Religious Beliefs and Spirituality in Rwanda

Rwanda has a number of existing religions. This is the effect of a Constitutional provision for the freedom of religions and religious practices. A 2006 survey says that the Roman Catholic is on top of these religions in the country with 56.5% adherents, followed by the Protestant at 37.1%; Islam, 4.6%; irreligious sector at 1.7%; and the indigenous religions at 0.1%. The Roman Catholics came to Rwanda through their missionaries in 1880 to develop the so-called “Hamatic” theory of race origins which taught that the ethnic group Tutsis were a superior race compared to the Hutus, a teaching that led to a racial division between the two ethnic groups.

​This racial division culminated in a bloody head-on collision between the two groups in the 1994 genocide that also involved the Roman Catholic and other minor religions. After trial, three Roman Catholic priests and two nuns were convicted for active participation in the most shocking massacre in human history. Because of that participation, attendance to Roman Catholic ceremonies dwindled, while the Muslim population increased due to the protection it extended to both Tutsis and Hutus wanting not to be identified with the genocide perpetrators. In the commemoration of the horrific event in 2007, only a Lutheran representative was invited by the government to offer a prayer because of strained relations with the Church over the role of church officials in the genocide. An Interfaith Commission for Rwanda has been activated with the hope of reconciling the people, especially the genocide survivors and prisoners and the families of the genocide detainees.