On October 1, 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) launched a war that ended on July 4, 1994, when it defeated the genocidal regime and captured the capital city, Kigali, effectively ending the genocide against the Tutsi.
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Led by Maj. Gen. Fred Gisa Rwigema (may his memory be eternal), RPA forces crossed the border and easily overwhelmed the government soldiers stationed at the Kagitumba border post.
One day before crossing Kagitumba post, at a place called Kyamate, in Ntungamo District, in south western Uganda, Rwigema told his troops that, "Some of us will not see tomorrow. Some of us will not live to see our friends walking freely and happily through the streets of Kigali. But we must sacrifice ourselves so that others can live in peace.”
IN PICTURES: Life and times of RPA soldiers during the Liberation struggle
And, just as he said, on Tuesday, October 2, 1990, he fell on the battlefield at Nyabweshongwezi, in what was then Umutara Prefecture, now a part of Nyagatare District, about 10 kilometres from the border between Rwanda and Uganda. His death ended his revolutionary journey that began in 1976 when he joined the Front for National Salvation (FRONASA) – a Ugandan rebel group led by current Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni – making him the most celebrated soldier in Uganda-Rwanda history, a revolutionary whose life and legacy made him a hero of two nations.
Born Emmanuel Gisa, on April 10, 1957, in Gitarama, Rwanda, his family fled to Uganda in 1960 soon after the initial massacres targeting the Tutsi in 1959. It is said that Museveni named him Fred in honour of a fighter named Gabriel Rwigyema, a Kinyarwanda-speaking soldier, who fought alongside Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara and Laurent Kabila during the 1960s war in eastern Congo.
After the Ugandan liberation war, Rwigema was appointed deputy army commander and deputy minister of defence. However, he was soon relieved of all official duties following growing criticism that he was Rwandan. He refused to accept a stateless existence—not only for himself but for all Rwandans in exile.
He refused to allow the genocidal regime in Rwanda to fulfil its objective of exterminating the Tutsi population.
He refused to see fellow Rwandans expelled from Uganda as former Ugandan President Milton Obote did in 1982.
He refused to accept that Rwandan refugees—scattered across Congo, where they had faced discrimination since the 1960s, as well as in Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, and beyond—should continue to endure the plight of statelessness. He rejected the labels imposed on them: Hamites, foreigners, invaders. Gen Rwigema was willing to become the ultimate sacrifice so that these stateless Rwandans would not only reclaim their nation but also live in peace and dignity.
His death, on the second day of the RPA invasion, was a devastating blow to the rebel forces. The Rwandan genocidal regime’s army, with support from Belgium, France, and Zaire, capitalized on this by pushing the RPA back toward the Ugandan border and inflicting heavy casualties.
Supporters of the Habyarimana regime reacted to Rwigema’s death with jubilation, symbolically burying banana trees across the country in celebration. What they did not realize, however, was that Paul Kagame—recalled from a military training course in the United States to take command of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA)—would carry forward the mission and ultimately fulfil their shared dream.
After the genocidal regime was defeated, to realize the dream of his childhood comrade, President Kagame established the Government of National Unity to bring together all Rwandans, wherever they come from, promoted social cohesion, banned ethnic identities, and gave every Rwandan a sense of a shared national identity. He promoted a national identity under the Ndi Umunyarwanda (I am Rwandan) programme, emphasizing a common national bond over ethnic division.
Today, I am a Rwandan, you are a Rwandan, we are Rwandans—because on October 1, Rwigema launched the war to liberate our country. And on October 2, he became the ultimate sacrifice, so that we may live together today as Rwandans—united, and in peace.