London's Rwandan community marks 31 years since genocide
Important to share experiences to inform younger generations, survivors say
Thirty-one years on, the horrors Jean De Dieu Nyandwi witnessed as a young boy during the 1994 Rwandan genocide are still vividly imprinted on his mind, and will likely never go away.
It's important that they don't, because forgetting is dangerous, he says.
"When the genocide took place, I was 12. I saw it with my naked eyes. I remember most of everything. I was young, but I keep that memory," he said. Sharing those memories with others, particularly the younger generation, is necessary to ensure what happened in the past doesn't happen in the future.
"The only way to do that is to let younger people know … We always say, 'Never again,' but never again cannot be never again if young people forget."
The Londoner was among more than 200 people who gathered on Saturday at Goodwill Community Hall on Horton Street to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi.
The aim was to support survivors for their resilience and courage, said Sibylle Ugirase, president of Rwandan Canadian Community London. A survivor herself, Ugirase said many continue to struggle with psychological trauma from the genocide.
"We have in our community survivors who were young, and survivors who were older. Both of those groups are still struggling, not only to adjust in the Canadian community, but life post-genocide," she said.
Saturday's event drew attendees from across southern Ontario.
Representatives from London police and government were also present, including Arielle Kayabaga, the incumbent Liberal MP for London West. Kayabaga, who was born in neighbouring Burundi, has been a vocal supporter of survivors, and visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial in 2022.
Roughly one-third of attendees were under 18-years-old — a prime opportunity to educate younger generations. Lindsay Scorgie, an associate professor at Huron University College, provided an academic perspective, Ugirase said.
Organizers saw in young attendees something they weren't expecting, she added. "Sometimes we think the trauma is for the parents who were there … but we saw how they express themselves, the sadness of not knowing their grandparents, and how they see their parents struggling."
Over the course of roughly 100 days in the spring of 1994, an estimated 800,000 to one million Rwandans, mostly members of the country's Tutsi ethnic group, were massacred by the Rwandan military and Hutu militia, the United Nations says — roughly 75 per cent of the country's ethnic Tutsis.
The genocide was ignited after a plane carrying Rwanda's then-president, Juvénal Habyarimana, a member of the majority Hutu, and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi, was shot down over Kigali on April 6, 1994. The Tutsi were blamed for downing the plane.
Aided by radio and newspapers portraying them as dangerous, bands of Hutu extremists began slaughtering Tutsis and perceived supporters. Moderate Hutu and Twa were also targeted, and an estimated 100,000 and 250,000 women were raped. Many victims were hacked to death with machetes.
The genocide ended when Paul Kagame led a Tutsi-led rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, to overthrow the Hutu government. Kagame has ruled Rwanda since, and is its current president.
"It didn't happen suddenly. It was prepared for years," Ugirase said. "Different people were commenting on what was happening in our country, but the international community did nothing to stop that. And we see those aspects of genocide preparation around the world."
Canada's former governor general, Michaëlle Jean, apologized for the country's inaction during a 2010 state visit to Rwanda. Nine years later, the remains of nearly 85,000 victims discovered in 2018 were finally laid to rest. More were located last year.
Clarisse Mukashumbusho was 10 when her family members were murdered on April 17, 1994 outside the psychiatric hospital they had taken refuge in for more than a week.
Speaking with CBC News last year, she recalled playing dead for days next to the bodies of her loved ones and hundreds of Tutsi ordered out of the hospital and killed by Hutu militia members. Now a Grade 3 teacher, her students are roughly the same age she was then.
"When I look at them and I think about that little Clarisse … even myself who went through it, I can't imagine going through that," she said Sunday. "They're so little."
Most of those in London's Rwandan community are genocide survivors, John Ruhinda estimates. He was already in Canada when the genocide began, and says he lost many relatives he would never meet.
"I'm not so worried of the young people as much as I'm worried of the older people who deliberately choose to change the narrative in the media and try to make it not even a genocide," he said.
He adds he's concerned about the escalating conflict in eastern Congo, and whether the world is again failing to take action.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press