"The stones which will be planted here at Nyanza ya Rebero are, for me, a reply to a friendly body who has been dead for six years, over whom the bulldozer of hate passed. For me it will be a treasure to be preserved by humanity"

Marc Kabandana, prefect of Kigali, 5th June 2000.

"The artists from "FestíAfrica" have listened to the tragic memory of the survivors and have given form to this memory through literature, theatre and film. We are very grateful to them."

Immaculée Rangira-Rahamatali

Your Opinions

The "Garden" is an art work, conceived by an artist, but it goes well beyond the pure realm of art. I would like to see the "Garden" as a contribution, together with other processes, to the complex healing of a society whose social tissue must be repaired after the genocide. These other processes include, of course, the gacaca, and the work of civil education being undertaken by the Unity and Reconciliation Commission.

As was the intention of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, the process of remembering, exteriorising, and "verbalising" lived experiences and sufferings contributes to the healing process.

Without it being a question of replacing psychologists, it is clear that in a situation like the post-genocide in Rwanda, other therapeutic forms must be practised. Given the scale of the suffering in the country, "professional" forms of healing cannot be seen as the only forms. Firstly, so as not to create a class of people excluded from professional psychiatric healing methods, and secondly, so as not to underestimate the importance of "self-healing". The ability to speak, to exteriorise or to act one-self on an area of suffering is a step towards healing suffering. The presence of people coming from abroad to participate in the creation of the Garden, is also an important way in which suffering can be taken out of the ghetto of the individual or of the country.

The presence of the Garden as memorial will mark the refusal to allow the genocide to take root in the unconscious. It will be the "living" proof of the events of 1994

Bruce Clarke, author of the "Garden"