Sean Bloomfield and Queen of Peace Productions recently filmed a documentary video on-location in Kibeho, Rwanda, where a series of profound Marian apparitions took place in the eighties. Below is a video preview and report about the new project.
Kibeho, Rwanda after 26 years by Sean Bloomfield
The first European settlers to visit Rwanda believed they had found a hidden paradise and dubbed it the “Land of Eternal Spring.” With its lush, green hills covered by terraced plantations of tea and coffee, its cool air and gentle breezes that remain constant throughout the year, and the millions of smiling people that inhabit it, Rwanda is even sometimes called “Heaven on earth.”
Beginning on November 28, 1981, Heaven truly did descend on Rwanda.
This miniscule country, which straddles the highlands of Central Africa, is seen by some as the heart of the continent. Both the Nile and Congo rivers, among the mightiest and most important for Africa, have their sources in Rwanda. And now, a message of hope and peace—one delivered directly by the Virgin Mary over 26 years ago—is flowing out from Rwanda to the rest of Africa, and beyond.
Although Rwanda was graced by a divine visitation during the eighties, the nineties brought quite the opposite: a gruesome genocide in which a million men, women and children were brutally killed, often by friends and neighbors, in only 100 days. The message of Kibeho, however, is intrinsically tied to this tragic event.
It was not until after the war that the Catholic Church made a definitive ruling about the apparitions. Only three of the seven alleged visionaries gained Church approval:
Alphonsine Murmureka
Nathalie Mukamazimpaka
Marie Claire Mukangango
These seers were the first three young people to report experiencing apparitions of the Virgin Mary, who called herself Nyina wa Jambo, which translates to Mother of the Word.
The apparitions took place in and around a Catholic-run girls’ school in Kibeho. The three visionaries were given messages and were shown a variety of prophetic visions that would later come to pass.
Alphonsine is now a cloistered nun living in the Saint Claire convent of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. She took the name Alphonsine de la Croix Glorieuse, or Alphonsine of the Glorious Cross.
Nathalie resides at the Kibeho parish where she works in dedication to the Church. Her most cherished duty is preparing the altar for Mass. She remains a shy and humble witness to the apparitions.
Marie Claire married Elie Ntabadahiga in 1987 and moved to Kigali to live with him. She was killed in the genocide in 1994. Eyewitness accounts vary, but the clearest indication is that her husband was taken prisoner by militants; when she begged for his release, she was murdered.
The Kibeho area witnessed some of the worst atrocities of the 1994 genocide. Over 25,000 people were killed in and around the parish church. Their bodies were dumped in mass graves. Shards of their bones are still visible today, protruding from Kibeho's flower gardens and dirt paths.
A decade before the violence in Rwanda erupted, the Blessed Mother had shown visions of the genocide to Alphonsine, Nathalie and Marie Claire. In my interview with Nathalie, she described the visions:
“In July, 1982, and the following months, August 15, 1982, the Assumption, and again on September 4th and in January 1983, Our Lady showed us a lot about the war. Often she talked in general that the world is bad, that people do not have love, contrary to what God shed his blood for; Our Lady insists as well on love. Our Lady talked about and showed us some visions of reality where people killed each other, blood running, fire burning on the hill, mass graves, skulls, beheaded bodies, skulls put apart.”
Many of Mary’s messages focused on suffering and the graces that are attained through it. In what was then a very peaceful African country, the young visionaries could not have imagined the amount of suffering that would eventually befall Rwanda. Now that peace has returned, the message of Kibeho is being distributed through Africa more than ever before.
“Our Lady appeared here to remind us what we have forgotten,” said Nathalie. “Her message: she insisted on prayer and on conversion, on penance and humility.”
Rwandans claim that God visits the rest of the world by day but comes back to Rwanda at night to sleep. After experiencing the peace of Kibeho and the humble piety of the Rwandan people, that does not seem hard to believe.
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Beginning on November 28, 1981, Heaven truly did descend on Rwanda.
The apparitions took place in and around a Catholic-run girls’ school in Kibeho. The three visionaries were given messages and were shown a variety of prophetic visions that would later come to pass.
Marie Claire married Elie Ntabadahiga in 1987 and moved to Kigali to live with him. She was killed in the genocide in 1994. Eyewitness accounts vary, but the clearest indication is that her husband was taken prisoner by militants; when she begged for his release, she was murdered.
Many of Mary’s messages focused on suffering and the graces that are attained through it. In what was then a very peaceful African country, the young visionaries could not have imagined the amount of suffering that would eventually befall Rwanda. Now that peace has returned, the message of Kibeho is being distributed through Africa more than ever before. 