Grade 11 students at King David Linksfield were recently given an informative and disturbing overview of the 1994 Rwandan genocide in a workshop facilitated by the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre (JHAGC).
Pupils weren’t able to travel to the centre as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the workshop was held at the school by JHAGC facilitators Mdu, Catherine, and Nenhle.
The workshop explained the genocide as an attempt by extremist government-led Hutu militias to carry out a long-planned campaign to murder all Tutsi living in the country. It took the form of a short video, a lecture, and a question-and-answer session. Following this, the Grade 11s were split into much smaller focus groups to discuss the roles played by perpetrators, victims, and bystanders.
The pupils were also given time to view exhibition panels brought from the JHAGC, which were eye-opening in content and illustration.
