The colonial governor Kandt dehumanized Africans, treating Rwandans as mere animals whose skulls could be collected. Before the 1994 genocide, extremist radio dehumanized Tutsis, calling them “cockroaches.” In both historical instances we confront the stripping of the sacredness from fragile humanity, humans equated to animals to be butchered or collected. But dare we peer into this abyss without also confronting the same propensity in our own hearts, the inclination towards evil, where we have marginalized, belittled, undervalued, or hurt others whose lives are equally precious in God’s eyes? Truly opposing genocide or colonialism, racism or discrimination does not start from moral superiority but through deep humility that sees fallen humanity with all its failings, and recognizes that human fallenness in our own hearts as well.

But what to do with the thousand skulls Kandt collected, currently in storage in a German museum?