The 1994 Rwandan Genocide

press release: The public is invited to a free presentation (donations welcome) by Carl Wilkens, who will lead a discussion and show a documentary about his experiences and the lessons he learned about human nature as he witnessed the genocide that occurred in Rwanda.

As a humanitarian aid worker, Carl Wilkens moved his young family to Rwanda in the spring of 1990. When the genocide was launched in April 1994, Wilkens refused to leave, even when urged to do so by close friends, his church and the US government. Thousands of expatriates evacuated and the United Nations pulled out most of its troops. Wilkens sent his wife and three children with an American convoy to Burundi as he stayed in their home in Kigali, the capital city. No one was more surprised by his decision to remain in Rwanda than the Rwandan people. Thomas Kayumba, Carl's co-worker, said, “He was still young. To take leave of his little children and his wife, to give himself to the Rwandan people, I don’t know how to explain it.”

But Wilkens says, “I can still hear very clearly the sound of hoes thwacking into the earth… the men swinging them were not gardening, they were digging up mass graves… Take a moment to try and put yourself in the shoes of the family members and friends who had loved ones taken from them. Surviving is more than just staying alive; surviving is learning how to live again.” He spent his days venturing into streets filled with gunfire, roadblocks of angry, bloodstained soldiers and civilians armed with machetes and assault rifles in order to bring food, water, and medicine to groups of orphans trapped around the city.

When Wilkens returned to the United States in 1996, he moved to Oregon and became an Adventist pastor. He and his family visit Rwanda from time to time to see friends and co-workers. He has dedicated himself to sharing his story, speaking in schools on nearly every continent about his experiences in Rwanda, how to build bridges with “the other,” and the need for people to stand up against “evil” in any form. His website, World Outside My Shoes, offers additional background information and links to resources, especially for teachers.

The 2004 PBS Frontline documentary, Ghosts of Rwanda, featured Wilkens, and his eyewitness testimony is included in the collection at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. In 2011 Wilkens released his first book, I’m Not Leaving, based on tapes he made to his wife and children during the genocide. He will screen a 40-minute documentary, also entitled I’m Not Leaving, during his presentation at Edgewood High School. He will also share the amazing recovery process Rwanda has been going through for the last 20+ years.

Wilkens writes, “While these stories happened during the genocide, the book and documentary are not really about genocide. They are more about the choices people made, actions people took, courage people showed, and sacrifices people gave in the face of genocide.”