Abstract

In April and May 1994, several thousand Tutsi were massacred by militiamen in the convent of Sovu in Rwanda, with the complicity of the Mother Superior, Sister Gertrude. In 2001, a Brussels court found her guilty and sentenced her to prison for involvement in the killings. Using the trial records, this article examines the way her authority was exercised in the convent at the time of the genocide. Her defence lawyers adopted a gendered strategy, claiming the impossibility of her being engaged in violence. But the testimony of victims pointed to the nun’s integration in local political networks, and the way in which she mobilized the resources available to her to exclude from the convent’s protection the Tutsi seeking refuge there.