in the memorial's mass crypts. The monument pictured above honors and names victims identified from a recently discovered…

Nyamata: Entrance
The Nyamata national memorial is located just off the main road in Nyamata town, Bugesera.

Nyamata: Skull Damage
The visitor can often see how the individual victim died. Many skulls contain damage inflicted by a machete, spear, or bullet entry. Horizontal cuts indicate machete wounds. Victims with circular wounds died from bullets or spears.
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