Histoire du vicariat

Chap. VI: THE ATTITUDE OF BISHOP BIGIRUMWAMI WITH REGARD

TO POLITICAL AUTHORITIES OF THE COUNTRY

Bishop Bigirumwami was a bishop of Nyundo Diocese under two official regimes: the finishing monarchy of Charles Mutara III Rudahigwa and the first Republic, of Gregoire Kayibanda. At the beginning of Bishop Bigirumwami’s episcopate, in those years that prepared the country’s independence, there were 3 native authorities faced colonial authorities: a political authority in the person of the king, a religious authority in the person of Bishop Bigirumwami and a scientific authority in the person of Father Alexis Kagame. King Mutara was eliminated as we know, on July 25, 1959. On this path, he followed his father Yuhi V Musinga, who died in exile, at Moba in DRC. His disappearance on the political scene of Rwanda created a vacuum in which were engulfed the disorders of November 1959 and their aftermath. As for Father Alexis Kagame, during the last years of colonialism, he represented the internationally recognized scientific authority thanks to his research and publications on Rwanda as well as by his participation in international Commissions of Science and Culture. Let us remind that he died in Nairobi in 1981 while he was on the way to Paris to attend a Conference of UNESCO, of which he was a permanent member of a Commission. It should be noted that during the last years of the first Republic, Father Kagame was assigned to house arrest in the Cathedral Parish of Butare. During this period, his authority in the public opinion of the country was overshadowed in the wake of the abolition of the monarchy that had previously supported him. Only Bishop Bigirumwami stood alone against winds and tide of the colonialo-parmehutu coalition politics.

The intervention of Colonel Guy Logiest had swept the country of all the Tutsi authorities of the colonial time. The political parties which had agitated for independence of Rwanda were eliminated by the victory of Parmehutu. Among those parties, let us mention the three main ones: APROSOMA, UNAR and RADER. Since 1963, after the attack of Inyenzi in Bugesera, followed by the assassination of the chiefs from UNAR and RADER in Ruhengeri prison, there remained no visible Tutsi authority in the Rwandan society. Bishop Bigirumwami, legally and internationally protected by his status as a Catholic bishop, was left alone standing as the only visible Tutsi authority, embarrassed and embarrassing for the new exclusively Parmehutu rule.

Bishop Bigirumwami faced with authorities of the Republic, openly hostile to his person, kept a fearless attitude. This attitude has been verified on several occasions. Let us cite two examples. In 1963, following the apostolic visit of Mgr Guy Riobbé, the Bishop of Orleans, 4 priests of Nyundo were given a banishment sentence: Bishop Louis Gasore, Vicar general, Father Wenceslas Kalibushi, General Treasurer, Fathers Déogratias Mbandiwimfura, Priest of Nyundo Parish and Gerard Mwerekande, Priest of Mibirizi Parish. This arbitrary measure was taken by this Visitor, without the knowledge of Rome which had mandated him. This visitor had obeyed to the demands of the racist Missionaries and politicians who wanted to break the resistance force of Bishop Bigirumwami, by separating him from his principal staff.
When the preparations for the departure of the outlaws were completed, Bishop Bigirumwami went to the Office of the President of the Republic to know the point of view of President Kayibanda. Pretending to ignore it whereas he knew everything, President Kayibanda, surprised at his office by the bishop of Nyundo who displayed a dignified but indignant attitude, responded by saying: Now what! Me, Kayibanda, admitting the banishment of Rwandan citizens, never! If they were in fault against the laws of the country, we have sanctions in the country and not outside the country. The Bishop expressed his gratitude and returned in haste to Nyundo as a messenger of good news. Thus ended the nightmare, just like a bad dream.

The second example is the arrest of the Priests of Kinyaga by the police. This highly unfortunate event deserves a brief explanation. After the famous attack of Inyenzi in Bugesera in 1963, on December 25 of this year, while they were celebrating the Midnight Mass at Christmas, all the Priests of Kinyaga were thrown in prison. The true cause of this violence, curiously linked to the events of Bugesera in East, is beyond understanding. It seems that the Officer who ordered the troops to carried out the arrests was a Belgian administrator named by the famous Provisional Government of the beginning of the Republic. Political analysts of the time think that the blow was directed to Bishop Bigirumwami himself to break his resistance to the political program of the colonialo-parmehutu coalition. The day after these events, Bishop Bigirumwami went to Kigali to protest against the authorities of the Republic. Upon his return from Kigali, he passed to the Parish of Rulindo where I was and affirmed to us: “I told the President the four truths, come what may”!

