Denmark-based fashion designer turned author Dady de Maximo Mwicira-Mitali was 12 when the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi happened, claiming over a million victims.

During the Genocide, thousands of tortured victims, thrown into the rivers of Rwanda were pulled from Lake Victoria.

In his recently released book ‘Rwanda, Un Deuil Impossible’: Effacement et Traces’, loosely translated as ‘Rwanda, an impossible mourning: Erasure and traces’, the author follows their invisible trace on the water and draws up the topography of this genocidal terror.

The 39-year-old shared with The New Times a glimpse into the book, his inspiration and the lessons that the readers can get from it.

Take us through the book that you recently released

Dady [de Maximo] is twelve. On April 25, 1994, his life collapsed. Until then, he had known no other danger than that which his still-teen mother had incurred in 1973.

In the disaster of the Genocide against the Tutsi, he, in turn, suffered the worst.

In 1994, thousands of Tutsi victims were thrown into the rivers and lakes of Rwanda after being tortured, humiliated, raped, and mutilated. Bodies removed from Lake Victoria in Uganda bear the mark of unspeakable torture, but they are silent. Who were they? Often, we focus on the number of Tutsi massacred during the Genocide without taking into account the fact that they are real people that we count. People who had names, faces, and plans.

Death is too common a word, but how was each of these people killed? What torture did each body endure before being left by the side of the road? The lakes and rivers will not speak, and our dead have been silent forever.  We who are left behind cannot speak for the dead. But what death did they suffer? If only they can talk, it wouldn't be about numbers.

This book is not some sort of statistics, but an echo of the muffled voices that were extinguished during the Genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi.  Their suffering, lack of burial and their unknown names haunt Dady de Maximo Mwicira-Mitali which suits their invisible imprint on water and shapes the topography and archeology of genocidal terror.

What inspired the book?

My book was inspired by the story of my mother, who, together with her entire family, were thrown into Nyabarongo River on March 2nd, 1973 but, luckily, a then Hutu teacher identified as Venuste Murendangabo rescued her.

She was traumatised whenever she told me that story, especially when she remembered the images of her people being killed with a machete and being thrown into the river.

I also experienced the same in 1994 when I was defiled and saw so many dead bodies as I was seeking a place to hide.  

The grief of my mother and other Tutsi victims who were gruesomely killed, plus all the physical and emotional wounds from the torture I went through and how I have been living with them.

Also witnessing how people got killed while we were moving past them and leaving as we were seeking rescue, I felt that I could write the torture and death of victims who died with no chance to express their grief nor the chance to be laid to rest.

Does the book have any connection with your past?

Honestly, there is a connection with my past because I also tell my experience as I mourn them because I know what they endured. I was lucky to survive to perhaps reveal their suffering to the world, the suffering they took with them.

In addition, I suffered during the Genocide, and I also faced harassment and insults afterward, but the voice of all these victims and more of my suffering have guided me to talk about those that others do not dare until today.

People should know that surviving the Genocide and being a victim of a rape, man or woman, comes with inner pain. You feel dirtier and smelly, you hate yourself and I couldn't even tell anyone about it.

What message did you want to share when you came up with an idea to write this book?

Writing about the history of Rwanda is a tribute to our own people and remembering their names so that they are not forgotten.  It is to restore their lost dignity.  It has nothing to do with a call for hatred, revenge, or divisionism.

 We cannot prohibit a person who has lost a loved one from grieving.  It is also thanks to our fallen that Rwanda is standing and strong.

No victory makes us forget the pain and sorrow of hearts, but victory alleviates them, and together we build a better world, country and society.  We must be strong and continue to work for sustainable development, because building our country must begin with valuing the sacrifices of our people savagely massacred

Their memory should help us eradicate evil and combat anything that can cause people to kill others, especially to kill them just for who they are.  It is a job to be done, to be sure to bequeath to future generations with a better world than the one we grew up in, a world that values human beings, fearlessly denouncing anything that can cause another genocide.

What I saw was horrible, I wouldn't like it to be repeated anywhere else.  Writing is a way of giving oneself the light of hope, it is a kind of perpetual memory, so that history may serve as a lesson to us, finally, that we fight for peace and for solidarity among humans.

What takeaway do you expect readers can get from the book?

For the survivors, I wrote this book to tell them that their survival, while the others were killed, is miraculous.  Talking about their pain is a healing path for them.

For the young people of Rwanda and the world in general, my book is a history lesson because where adults will fail, they will have to fight against all acts of divisionism, hatred, humiliation, harassment and especially to say no to hate speech which is often the results of genocide or atrocious acts against other humans. Young people have a big role to play for the future; we must teach them to become righteous people, able to unite and inspire others to live in harmony.

I was not going to write about the genocide of 1994 without giving my time and my attention to the victims of 1963, and 1973 especially since at that time they were not allowed to mourn theirs.

The survivors had to be silent, and even applaud for the authorities, the same who had massacred theirs.

To the adults, my book is a way of showing that it is up to them to protect the world so that children or human beings do not suffer the horror that some Rwandans have endured for years.

It’s a shame for mankind, I often get angry because no one deserves to endure the things we survived, the excruciating acts that often lack the words to detail.

My book is a voice that reveals to the world these horrific acts of finally saying no and never again, but also showing that we need to build a better world, yes it is possible.

Rwanda is an example. For the victims of 1959, 1963, 1973, 1990-1992 to 1994 during the Genocide against the Tutsi, I will repeat their names all my life, and as long as I live, they will not be forgotten.  This book belongs to them, it is their stele and their memorial.  The world must read their names, and they must rest in peace, knowing that we carry them in our hearts and in our minds.

We wear them in the best of memories, namely our hearts and our lives.