MARY AND THE SAINTS 77
away that she was having a vision of theUmubyeyi w’Imana
(“Mother of God”). Over the next eight years, Mary would
appear dozens of times to Alphonsine and several times
to two of her classmates, Anathalie Mukamazimpaka and
Marie Claire Mukangango. In the visions, Mary was serene
but called for prayer and repentance.
During the same period, ethnic hatred was intensify-
ing among the Hutu, a group that made up the majority of
Rwanda’s population, toward the elite Tutsi, the power-
ful minority. In 1990, Pope John Paul II visited Rwanda
and encouraged Catholics there to pray to Mary for unity
and peace. But in 1994, a plane carrying Rwanda’s Hutu
president was shot down, triggering a civil war and geno-
cide that would lead to the death of 800,000 Tutsi, as well
as to thousands of Hutu who objected to the violence.
Alphonsine, Marie Claire, and Anathalie, as well as those
who believed in their visions, saw the genocide as the re-
alization of Mary’s warnings.
Marie Claire was killed in a massacre in 1995. Alphon-
sine and Anathalie went on to do religious work. In 2001,
the Church approved thevisions of the three girls, making
them the first sanctioned Marian visions in Africa. ▪