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Thirty years after the genocide in Rwanda, women survivors remember the tragedy and tell it to their children. Why is it important not to forget? How can we pass on this painful past to teenagers? “What’s the information?” collected the testimonies of two generations.
Ineza Vetel, 19, was born exactly 11 years after the start of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. For three months, from April 7 to July 17, 1994, approximately 800,000 people were killed. Inès’ mother, Marie-Clarisse Murekatete Nyirankundwa, lost 29 members of her family in this genocide. “On April 7, we commemorate the day the genocide began, and it is also my birthday, confides Ineza, I think about it regularly, because I know my mother was traumatized.”. What is the information? collected their testimonies, those of two friends of Marie-Clarisse, also survivors, and their children. Together, they remember their painful story.
“30 years ago, I didn’t think anyone from my family would be able to stay to tell the story of what happened.” reports Marie-Clarisse. Tears stream down his face. For her, it all started on Sunday April 10, 1994. It was time to celebrate. A young man had come to her house to ask her family for her hand in marriage. “My fiancé at the time absolutely wanted us to cancel, but I asked him to keep the ceremony. But around 3 p.m., my neighbors came to tell me: ‘We have to stop your party, we’re coming to kill you’.” she relates.
From then on, Marie-Clarisse decided to flee with her sister to a hill. From up there, she saw her house burning. “My father, my mother and my mother-in-law died on the first day”. Subsequently, at least 29 members of his family died.
After the tragedy, the duty of transmission is close to her heart, but she also wants to protect her daughter from the trauma. Ineza is understanding: “It’s true that I don’t have the full story, I haven’t seen the shocking images.”. What she regrets is that the subject is not addressed more, in school programs, for example. “I have the impression that it’s being swept under the rug a little when there have been almost a million deaths. I think it should be something that everyone knows.”
Ganza is 17 years old. For the first time, he asks his mother Gloriose Nguyen about his story. Before entering college, he had never heard of the genocide. “I apologize, it’s true that I never spoke about the genocide to you and your brother, because it is a painful subject for me. I didn’t know where to start. I wanted to spare you and, above all, I judged that you were too young”she explains.
Ganza doesn’t blame him: “It’s hard to understand when you’re young.” If Gloriose waited to tell her son about it, she is now fighting against forgetting on a larger scale by speaking regularly in high schools.so that it never happens again.”
Liliane Kanyarutoke’s daughters are 1 year old and 7 years old. Every Wednesday, she set up a reading ritual with them, which allows her to talk about the genocide in simple words. “As you grow up, you will perhaps be interested in my books and you will tell your children the stories of my family that you did not know.” For all these survivors, stirring up these memories is a necessary evil. “It is also a way of paying tribute to our dear neighbors, to my family and to all those who were killed because they were Tutsis.”emphasizes Marie-Clarisse.
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