Gahini

Gahini
Village
The Seeds Of Peace centre and Lake Muhazi
Gahini Location in Rwanda
Coordinates: 1°50′32″S 30°28′41″E / 1.84222°S 30.47806°E / -1.84222; 30.47806Coordinates: 1°50′32″S 30°28′41″E / 1.84222°S 30.47806°E / -1.84222; 30.47806
Country	Rwanda
Province	Eastern Province
District	Kayonza
Elevation	1,520 m (4,990 ft)
Time zone	CAT (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	not observed (UTC+2)

Gahini is a village and sector in Kayonza District, Eastern Province, Rwanda. It is situated on a hill, at an altitude of 1,520 metres (4,990 ft) above sea-level, close to the eastern edge of Lake Muhazi and 73 kilometres (45 mi) by road from the capital, Kigali. The village is the centre of one of the nine dioceses of the Eglise Episcopale au Rwanda (EER), the Anglican church of Rwanda, and one of the four Rwandan sites chosen by the Church Missionary Society (CMS), who built a large mission, hospital and schools in the village.

Little is known of Gahini in pre-colonial times, but under German and Belgian rule the village became an important transport junction linking the lake with the north-south and eastbound roads. From 1922 the area was temporarily under British control as part of the surveying process for the proposed Cape-Cairo railway, which enabled Doctors Leonard Sharp and Zoe Stanley Smith of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), to start missionary and medical work across eastern Ruanda. This land was returned to Belgium in 1924 but the rulers allowed the CMS to continue its work, which meant a permanent mission could then be set up. Geoffrey Holmes, a good friend of the Rwandan King Musinga, was in charge of this enterprise and he chose Gahini to be the site. He was joined by Rev Herbert Jackson and Kosiya Shalita, a native of Gahini who had fled to Uganda 30 years earlier, become a Christian, and now wished to return home.