News Dispatch

RESURRECTING FAITH AFTER GENOCIDE IN RWANDA

BY FATHER EMMAUNUEL M. KATONGOLE AND JONATHAN WILSON HARTGROVE

PUBLISHER CHRISTIAN BOOK

PRICE $10.00

REVIEWED BY JOSEPH ADERO NGALA

JUNE 11, 2022

This is not an easy book; I was at the verge of tears as I read it.  Father Emmanuel Katongle examines the genocide in Rwanda in a way that calls to account Western Christians, our attitude towards the African continent, and the way we do missions, which often means spreading western values and assumption rather than the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which should transform all our lives.

We learn who we are as we walk together in the way of Jesus. So I want to invite you on a pilgrimage to Rwanda is often held up as a model of evangelization in Africa, yet the 1994 genocide makes you wonder where has Christianity gone.

The bulldozer destroyed a church killing some 3000 people inside. In a little vignettes about priests or ordinary citizens who broke down racial barriers, sheltered refugees, died because of their disposal to interrupt the atrocity.

Father Emmanuel Katongole shows a glimpse of a truly Christian society where the titles and boundaries of society. To do so, we have to abandon the harmful ideas and ideologies that permeate our culture, social and political contexts and transcended them to a place of solidarity with all of humanity.

We are followers of Christ; we are called in the same way with early Christian communities. The community in Antioch brought together Jews and Samaritans, Greeks and Roman slaves and free, men and women in a way that was so confusing that people around them didn’t know what to call them. So they called them Christians.

If only Christians were seen this way today, as people who loved and accepted those who were different those who were oppressed or rejected by the rest of society.

This is a challenging read and yet Katongole declares hope that as we begin to question the assumption through which we view the world, the church that Jesus died to establish would again embody a community of love.

Father Emmanuel Katongole deftly unties our understanding than can tolerate division and violence and advocates, with the help of scriptures, a very different approach.

Katongole shows that the tribalism that the mains stream believers was the cause of the genocide did not exist in Rwanda until the Germans came in.

There 3 classes of people, including the Hutu and Tutsi, but they were divided economically rather than racially and it were easy for people to change between the groups.

This laid the foundation of unrest between the two groups that ultimately led to the Rwandan Genocide. I knew nothing about history before reading this book.

Simon never stops to ask why Jesus is being crucified. He does not question the twisted authority that would kill the Author of life. Simon carried the cross obediently. And biting humor ends with this brilliant paragraph

Jesus said that whoever followed him would suffer as he did. The promised reward so far as I can tell scripture is only that we get to worship God forever. If we can’t imagine that is good news on earth right now, I don’t suppose the idea of eternal life is good news.

Some great perspectives here to ponder and some excellent correlations made. A few minor points fell flat, mostly due to their abrupt mentions, but overall this was a powerful piece worth digesting and exploring even after the last word has been read. I wondered what the author thinks about Pope Francis actions and situations in which he found himself in Argentina.

NOTE TO THE EDITOR JOSEPH ADERO NGALA LECTURES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND DIPLOMACY ANDN IS A JOURNALIST FOR MANY YEARS HAS PUBLISHED SEVERAL ARTICLES CAN BE REACHED ppaafrica@gmail.com