The Socio-Religious Forgiveness and Reconciliation in Desmond Mpilo Tutu, as a Possible Inspiration for the Post-Genocide Rwanda

Rwanda has experienced the tragedy of conflict and hatred based on what was politically created as ethnicity. That bad condition grew in history with the post-colonial leaders and produced the genocide of the Tutsi population in the country in 1994. Currently, there is no open violence in Rwanda, but there are some significant elements of socio-religious crisis that are consequences of the recent past, genocide, and war. Therefore, in this article, the effort is made to examine what has been done in Society and the Catholic Church, to which 44% of Rwandans religiously belong, and what the weak points are in the Church and the State’s reconciliation efforts, that could be improved by inspiration through the concept of reconciliation of Desmond Mpilo Tutu. To carry on this research, this study adopts a comparative and hermeneutic method where the various sources on the Rwandan journey in forgiveness and reconciliation are analysed, and then, the forgiveness and reconciliation work of Desmond Mpilo Tutu. The meeting of two contexts shows that both victims and perpetrators need the restoration of their humanity and dignity, but also that there is “no future without forgiveness”.