Chap. VII : A DEATH WHICH PREDICTED THE END OF THE NIGHT

The death in question is that of Bishop Bigirumwami. It occurred, as already said, on June 3 1986. The day of burying his body was celebrated with a national holiday. It is this paradox that I want to stress: a man persecuted during his lifetime, is glorified at his death, by the same actor, namely the Rwandan Government. Let us see the explanation of this transformation as well as the meaning of the end of this political darkness so prophetically announced.

This political metamorphosis, let us say it right away, is the change that occurred in Rwanda between the end of the Kayibanda regime and the beginning of that of his successor. In fact, Habyarimana had not forgotten what Bishop Bigirumwami had done for his father and for Habyalimana himself. Bishop Bigirumwami had helped his father, Jean-Baptiste Ntibazirikana, who was a catechist at the Parish of Rambura. He had helped Habyarimana himself to study at the Junior Seminary of Kabgayi. When Habyarimana was dismissed from this seminary, the Bishop found him a school in Bukavu in Congo. Despite the political changes that occurred in Rwanda, Habyarimana had not forgotten this benevolence. I am not cynical to be delighted by misfortunes of others. I just want to report the events that reflect this change.
Tired by the persecution of the First Republic, Bishop Bigirumwami presented his resignation to the Pope who accepted it on March 31, 1973. On July 5, 1973, Juvénal Habyarimana overthrew President Kayibanda and assassinated all his Ministers in the prison of Ruhengeri. After a short stay on an island of Lake Ruhondo, Kayibanda was house arrested in his home near Kabgayi. It is there where he finished his days in total isolation. His body was buried by some prisoners. This is how disappeared the man who had incarnated the mystic of the Hutu power under the blows of the chief of his Army who was a Hutu like him. On hearing the news of the coup against Kayibanda, I was already in Bujumbura and said to myself, like many others: it's the pity that Bishop Bigirumwami gave his resignation very early. Indeed, Habyarimana was his former protégé. In fact, the new President has been rather grateful to him until his death. As we have just said, President Habyarimana declared a national mourning, the day of the funeral of Bishop Bigirumwami. He thus wanted to associate all Rwandan citizens to his recognition and to honor his merits for the country in the face of many political opponents that this big man still has. Here is the paradox that needed to be underlined: a President kills him, his successor rehabilitates him and made him receive standing ovation by the entire nation. Not for a long time, unfortunately!
Indeed, Habyarimana and Kayibanda were fed by the same breast: that of the Hutu-power. The regime of MRND of Habyarimana was the offspring of Parmehutu of Kayibanda. It was him who completed the common program of genocide.
The two Presidents, finally, met the same fate. They harvested the normal fruit of their work: they killed, and were also killed. Their sword was turned against them. Kayibanda was eliminated by Habyarimana, the latter, according to Mutsinzi Board of Inquiry, was also eliminated by his own men.
Let us now turn to the prediction of the death of Bishop Bigirumwami. We said that his triumphal funeral celebrated by his political opponents providentially announced another triumph which was to arrive on July 4, 1994: the country’s liberation by the RPF-Inkotanyi. Before reaching here, what happened between these two dates? It is not the first time that the blood of innocents produces a victory as immanent justice. One Father of the Church, the African Tertullian of Carthage, said: The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church. By transposing this sentence to the case of Rwanda and Bishop Bigirumwami in particular, we could say: The blood of the victims of genocide against the Tutsi, shed from 1959 to 1994, was the seed of Rwanda’s liberation by the RPF-Inkotanyi. Indeed, the blood of more than a million of innocent peoples, killed for the fault attributable to their Creator, who created them as Tutsis, this fault could not go unpunished. Actually, every genocide is here a form of deicide which causes an immanent justice, here or in the Afterlife.

