​DARK TOURISM

Sanctification

 

Generally, the most common reason for sanctification is to honour fallen heroes or mourn a loss in the community. The process involves the creation of a sacred place, identifiable by a marker such as a statue, building, monument or memorial (Foote, 1997). It will also involve some form of ceremony explaining the significance and history of the site.

 

 

The Kigali Genocide Memorial was established 10 years after the Rwandan Genocide to commemorate the victims of the attrocities and is built on a site where over 250,000 people are buried. The Centre is a permanent memorial to those who fell victim to the genocide and serves as a place for people to grieve those they lost. The images below clearly show that the memorial was created and as a result some state that it is so sterile, visitors often feel distanced from the real tragedy (Adventure Trails, 2010). This memorial now features on a number of tourism packages which mix nature with visits to genocide memorials (Kigali Memorial Centre, nd).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The UN Security Council visit the Kigali Memorial Centre

 

 

This particular site has been commercialised and commodified with interpretation boards in place and rituals and ceremonies to commemorate the dark event. It is important to note that this memorial is the most visited by tourists who visit Rwanda, and therefore such sites raise issues of authenticity and whether certain parts of history have been removed to portray a certain image of the dark event (Stone). 

 

Another key issue for such memorials is to ensure that visitors can commemorate while visiting. Commemoration relates to an act of something out of the ordinary to remember and honour an important event or person from the past, (Merriam-Webster, 2013). Stone (2010), suggests that ‘commemoration occurs through either anniversary ceremonies or with purpose built visitor attractions and/or exhibitions, or by specific commemorative markers, this allowing the original disaster to have longevity and to occupy a durable place within the collective conscience.’ 

 

Tourists who visit this memorial, as well as others across Rwanda, are provided with the opportunity to visit mass graves, artefacts and human remains in the spaces the atrocities occured. Whilst there is a strong interest amongst tourists to learn about the events of the Rwandan Genocide, the memorial presentation can have deep emotional impacts on the visitor and can often be perceived to be a confusing experience (Sharpley, 2012).

 

There has been a significant increase in the number of international tourists to the Kigali Memorial Centre, probably from a result of both tourism infrastructure improvements (RDB, 2011) and an increase in genocide education (Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial State Museum, 2013).