Emily Chan:
Studying media and the genocide in Rwanda was an incredible experience that has impacted how I see the world and my future.
Through the AFRI 3100 course I had the chance to access local archives, visit important genocide sites, and speak with survivors and current journalists. These opportunities created learning experiences I never could have had otherwise.
In addition to the academic advantages of studying in Rwanda, I was introduced to a beautiful and complex culture and loved traveling around the stunning landscape of the “land of 1,000 hills.”
Most importantly, through the class I made meaningful friendships with local students. The relationships I formed with the Rwandan students were the absolute highlight of my experience.
You can read more about my Rwandan experience on my blog.
Emma Bider:
As an African studies major, I started learning about Rwanda from day one in my first year intro class. We learned about its colonial history, its people, its divisions and all that led up to the 1994 genocide.
Now, in African studies, Rwanda is a country of note precisely because of the genocide that tore it apart. But when you go to Rwanda, you learn that it is a country worth noting precisely because of all the things that have nothing to do with genocide.
When I travelled to Rwanda this May with African study’s course abroad, I got to go to markets and visit universities. I got to skinny dip at a lakeside resort, I went hiking in gorilla habitat to see Dian Fossey’s grave and I had the pleasure of meeting Rwandan students, teachers and journalists, all incredible people, with lives not so different from my own despite their collective memory of the events of 1994.
The course was designed to teach us about media before, during and after the genocide. So we saw memorials and we heard stories of loss and terrible sadness. There were days when I felt as if the genocide was a heavy cloud over Rwanda that Rwandans were always carrying on their shoulders. I could feel it pressing down on me and my admiration for the friends we’d made only deepened, when I thought of how strong they were for walking through life with such a weight upon them.
That is what you don’t get from a classroom: empathy, understanding, or a face to attach to an event. But you also don’t get the joy, the wonder of seeing beautiful green mountains all around you, of exploring a new city.
My time in the classroom did give me one thing that was the catalyst to my Rwandan adventure. It made me eager and excited to see new places for myself. To find out if what I’d learned translated to the real world. And in the real world, I ended up learning so much more.