Spéciose Niwemugore, a 61-year old mother of four, has launched a book titled; Pour que tu saches (loosely translated as So that you know). In the book, she narrates her experience of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Speaking during the launch on Friday at Kacyiru Public Library, she said that being a Genocide survivor inspired her to write the book so as to let future generations know about the atrocities that happened in Rwanda. She hopes that her contribution to the literature on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi will play a critical role in ensuring that such atrocities won’t happen again. “I started to gather my testimonies by handwriting soon after surviving. In my book I narrate the discrimination that was always committed against the Tutsi such as in schools, which I faced for a long time, and how the Genocide against the Tutsi was executed, and I mention the names of the victims and how they were killed in my face,” she said. The more than 200-page book also highlights of earlier killings that targeted the Tutsi such as in 1961 and 1962. “These killings could happen but the then regime never delivered justice to the victims instead those who could kill would be promoted in jobs,” she said. The book also shows how Niwemugore, who currently lives in Belgium, was tortured in school since 1973 and later dismissed from school on the basis of her ethnicity. She advises Rwandans not to sow genocide ideology in children and youth, adding that unity and reconciliation initiatives should be maintained. Speaking during the launch, Dr Jean Damascène Bizimana, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for the fight against Genocide (CNLG), said that writing books on the genocide is an essential tool in preserving genocide history which fights genocide ideology propagated by deniers, especially among the future generations. “Books on the Genocide are important because they will be useful for thousands of years ahead for future generations to understand our genocide history, which was characterised by oppressive regime that masterminded the Genocide against the Tutsi,” he said. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
