Interpreting Suffering: Theological Rupture and Democratic Advancement in South Africa and Rwanda

Abstract

"In 1994, Rwanda and South Africa each emerged from prolonged periods of violence and political upheaval: Rwanda in the aftermath of the genocide against the Tutsi, and South Africa through its first multiracial general election, which formally ended apartheid (Nelson, 2002-2003, p. 69; Schliesser, 2018, p. 1). Despite these parallel moments of rupture, the role played by Christian churches in advancing democracy by supporting popular movements and opposing authoritarian governments diverged sharply. In South Africa, prominent Christian actors, especially youth movements such as the National Catholic Federation of Students (NCFS), the Catholic Students Association (CASA), and the YCS, increasingly opposed apartheid and became central participants in the democratic transition (Bate, 1999, pp. 7-8). In Rwanda, by contrast, churches largely supported the Hutu elites’ government and became complicit in genocidal violence" (Aguilar, 2009, p. 25).