Rwanda’s historical monument which is part of the Campaign Against Genocide (CAG) Museum is set to get global visibility as it has emerged the first at national level and moves to compete in the international contest.
The Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM) is a public photo competition around cultural heritage monuments, organised by Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., an American non-profit and charitable organisation.
The foundation operates eleven wikis that follow the free content model with their main goal being the dissemination of knowledge.
These include Wikipedia – an online encyclopedia, Wikimedia Commons, an online a repository of images, sounds, videos, and general media, and Wiktionary, online dictionary and thesaurus.
Overall, 10 photos of different monuments won the ticket to get eligibility to the global competition, from about 200 photo entries that competed at national level.
The 10 photos include that of the monument at the CAG Museum, which emerged the first winner. Others are the photo of the Virgin Mary at the historic Butare Cathedral in Huye District, the monument depicting Rwanda traditional dance at Sonatube Roundabout in Kigali, and the Ikirenge Cya Ruganzu (loosely translated into the foot of Ruganzu) in Rulindo District.
The competition consists of photographing various monuments and telling the story behind them. Then the jury select which monuments are the best based on the uploaded photos onto Wikimedia sites.
The criteria considered while selecting the photos include the beauty, the message and the uniqueness they have.
The ceremony to award the 10 best participants who took the winning museum photos was held on Friday, December 18, 2020, at the CAG Museum in Kigali.
The first three received vouchers, with the first getting $200, the second $100 and the third $55 voucher. All the 10 will receive in-kind prizes to visit Rwandan museums for free.
"This monument gives a lesson to the youth that working effectively as a team is fundamental to the prosperity of our country, that we should support one another to achieve good cause,” said Germain Mutijima who took the first winner CAG Museum’s monument photo.
It is the first time that Rwanda has participated in the Wiki Loves Monuments competition, which has been in existence for 10 years since the first one took place in 2010.
Rebecca Nyinawumuntu, Wiki Loves Monument Project Lead, Rwanda said that the main aim to join project is that they wanted that the Rwandan culture and the country’s history be exposed to the world so that it understands them.
"We want something that we can do and anyone who looks at it know that this is [about] Rwanda,” she said.
About the CAG Museum
CAG Museum is built in the Parliamentary building in Kigali, which was once known as Conseil National de Development (CND).
This building hosted the Rwandan Patriotic Front politicians and the 600 man protection force (3BN) from December 28, 1993 as they were in the preparations for the installation of Broad-Based Transitional Government and the National Transitional Assembly.
These 600 man protection force the (3BN) were the ones given the order first on April 7, 1994 by the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) Chairman of High Command Major General Paul Kagame to break out from their initial positions defend themselves and rescue victims of Genocide in their vicinity when the campaign against Genocide began.
The Museum depicts in details how the Campaign Against Genocide Plan was executed by RPF/A following the withdrawal of UN troops leaving the targeted Tutsi under the mercy of the Genocidaires and how only the RPF/A forces who were in the war of liberation took the unilateral decision to stop Genocide, Rescue victims of Genocide and defeat the Genocidal forces.
The Museum also has its outer part comprised of monuments including that of the 12.7mm Machine Gun that helped in containing the advancing genocidal forces.
Implications of the CAG Museum’s monument
Medard Bashana, the Manager of the CAG Museum said that the monument delivers a message of the command from the then High RPA Commander, Major General Paul Kagame to stop the Genocide, rescue those who were being killed, such as by destroying the enemy bases.
"It also conveys a message to build a country with the vision beyond stopping the Genocide, an inclusive country that values all people in the development of the country,” he said.
Other messages it conveys, he said, include partnership between the soldiers to be able to build synergies to defeat the enemy, as well as the sympathy to save the people from being killed, but also to give decent burial to those who were killed in the Genocide, and remember them to say never again to the Genocide.