Dr. Phodidas Nydamymumugabe, Professor of Religion at Weimar College, shares his perspective of racism in his own country of Rwanda. How can people of the same country who share the same color skin have racism? Dr Phodidas addresses this issue.

<p>Dr. Phodidas Nydamymumugabe, Professor of Religion at Weimar College, shares his perspective of racism in his own country of Rwanda. How can people of the same country who share the same color skin have racism? Dr Phodidas addresses this issue.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Weimar University

Phodidas Ndamyumugabe

Issues of Racism from a Genocide Survivor’s Perspective

This is a great opportunity for me to be able to stand before you, those who are near and those who are far away.

It is a privilege to be able to speak at this moment.

And I have an interesting topic as it has been announced.

It's Christian true identity, no room for racism.

And I have a scripture that I want us to read.

It is in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9 through 10.

It says, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

And I will tell you why towards the end, as I near the end of my sermon this evening, I will tell you why this is probably 1 of the most important passages in my life.

And I don't know about you, but maybe as we end you will also realize that it is a very important 1.

So when I read this passage, it's not just another reading.

This evening, I know what is going on in the country.

I have been asked to speak on this topic, and I know that there are so many people in this country, probably even across the world, have been receiving some songs, some videos from different places of the world, people trying to comment on what is going on, and some have even called me.

They think I'm just either part of the group that is rioting or part of the group that is, you know, somehow I'm being affected with what is going on.

And you might have experienced the same too.

And people across this country, some are probably sad, others are angry, others are not happy with what is happening or what has happened recently.

And I know many people have reacted to this in a very constructive way.

And some of them very powerful men and politicians and religious people.

And I highly appreciated most of the reaction because they are very constructive and helpful.

But I also chose actually to talk on this, as of course I was requested by Pastor Don, Christian true identity, no room for racism.

It's a topic that is not easy to be dealt with, by the way.

When I was trying to read about it, some people, even preachers, say, no, no, no, no, most of them don't want to preach on this.

Because the reality is, it is a very sensitive topic, right?

But it is not sensitive for people who love God, amen?

Yes, it is sensitive because there is something you want to address.

But it is also a very important 1 to talk about, especially in times such as this.

But 1 of the things that makes this topic very difficult is that there is sometimes very rare, it's a very rare case that there's going to be neutrality.

When you talk about this, there is often tendency to even have aside yourself and think you are talking about God when you are actually talking about yourself, right?

And the people who listen, they also have preconceived ideas and they say, what is he gonna talk about on this particular topic?

And so I need the Holy Spirit of God to be able to speak through me.

You know what, you know, there's 1 writer you might be familiar with him in the name of Pepin.

He has a lot of books even in our library and 1 of the books he has written is Shall We Keep Silence?

And in 1 of the chapters in that big book, a big book, he says there is the title is Our Amazing Race and Our Amazing Grace.

There is a tendency that everyone, even though we join Christianity and we become men and women of God, we tend to think that God is on our side and he is of our kind.

1 day I was in the Philippines and I rode on a bus and I, you know, you are just, you find yourself in such a place where you know nobody, literally, And you go to the supermarkets, you know, in the Philippines, there are some of the biggest supermarkets in the world.

I was in Europe, in America, I haven't seen such a big supermarkets like the ones I saw there.

And now somebody meets you and they say, hey, have you met your brother?

And I said no, just to realize that he was actually talking about an African American whom he saw somewhere, but because there were only 2 black people, then he thought, that must be my brother.

I mean, I know I'm here by myself, right?

And now, what was strange is not actually what this friend told me.

It was actually what 1 of those so-called brothers, because we are all brothers, amen?

What he told me, Well, I had not met him, but he said, you know what, my brother, Jesus was black.

So, you know, they tried to describe him differently, but Jesus was black originally.

Black people will think he was black and white will think Jesus was white.

And of course, Asians will think he was Asian.

And I was talking with somebody who said, no, you know what, the first man was actually like a Chinese.

And I said, what do you mean he was like a Chinese?

He said, because if you want to create, God could not have created a white person to be the first.

And he could not even have created a black person to be the first.

And I said, tell me now, how do you explain this?

Because the white soil wouldn't be the most fertile.

And he said, black soil either wouldn't be the fertile at all.

And so if you are, well, no, no, no, the black 1 said the black 1 was going to be the most fertile.

And the Chinese said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You know, it is actually easy for God to create Chinese first.

Because from the Chinese right in between, who is yellow, not so black, not black and not white, then you can diverge to black and to white.

So everyone tries to take God as his own and he thinks actually, you know, even when we are Christians, you think God is black or he's white or he's yellow or he's whatever you think he is, but the truth is There's no partiality with God, amen?

So it doesn't matter for God the color of my skin, the size of my nose, the height of my head, or whatever it is, just God sees me as his child.

And so the passage we read is a very interesting 1.

It says, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

My intention this evening though is not going to be to talk about racism.

I'm not very much excited about the topic.

I want to talk about the people of God, amen?

And in the process you may understand that there's no room for racism.

If you are a man or a woman of God, regardless of your skin color, your height, you are just special.

And let me just give you a little bit of background to the passage we've just read.

You know, this, there's no doubt that it's the Apostle Peter that who is writing, who wrote actually this gospel that carries his name.

In fact, the very first verse he says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

He wrote this letter to a group of Christians scattered throughout the northern area of Asia Minor, where he may have previously preached the gospel.

Peter wrote to a group of people that probably included both Jews and Gentiles, if you look at it very well, because there is a place, verse 1, actually he says he's addressing his letter to the aliens, people who are strangers.

And so, you can't write a letter to a people living in their own country and then calling them aliens if you are not talking about something else.

And so he was writing to both Gentiles and Jews.

Speaking to this group, he says, he calls them to live a life that is worthy of their calling among the surrounding culture.

In this letter, he spoke much of persecution.

When you read this whole letter, you will actually realize that he's talking about persecution, which actually gives us an idea that this was the time prior to his own persecution.

Maybe persecution was going on, obviously, but He had not been crucified.

And so, you will see that Nero was threatening and persecuting the Church of God.

And he made many references to suffering and persecution in this letter, which actually indicates what was going on.

But what is important in this verse, actually, it is that according to 1 Peter, I mean, chapter 2, verse 20, He says, when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.

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Issues of Racism from a Genocide Survivor’s Perspective

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