Returning to the attitude of President Habyarimana, at the beginning of his reign, he created a hope for peace and national security. This hope soon proved fallacious. He even reinforced the discriminatory system of Parmehutu by the following decisions: to officialize and generalize the system of ethnic quotas in schools and public service, excluding the Tutsi in the military, to deny Rwandan refugees the right to repatriation and persecute them in their countries of exile. It is this last point which constituted the last straw to these refugees.

On October 1, 1990, at the border between Rwanda and Uganda, the Refugees affirmed, arms in hand, their inalienable right to repatriation. The installation of a Government of National Unity chaired by the RPA-Inkotanyi. The rest is history: the war between the RPF-Inkotanyi and the Rwandan Army supported by foreign and regional powers, Peace talks in Arusha with their aborted Accords, the 1994 genocide, the defeat and flight of government forces in Congo involving much of the Hutu population, and finally the installation of a Government of National Unity headed by the RPF-Inkotanyi. Now in 2011 we are still under the regime of the Third Republic whose major objectives: national unity, progress and social justice. God grants that this program becomes irreversible.


Chap. VIII: THE FIRST RWANDAN BISHOP

This poem is an Ode of praise to Bishop Aloys Bigirumwami. The Bishop is called Mugabwa-mbere (the First-appointed Official), because he was the first Rwandan bishop. He was for the country, not only the dedication of its evangelization, but also a recognized defender of the interests of the Nation at the time of regaining its independence. This poem was recited by its author, Bernardin MUZUNGU, who was then a seminarian.
It was the evening of the day of the festivities of the episcopal ordination of the addressee, dated June 1, 1952. I thought to do well by attaching the Ode to the text that commemorates the 25th anniversary of the death of our venerable Father. It celebrates, in a way, the birthday of my filial affection I have for him for so many years. The text develops four themes: the suitability of that person to that dignity, the foundation of the first five parishes of the country, the promotion of the Rwandan clergy and wishes of success to the new bishop.

01. The first Rwandan bishop, file-leader of the local Clergy

02. The control lever of those promoted to victory
    the role model that showed us the right path
03. Lend me your ear O ye children of this country,
   so that I tell you the merits of the Chosen
04. On this solemn day, we the descendants of Kanyarwanda,
    are glad to celebrate our elder the model of clairvoyance without fear

05. The model of decision without fault, the model of dynamism without precipitation

06. You drew our indigenous clergy from a situation of auxiliary missionaries, thus drawing aside the mortal danger to the respect of our dignity

07. This recognition is addressed to Imana, who created us and placed in this country

08. O thou the Author of our lives, we remember the victories that you made us win

09. Against the forces of evil in this country

10. Until recently, this was the kingdom of Rwandan evils
11. A multitude of devils were sowing confusion in our population
12. They had organized a kingdom of darkness under the authority
    of an incendiary King
13. It was a country full of misery and danger and covered with darkness
14.  During this time, the king who conquered it, was traversing it oppressing its people
15.  He reigned on it as a ritual king Ryangombe, singing like Nyabirungu and watering its subjects of a drink of misery.
16. At the same time, thousands of demons were engaged in corrupting people
17. A multitude of little devils, those looming around in infamous places
18. Aimed especially at the corruption of the youth
19. As for the old demons, those with red eyes
20. Targeted the female youth and rendered it entirely stained

21. As for our soothsayers and spiritual advisors, their services had become totally useless

22. Then the Supreme Pastor said to Bishop Hirth:
23.  I send you on mission to Rwanda and here are the Letters of accreditation
24. These are nothing but the Cross, Light of the World, the return of the lost ones, recovery of what remains
25. On his arrival in Rwanda, the cross illuminated the country like the sun at noon
26. Those who did not know it had the attitude of rejection
27. However, decisions from above continued their merry way and won the whole country

28. The first base of the Cross was Save Hill which allowed him to drive out darkness in all the south of the country.

29. From there, the Red Cross went to cast out demons of Gisaka that fled into the forest
30. At Nyundo where they had established their headquarters, the Master cast them out with a single hammer blow.

