Zita Gloria INEZA TETA, Grade 12
UWCEA Moshi
This article might contain extreme description of killings.
My sister was Five when it all happened. My mom was in her twenties and my dad had already left for the Rwandan Patriotic front. They say it was horrible. The whole family slept in a huge abandoned catholic church and my mom couldn’t stop repeating “machete” in her sleep. My grandma says that it was because of the trauma; after witnessing people getting killed on the roads and escaping death at the last minute.
My grandma hates the commemoration songs. Whenever they pass on the radio, they remind her of her three sons. Two of them were killed and one went to the front and never came back. Sometimes at night she tells us stories about each of them. Callixte, the one who loved reggae, was shot in the head by Habyarimana’s soldiers. In front of our house! Grandma says his image always haunts her. She also talks about Werabe sometimes but never too much. George, the eldest son, is the one who never came back from RPF.
Similar stories, like mine, are heard everyday that we gather around Genocide memorial sites to pay tribute to those who were killed because of how they were created. We not only remember Werabe, Callixte and George. We also remember over a million of other people killed in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Rwanda is a country that witnessed hatred and inhumane killings. Babies were crushed in mortars and on the walls of their homes, mothers were raped, cut into pieces and left to rot on the sideroad and men were slaughtered one after another just like pigs in a slaughterhouse. The killers used every imaginable weapon. Machetes, clubs, hoes, and arrows. They didn’t restrict themselves!
Every 7th of April we gather around to remember these killings. An oppression that began way earlier. In 1959, when hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were exiled to neighboring countries. 1962, when they were sent to Bugesera to get killed by the tsetse fly. 1973, when thousands of Tutsi students were tortured, killed and expelled from several secondary education institutions, including the University of Rwanda. 1990, when they executed 1000s of Tutsis in what was called a genocide trial in Ruhengeri, Gisenyi and Bugesera. And finally, 1994 when they decided to wipe out all the “snakes” “cockroaches” and “bugs” as they used to call the “Tutsi”.
On 7th of April, we remember not only the Tutsis but also several other people who decided unity over ethnic groups. We celebrate Agathe Uwiringiyimana, prime minister in Habyarimana’s government, who decided to stand for the Tutsi that were being killed because of how they were created. We celebrate Felicite and several other Hutus who died with the tutsis because they refused to separate themselves from their childhood friends, their brothers or their neighbors. We remember not to stay in the past, but to know where we are coming from as a country. A country that was once the land of a thousand hills but later became the land of a thousand cadavers.
We also remember the 7th April because we overcame the hatred. Despite the UN turning the back on us. We remember the 7th of April because some of us were brave enough to stop this Tutsi apocalypse. We remember because on the 4th of July, nearly after 100 days of massive killings, the genocide was stopped by the sons of those who were exiled in 1959. We remember because these young men and women sacrificed everything to revive a country that was dead long ago.
We remember because of a good governance where Hutus and Tutsis coexist. A country that succeeded to raise millions of orphans, hundreds of thousands of causalities and massive handicaps. A country that raised from nothing to everything.
We remember because justice was given to those who lost families. Over 2 million of suspects were condemned according to the Law in Gacaca courts and the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, something that was regarded as impossible with the normal courts. Properties and land were given back to those whom they belong to and peace and security were restored.
Today, Rwanda is the sixth safest country for solo travelers, it has the cleanest city in Africa and is working towards economic growth. Rwanda has come from hell, it has suffered problems caused by Rwandans but has also seen solutions coming from Rwandans. As they say in Kinyarwanda, “Ak’I muhana kaza imvura ihise” which means that you should never rely on someone else’s help.
So, everyday when my Grandma misses her son, I just sit beside her and remind her of all the good things that we have achieved as a country. I always end with “we would have never achieved this if your son and others like him hadn’t sacrificed their lives for this country!”
Works Cited
Rwandan Genocide - Facts, Response & Trials - HISTORY, 19 April 2022, https://www.history.com/topics/africa/rwandan-genocide. Accessed 11 August 2022.
Braga, Brunno. “Rwanda Is The Sixth-Safest Country In the World For Solo Travelers.” Travel Noire, 9 February 2022, https://travelnoire.com/rwanda-is-the-sixth-safest-country-in-the-world-for-solo-travelers. Accessed 11 August 2022.
Verwimp, Philip. “Table 5: Weapons used to kill Tutsi (all ages) with number of victims...” ResearchGate, 2001, https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Weapons-used-to-kill-Tutsi-all-ages-with-number-of-victims-for-each-weapon_tbl3_5020134. Accessed 11 August 2022.
https://rwandaecocompany.com/kigali-genocide-memorial-grounds/
My sister was Five when it all happened. My mom was in her twenties and my dad had already left for the Rwandan Patriotic front. They say it was horrible. The whole family slept in a huge abandoned catholic church and my mom couldn’t stop repeating “machete” in her sleep. My grandma says that it was because of the trauma; after witnessing people getting killed on the roads and escaping death at the last minute.
My grandma hates the commemoration songs. Whenever they pass on the radio, they remind her of her three sons. Two of them were killed and one went to the front and never came back. Sometimes at night she tells us stories about each of them. Callixte, the one who loved reggae, was shot in the head by Habyarimana’s soldiers. In front of our house! Grandma says his image always haunts her. She also talks about Werabe sometimes but never too much. George, the eldest son, is the one who never came back from RPF.
Similar stories, like mine, are heard everyday that we gather around Genocide memorial sites to pay tribute to those who were killed because of how they were created. We not only remember Werabe, Callixte and George. We also remember over a million of other people killed in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Rwanda is a country that witnessed hatred and inhumane killings. Babies were crushed in mortars and on the walls of their homes, mothers were raped, cut into pieces and left to rot on the sideroad and men were slaughtered one after another just like pigs in a slaughterhouse. The killers used every imaginable weapon. Machetes, clubs, hoes, and arrows. They didn’t restrict themselves!
Every 7th of April we gather around to remember these killings. An oppression that began way earlier. In 1959, when hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were exiled to neighboring countries. 1962, when they were sent to Bugesera to get killed by the tsetse fly. 1973, when thousands of Tutsi students were tortured, killed and expelled from several secondary education institutions, including the University of Rwanda. 1990, when they executed 1000s of Tutsis in what was called a genocide trial in Ruhengeri, Gisenyi and Bugesera. And finally, 1994 when they decided to wipe out all the “snakes” “cockroaches” and “bugs” as they used to call the “Tutsi”.
On 7th of April, we remember not only the Tutsis but also several other people who decided unity over ethnic groups. We celebrate Agathe Uwiringiyimana, prime minister in Habyarimana’s government, who decided to stand for the Tutsi that were being killed because of how they were created. We celebrate Felicite and several other Hutus who died with the tutsis because they refused to separate themselves from their childhood friends, their brothers or their neighbors. We remember not to stay in the past, but to know where we are coming from as a country. A country that was once the land of a thousand hills but later became the land of a thousand cadavers.
We also remember the 7th April because we overcame the hatred. Despite the UN turning the back on us. We remember the 7th of April because some of us were brave enough to stop this Tutsi apocalypse. We remember because on the 4th of July, nearly after 100 days of massive killings, the genocide was stopped by the sons of those who were exiled in 1959. We remember because these young men and women sacrificed everything to revive a country that was dead long ago.
We remember because of a good governance where Hutus and Tutsis coexist. A country that succeeded to raise millions of orphans, hundreds of thousands of causalities and massive handicaps. A country that raised from nothing to everything.
We remember because justice was given to those who lost families. Over 2 million of suspects were condemned according to the Law in Gacaca courts and the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, something that was regarded as impossible with the normal courts. Properties and land were given back to those whom they belong to and peace and security were restored.
Today, Rwanda is the sixth safest country for solo travelers, it has the cleanest city in Africa and is working towards economic growth. Rwanda has come from hell, it has suffered problems caused by Rwandans but has also seen solutions coming from Rwandans. As they say in Kinyarwanda, “Ak’I muhana kaza imvura ihise” which means that you should never rely on someone else’s help.
So, everyday when my Grandma misses her son, I just sit beside her and remind her of all the good things that we have achieved as a country. I always end with “we would have never achieved this if your son and others like him hadn’t sacrificed their lives for this country!”
Works Cited
Rwandan Genocide - Facts, Response & Trials - HISTORY, 19 April 2022, https://www.history.com/topics/africa/rwandan-genocide. Accessed 11 August 2022.
Braga, Brunno. “Rwanda Is The Sixth-Safest Country In the World For Solo Travelers.” Travel Noire, 9 February 2022, https://travelnoire.com/rwanda-is-the-sixth-safest-country-in-the-world-for-solo-travelers. Accessed 11 August 2022.
Verwimp, Philip. “Table 5: Weapons used to kill Tutsi (all ages) with number of victims...” ResearchGate, 2001, https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Weapons-used-to-kill-Tutsi-all-ages-with-number-of-victims-for-each-weapon_tbl3_5020134. Accessed 11 August 2022.
https://rwandaecocompany.com/kigali-genocide-memorial-grounds/
www.unitedworldwide.co