THE CHURCH IN BIGUHU

The Presbyterian parish of Biguhu lies a moderate distance west of Kirinda in what was then Mwendo Commune of Kibuye Prefecture in west central Rwanda. The Presbyterian Church established a presence at Biguhu in the 1950s when Kirinda parish designated the area as a “field of evangelism.” In 1967, the EPR elevated Biguhu to parish status, making it the ninth Presbyterian parish in the country. At that time, they constructed a modest church building at the summit of Biguhu hill and a parsonage just behind. The activities of the parish gradually expanded to include a health center, a technical school, and a variety of development services, and Biguhu gained some prestige within the denomination, producing several prominent church leaders and benefiting from the presence of several missionaries. A small commercial and residential community focused around the church developed on Biguhu and several neighboring hills. The prominence of Biguhu both within the church and as a regional center, however, was limited by its inaccessibility.

Mwendo Commune, the political unit that included Biguhu at the time of the genocide, was less densely populated than many other rural areas of Rwanda, with a population density of 285 people per square kilometer in 1991 – compared, for example, with neighboring Bwakira where the population density was 343 people per square kilometer – but the commune's location along the continental divide between the Congo River and the Nile severely limited its capacity to support agriculture, so overpopulation remained a serious problem.