French President Emmanuel Macron and Rwandan President Paul Kagame arrive to attend the inauguration ceremony of the Habib-Bourgiba esplanade along the River Seine, a new memorial site paying tribute to the victims of the Rwanda’s genocide, in Paris, France, June 2, 2026. Image@ REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/Pool
A new memorial etched in stone now stands on the banks of the Seine river in Paris — a permanent marker of France’s evolving reckoning with one of the darkest episodes in modern history.
Named “L’Archive” and designed by Portuguese artist Grada Kilomba, the monument consists of two black steles bearing a tribute to the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children massacred in Rwanda between April and July 1994. Erected at the initiative of the French state and the Paris city hall, it was conceived as a place of reflection, in memory of the dead, and for the intergenerational transmission of the memory of the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsis.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Rwandan President Paul Kagame jointly inaugurated the memorial on Tuesday, with Macron describing it as placing the genocide of the Tutsis “at the heart of our capital and our history” and calling it “the culmination of a long and painstaking quest for the truth.”
The ceremony continued a process of remembrance and reconciliation that the two countries have been building over several years. Among those who also addressed the gathering were Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire and genocide survivor Jeanne Uwimbabazi, while Franco-Rwandan musician and writer Gaël Faye read a poem by fellow Franco-Rwandan author and survivor Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse.
The inauguration marks a significant moment in a fraught diplomatic journey. For years, Rwanda accused France of complicity in the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 people — mostly ethnic Tutsis — carried out by Hutu extremists over roughly 100 days. The turning point came in March 2021, when a commission established by Macron concluded that France had been blinded by its colonial outlook and bore a “serious and overwhelming” responsibility for failing to foresee the slaughter , though the panel stopped short of finding France directly complicit in the killings.
Two months later, during a visit to Kigali in May 2021, Macron confronted the record directly. “Standing here today, with humility and respect, by your side, I have come to recognise our responsibilities,” he said in a speech at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. He added that only survivors could “give us the gift of forgiveness” but did not issue a formal apology, saying it was “not something I can give.”
Kagame, who called Macron his “friend” at the time, responded warmly. “His words were something more valuable than an apology. They were the truth,” Kagame said. “Speaking the truth is risky. But you do it because it is right, even when it costs you something, even when it is unpopular.”
In 2024, ahead of the 30th anniversary of the genocide, Macron went further, saying that France and its allies could have stopped the genocide but lacked the will to do so.
Tuesday’s inauguration of “L’Archive” cements that trajectory — from decades of bitter denial and diplomatic rupture to a shared monument in the French capital, honouring victims whose memory now sits, officially, at the heart of Paris.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah