On May 25, members of the Rwandan community in Victoria held a Walk to Remember, in memory of the victims and in solidarity with the survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. (photo from Victoria Rwandan community)<\/i><\/p>\n
This spring, members of the Rwandan community in British Columbia have been commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. On May 25, a group in Victoria held the Walk to Remember in memory of the victims and in solidarity with the survivors of the 1994 genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Afterwards, a ceremony was held at Camosun College\u2019s Gibson Auditorium. Throughout the event, called Kwibuka30, speaker after speaker, most of whom told their stories in Kinyarwanda, the national language of Rwanda, recalled members of their immediate families who were killed during that horrific period. (Kwibuka<\/i> is the word for \u201cremember\u201d in Kinyarwanda.)<\/p>\n In the organizers\u2019 words, the event was intended to offer \u201cblessings for continued courage and resilience to remember and unite,\u201d and express their desire to \u201crenew our resolve to pursue the transformation of tragedy into triumph.\u201d<\/p>\n Anselme Hategekimana, one of the leaders of the Rwandan community in Victoria, stressed the importance of remembering. \u201cRemembering is an expression of an enduring love for those we\u2019ve lost during the genocide against the Tutsi. Remembering makes us better citizens, as we do everything we can to combat hate speech, exclusion and any type of discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n Among those in attendance were the children \u2013 many of whom are now in their late teens and early 20s \u2013 of Rwandan genocide survivors. Hategekimana said he and other survivors were encouraged to see young people take leadership in the march and commemoration.<\/p>\n \u201cDue to social media, young people are now more informed and can understand the consequences of bad governance and intolerance,\u201d he said. \u201cThese young people are the leaders of tomorrow, and we are pleased to see more and more engaged young people for the cause of peace and understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n From April 7 to July 19, 1994, Hutu militias in Rwanda killed members of the Tutsi minority. Hundreds of thousands of people were massacred \u2013 estimates vary from 500,000 to more than one million \u2013 in a 100-day period, which also included the killing of moderate Hutus and members of the Twa population.<\/p>\n The killings were preceded by decades of stigmatization, marginalization and dehumanization and fueled by hate speech. By the early 1990s, Rwanda\u2019s population was 85% Hutu and 14% Tutsi. At the time, Hutu extremists within Rwanda\u2019s governing elite blamed the Tutsis for the country\u2019s social and economic problems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In October 1990, civil war broke out when a Tutsi rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, invaded the country from Uganda. Extremist Hutus held the Tutsis in Rwanda responsible for supporting rebel forces from another country.<\/p>\n The civil war, which ended with the signing of a peace agreement in August 1993, did not appease the anger of extremist Hutus, who took to the airwaves to dehumanize the Tutsis further, referring to them as \u201ccockroaches.\u201d<\/p>\n In April 1994, a plane carrying Rwanda\u2019s president, Juv\u00e9nal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down by a missile as it tried to land in Kigali, the country\u2019s capital. Though it is unknown which group fired the missile, extremist Hutus used the downing of the plane as a reason to massacre Tutsis. Militias, equipped with machetes and trained by the Rwandan government, launched a killing spree \u2013 which to this day still shocks because of its rapidity and size \u2013 taking the lives of thousands of people each day.<\/p>\n Though some schools in British Columbia cover the Rwandan genocide, Hategekimana believes it would be beneficial to incorporate the subject in the high school curriculum to educate youth to be more tolerant and learn from the tragedy.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving a memorial monument dedicated to the victims of the genocide against the Tutsi will also help educate more Canadians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Thirty years later, Rwanda, geographically one of the smallest countries in Africa, stands out as a model of prosperity, with one of the fastest-growing economies on the continent. A post-genocide government pursued a policy of \u201cunity and reconciliation\u201d and maintained a focus on economic growth.<\/p>\n As Hategekimana sees it, Rwanda had hit its lowest conceivable point and the only choice was to rebuild and rise. He credits Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda since 2000, for being a visionary leader who came at a crucial time.<\/p>\n \u201cPaul Kagame has been God-given. You may like him or not, but what he has done for Rwanda is indisputable: the empowerment of women, free health care, anti-corruption measures, peace and economic prosperity. Rwandans see themselves as capable citizens able to take their future in their own hands,\u201d Hategekimana said.<\/p>\n Today, tourism in the country is booming, including luxury hotels, and the #visitrwanda hashtag even appears on the jersey of English soccer powerhouse Arsenal. Kigali boasts a new convention centre and a new stadium to host professional basketball games.<\/p>\n Tech startups have also abounded, as has collaboration with Israeli companies. Netafim, a Tel Aviv-based precision irrigation firm, has teamed with the Rwandan government to develop farming in land that was previously unsuitable for agriculture. In 2014, Israel\u2019s Energiya Global invested in a solar power plant project in Rwanda.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Regarding the horrors of 1994, Nina Krieger, the executive director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC), offered these words to the Independent,<\/i> \u201cAs we mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, we reflect on the significance of bearing witness to atrocities and the enduring power of survivor testimony.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAt the VHEC, we understand the critical role these narratives play in educating future generations and preventing such horrors from reoccurring. The resilience and courage shown by the survivors of the Rwandan genocide inspire us to continue our mission of Holocaust education, underscoring the universal necessity of compassion, remembrance and the commitment to justice.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the 2022 commemoration of Kristallnacht presented by the VHEC at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, keynote speaker Liliane Pari Umuhoza, a child survivor of the Rwandan genocide, told the crowd it was important to remember what happened, to preserve the memories of victims and survivors for future generations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Umuhoza added it was crucial to learn from history and create awareness. Yet, she continued, it was not enough.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat matters the most is how we use that history to create a better world,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s our duty, not only to remember but also to remember with purpose.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sam Margolis<\/b> has written for the <\/i>Globe and Mail, the <\/i>National Post, UPI and MSNBC.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On May 25, members of the Rwandan community in Victoria held a Walk to Remember, in memory of the victims and in solidarity with the survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. (photo from Victoria Rwandan community) This spring, members of the Rwandan community in British Columbia have been commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23267,9651,3076,2791,23266,1291,243,23265,597,2364,6224],"class_list":["post-44440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-anselme-hategekimana","tag-commemoration","tag-education","tag-genocide","tag-genocide-against-the-tutsi","tag-nina-krieger","tag-rwanda","tag-rwandan-genocide","tag-vancouver-holocaust-education-centre","tag-vhec","tag-victoria"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}