Windsor man lives with constant reminders of what genocide in Rwanda took from him
Francois Rugelinyange lost his mother, two sisters, a brother and other family members in genocide
Francois Rugelinyange was in Windsor when the genocide unfolded in Rwanda in 1994.
He lost dozens of members of his immediate and extended family, including his mother, two sisters and a brother. They were among the hundreds of thousands of people who were slain that year.
Rugelinyange was 19-years-old when his family sent him to Windsor by himself the year before the genocide, as they feared what was coming down the road.
"Things were happening so fast that they know that something was going wrong and they knew that massacres or killing will happen any day," Rugelinyange told CBC Radio's Windsor Morning in an interview.
Those warning signs came amid his father being jailed in Rwanda, even though he had not committed any crime.
"He was a minister, a church minister. He was put in jail for six months, just because he was Tutsi," he said.
'A constant reminder'
And people Rugelinyange and his family knew, were being killed, well before the events that began unfolding in April 1994.
"After he was in jail, many of his colleagues or friends were killed during that process. My neighbours that I knew were killed, here and there, so I was not immune to that."
When the anniversary of the start of genocide rolls around each April, Rugelinyange finds himself thinking of the various people he lost.
"Having so many family members that were killed, or friends or neighbours that you knew, we have different days that each and every person that we know has lost a beloved one," he said.
"Like, my mom was killed on May 21 or 22, we don't know the exact day…so until May, I'm thinking of other people, other than my mom."
Rugelinyange said there are also reminders that come with reading the news, or speaking with friends about what happened in Rwanda.
"It's like a constant reminder of what happened," he said.
'How do we get to live?'
On Saturday, there will be two events in Windsor to mark the passing of another year since the genocide.
One is taking place at the Windsor SDA Church on Haig Avenue from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
"We'll be talking about justice and forgiveness [from] a Christian perspective," said Rugelinyange, speaking of the earlier event. "How do we get to live after what happened? How do get to get justice, but also getting a way of forgiving those who committed the genocide."
Later that afternoon, a session will be held at the University of Windsor's Ambassador Auditorium from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
"We'll be talking about justice and reconciliation and this will be on a perspective of survivals," Rugelinyange said. "We'll have testimonies from people who were in Rwanda during the genocide, who survived, who will tell us how they survived their ordeal."
With files from the CBC's Tony Doucette and CBC Radio's Afternoon Drive