Rwanda's President Paul Kagame visited Paris on Tuesday to unveil a monument dedicated to victims of the Rwandan genocide, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, in a further acknowledgement by France of its role in one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.
The monument stands on the banks of the Seine, on the Esplanade Habib-Bourguiba near the Pont de l'Alma, in the heart of Paris, and is presented as a new step in France's efforts to take responsibility for its past policies and re-engage with Africa.
Named "L'Archive" ("The Archive"), it was designed by the acclaimed Portuguese artist of African descent Grada Kilomba, who is also a writer and researcher in the field of African memory.
The monument consists of two black brass steles bearing an engraved tribute to the hundreds of thousands of men, women and children massacred between April and July 1994.
An inscription on one of the steles reads: "Here, like an archive, rest the voices and words, the memories and experiences, the feelings and hopes of the victims and the survivors."
Kagame said that "confronting historical responsibilities requires a lot of courage" and "a great sense of humanity," thanking French President Emmanuel Macron for his reconciliation efforts.
"This monument is a culmination. It now inscribes the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda at the heart of our capital and our history. It is the culmination of a long and patient work of truth," Macron said.
One survivor, Jeanne Uwimbabazi, was invited to speak at the ceremony, along with Kagame and French President Macron.
The Franco-Rwandan musician and writer Gaël Faye also read a poem by another Franco-Rwandan author, Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, herself a survivor of the genocide.
Unsilencing the past
Grada Kilomba’s design was developed through close dialogue and consultation with Rwandas. The artist did go on a research trip to Rwanda in 2024, which was pivotal, she said, enabling her to meet survivors of the genocide, immerse herself in the local context, and pay her respects at memorial sites.
"By expressing the danger of unspoken violence, the monument reminds us that forgetting is the primary architecture of violence and dehumanisation," the artist wrote in a statement. "Adopting the codes of geometric abstraction, the memorial to the victims of the Tutsi genocide expresses, through its minimalism, the unspeakable and unimaginable nature of the genocide: that which neither words nor images can convey."
Kilomba is best known for her subversive practice of storytelling, in which she gives body, voice, form and movement to silenced stories, especially from Africa.
This latest work also affirms the place now occupied by women artists within our shared public space, long dominated by the work of male European artists.
Further acknowledgement
The genocide was triggered by Hutu extremists after the assassination of Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana on 6 April, 1994, when his plane was shot down over Kigali.
At the time, France had been a long-standing backer of Rwanda's Hutu-dominated government, leading to decades of tensions between the two countries including a break in diplomatic ties between 2006 and 2009.
Macron has recognised France's "responsibility", saying Paris and its Western and African allies did not have the will to halt the slaughter in 1994 of an estimated 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, but he has stopped short of issuing a formal apology.
In a speech in Kigali in 2021, Macron acknowledged France's failure to heed warnings of the massacres.
A historical commission set up by Macron and led by historian Vincent Duclert concluded in 2021 that there had been a "failure" on the part of France under President Francois Mitterrand, while adding there was no evidence Paris was complicit in the killings. Duclert said the unveiling of the monument was a "powerful" step. "The genocide against the Tutsi is now fully part of France's public history," he added.
The president of the Ibuka France genocide survivor association, Marcel Kabanda, also praised France's efforts to remember Rwanda's dead and assume its share of responsibility. "We have been waiting for this for more than 30 years," he told news agencies.
"It is like oxygen, because civil society has long carried this struggle alone, and we finally feel understood and supported."
