This report presents findings from the JW-RWA study—a nationwide, cross-sectional survey conducted in Rwanda in spring 2023. The study investigated the demographic, religious, and psychosocial characteristics of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Rwanda, with a sample of 13,590 respondents across all 30 districts. The research responds to the Rwandan government’s call for religious communities to document their Genocide-era histories and aims to contribute to scholarship on post-conflict societies.
The research focused on four main objectives: (a) identifying religious and demographic characteristics of Jehovah’s Witnesses, including their growth before and after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi; (b) examining forgiveness and prosocial behaviors; (c) analyzing Genocide-related experiences across generational and gender groups; and (d) assessing subjective wellbeing, including family satisfaction, trauma recovery, and religious coping.
The study applied ecological systems and identity theory to explore how faith, forgiveness, and family contribute to resilience and social cohesion. The majority of the respondents converted to the faith after 1994. Of those who were already Jehovah’s Witnesses at the time of the Genocide against the Tutsi, findings show a pattern of nonviolence and political neutrality consistent with the historical record of Jehovah’s Witnesses during the Holocaust. The study examined how a strong religious identity together with feelings of compassion supported prosocial behaviors. Unlike religions established during the colonial period or new religious groups that emerged in Rwanda after the Genocide, the origin of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Rwanda dates back to the early 1970s. Even during extreme persecution and a government ban from 1982 to 1992, the faith community grew exponentially.
