They say east or west home is best and that there is no place like home. The two maxims apply to Thierry Uwizeye, who, since he was a young child, harboured a dream to one day return home and discover his own identity.

This dream came to pass but after 27 years.

What seemed like a dream eventually became reality when Uwizeye rightfully claimed back his Rwandan citizenship in what he says is the shortest time possible one could get a national document. The 29-year-old will forever be in awe of how smooth the process was.

Born to Cleophas Gasana and Daphrose Niyirora in 1992, in what was then Cyangugu Prefecture, now Rusizi District, at just two years, his family like many others, fled Rwanda, first to Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and many other countries later.

"My family left Rwanda in 1994, I was like two years old,” Uwizeye says, explaining the long journey which saw his parents end up in Togo, West Africa, where they live today, while he himself ended up in Cape Verde.

Refusing to be held captive by the past, Uwizeye always sought to come back to a country he left when he was two years old but always felt connected to. Not even travelling to over 15 countries replaced that urge and desire.

Wherever he went, Uwizeye always felt like a ‘refugee’ and indeed he was.

"Life was not really easy as refugees because you know you have to live in another country without any documents, it's not really easy because people just try to tell you things like ‘you are not from our country, you are not Togolese, you are not even Rwandan’,” Uwizeye says.

It is that gap that he always felt in his heart that he said to himself "one day, I will go back to my country and get my citizenship.”

Uwizeye has travelled to 16 countries (including Rwanda), DRC, Kenya Togo Benin, Ghana, Senegal, Gambia and Cape Verde, where he lives, among other countries, but none of them have felt like home or comfortable enough to replace the love for his country of birth.

For Uwizeye, living in a country which is not your own, you have to work twice as hard as the citizens, struggle to work and study and always find yourself explaining about your nationality, often being reminded that you are not a national of that country.

He says that he moved to all those countries in search of better life, especially jobs but there were challenges along the way. When he eventually settled in the far-flung island nation of Cape Verde, he had found a new home away from home. But still, the urge to go back to Rwanda grew even more.

"I am now in Cape Verde where I stay and work,” says Uwizeye, who seems to have found a comfortable life there that eventually enabled him to go after his dream of discovering his home country.

Uwizeye’s mission as he was planning to return to Rwanda was to get a national ID and later a passport so that he can also feel like a citizen of his country of birth. The urge was unstoppable.

It is a process he had mentally prepared himself to find rigorous and hectic but he was still determined. Nearly a fortnight ago, when he arrived in Rwanda, he was surprised by how fast and easy the process was.

"The process was really fast. I went to NIDA (National Identification Agency) to get the ID on a Monday and on Wednesday they gave me my ID. Just two days later!” Uwizeye says in amazement.

"The passport also took about three days. I went to Immigration, then went through Irembo services, three days later, they gave me my passport without any problem,” Uwizeye adds.

The 29-year-old accountant, who speaks good Kinyarwanda, French, Portuguese and English, says that he was really happy with the entire process and could not imagine how difficult it is in other countries.

"I was really happy and I appreciate that process because it's really difficult to get your documents in other countries. In just a few days, not more than six days, you have all your documents,” he said, adding that this is something that should not be taken for granted.

A desire to connect

Uwizeye says that he always felt the need to connect with his country of birth and hence he has never felt comfortable anywhere else.

With a bigger part of his family still in Rwanda, he wanted to discover his roots, visit his grandparents, uncles, aunties and for him, this was a mission to go and connect with them and his country.

Uwizeye says that many people out there still want to project Rwanda as a dangerous country or as a country still at war, perhaps to discourage those who wish to return but for him, it felt like their efforts were like trying to separate a mother and a child.

Nothing he could hear or read could discourage him from following his dream of discovering her ‘mother’ Rwanda. His determination was unwavering.

When he first arrived in Rwanda on May 28, he was asked at the airport why he chose to return to the country now. His answer was simple: "why not now? I think this is the right moment to return home.”

This is because previously, he had attempted to come but could not due to the resources involved but this time after working for three or four years, he had saved up enough money to set his dream to return home in motion.

What even motivated him further was that he kept reading and hearing a lot about what was going on in Rwanda and wherever he went, when he said he came from Rwanda, everyone had something good to say. His curiosity grew.

The more people told him ‘your country is doing great, I was there recently, your country is beautiful’, the more the urge to come increased.

As they say, the rest is history. Armed with his ID and passport, Uwizeye has some unfinished business to do in Cape Verde, including work and study commitments but once he is done with that, his plan is to return home -for good.

His plan is not just to come back to Rwanda for good but come back with something to add or contribute to the development of the country, especially in his area of specialisation since 2015, which is the economy and finance.

A message to others

Uwizeye says there are many naysayers out there encouraging people not to come back to Rwanda for their own reasons but rather than listen to them, people should be trying to come and see and then make up their own minds whether they can return or not. That is what it takes.

He says there will always be people badmouthing the country or government but that cannot stop the country from moving forward.

He adds that another positive is that to some extent it is actually good to have such people criticizing you because it helps you to see things the other way and increase the momentum and more importantly, when people are together, they win.

As he headed back to Praia, Cape Verde, last week, Uwizeye’s heart was full and he was beaming with pride and a dream that came true.

The accounting and auditing master’s degree holder, who is a lecturer in Cape Verde, is thankful to the Government of Rwanda, particularly the Rwandan Embassy in Dakar, Senegal, which helped him throughout the process.