31. As for those who were in the lakes of Umurera, they were deported to the swamps of Rugezi

32. After having set a seat at Mibirizi in Kinyaga and made a tour of all Rwanda, he returned definitively in the center of the country

33. KABGAYI had the privilege of becoming the capital of the Catholic Diocese of Rwanda.

34. It thus became the jewel of Rwanda, the place where one rests without tiring, the main house across the Diocese of Marangara

35. Its bishop received the land title and launched the fight against the forces of evil

36. Seeing that he was attacked in its home, the Devil withdrew to his own men.

37. The seat of the Church after being well fixed, the King of the kings came to install there permanently

38. It was then that the Bishop multiplied residential Parishes
39. They were quick to demolish the works of the evil and to leave the field open to evangelization

40. Then the hearts were at peace, Jesus settled in them and made some remain the home of the Holy Spirit

41. He chose companions and created a seminary to serve as a training center
42. It was a success and, gradually, they were won by their priestly vocation
43. The missionaries who brought us the Good News were properly assisted
44. The bishop received them at home, entrusted them ministries and blessed their work
45. The native priests were auxiliaries of the foreign Missionaries in the beginning
46. Very quickly, their value was essential and their auxiliary rank was forgotten
47. In my prayer, these Missionaries occupy a good place
48. From across the oceans, they came to our premises by way of air
49. They milked for us milk which does not decrease and which repairs our forces 50. They found Rwanda coming out of underdevelopment and supported its progress

51. They brought us many innovations and multiple benefits

52. They taught us new social laws which comprise inevitable sanctions

53. We followed their example of economic development and we developed instead of sinking into pauperism

54. When Jesus gained Rwanda, he did it smoothly

55. Thus the name of the eldest child of this country he chose for him a predestined name

56. And the day of its revelation was an unparalleled celebration as well as the source of our blessings.

57. When the worthy men of the country were sitting together deliberating,

58. It was then that the Chosen of Imana rose from among them
59. And made the following statement: Jesus King of kings, this Rwanda that you entrusted to me, I put it under your protection, as its true owner

60. Deign to put it under your sphere of influence and that it is docile to you

61. Anyone who does not follow you, I disagree with him; furthermore, I declare him enemy of Rwanda

62. As for me, I lay my crown at your feet to assert your sovereignty over Rwanda and I pray to keep away all its misfortunes

63. Jesus thus acknowledging the Sovereign of Rwanda, said to the Sovereign Pontiff:

64. Rwanda has become pleasant to me as well as its King

65. I find it preferable to other monarchs, go and award him an exceptional decoration

66. A few days later we were agreeably surprised

67. By a new arrival from Rome, announcing a promotion to Bishop of the son from the family of Abazirankende

68. The shouts of joy rang out, the movement of jubilations extended and the echo of applauses was slow to be quiet

69. The man of his choice, the Lord had given him the name worthy of his office: Bigirumwami means the manager of divine business

70. He is the first among the elected, he is the best hero

71. He is the apostle from this country; it's him "the first Rwandan Bishop"

72. O Thou the Shepherd of the thirsty for justice, you need to be always close to your herd

73. Give it fresh water, waters it with the source of life

74. O Thou committed Shepherd, it is necessary to always go up in estimation

75. Go higher than your rivals, may your herd increases at sight of eye, and may you become the mirror of our Nation

76. O You, whose imposing presence sets up our applicant followers, gain the victories everywhere

77. It is not a quantity of material goods that I want for your long life, but spiritual riches, the fruit of your ministry

78. Our congratulations for your promotion and we are proud of your dignity

79. Now you become the greatest of your brothers, you are on top of everything and you are in charge for all.

80. You must lead your herd to the green pasture and water it with the sources of living waters

81. As a laborer, select the good plants, let them grow and mature not to reap the disavowal of the Master

82. In the evening, when you bring back the herd at home, presents your led to the Supreme Pastor

83. To know the usual rank of your herd, always listen to the Church
84. O thou Rwanda rising so quickly and so brilliantly in spite of your youth
85. May you become the role model of your elders
86. When you'll become mature, how high in progress will you stop!
87. I offer my reverences, Excellency, continue your march forward
88. Enlarge your scope, your victory is already at reach.

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FAIT A KIGALI, LE 01.01.2012

Diane SHYAKA, Secrétaire de la Revue