Top nine ‘Kwibuka 32’ events blending remembrance and creative expression

As Rwanda marks the 32nd commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi, and reflects on the peace the country enjoys today, the calendar fills with spaces to gather, listen and remember. Across music, poetry, sport and cinema, artists and communities are shaping moments that invite reflection while keeping creativity at the centre. ALSO READ: Kwibuka 32: Six must-watch documentaries on Genocide against the Tutsi Here are nine picks to consider. Inzira Inzira is a musical and theatrical production set in an in-between world, where three priests use music to reach the living. Through song and performance, the piece engages memory, grief and healing in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The show takes place Saturday, April 11 at 6 p.m. at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. Run to Remember This Saturday, lace up with intention. Run to Remember invites participants to honour victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi through movement and unity. The gathering point is Zaria Court at 7:45 a.m., with a distance of up to 5 kilometres. Friends and children are welcome, and participation is free. It is a simple act, but one rooted in shared reflection. Mu Kwibuka 32 Held under the theme of Ubuntu, Mu Kwibuka 32 brings together spoken word, poetry, music and live performance in a communal setting. The evening is designed as a space where creative expression and remembrance meet, allowing participants to reflect together. The event takes place April 11 at 7 p.m. at Kigali Soul in Kimihurura. Rwanda: La surface de réparation screening The documentary Rwanda: La surface de réparation, directed by Francois-Xavier Destors and Marie Thomas-Penette, revisits Rwanda’s history through the lens of football. At its center is Eugène Murangwa, former goalkeeper of Rwanda’s most popular club (Rayon Sports) and the national team, who survived the genocide with the help of his teammates. More than 15 years after leaving Rwanda, Murangwa returns to work with young people through an association he founded with former footballers. The film traces his personal journey while examining the cultural, social and political roots of the sport in Rwanda. Drawing on archival material and testimony, it reflects on football’s role from the colonial period to its place in rebuilding the country after the genocide. The screening is scheduled for April 15 at 7 p.m. at L’Espace. Reclaiming History screening Directed by Samuel Ishimwe and Matthias Frickel of DW, Reclaiming History examines how colonial-era thinking helped harden division in Rwanda. Through interviews with historians, witnesses, curators, artists and members of Ishimwe’s family, the documentary traces how imported ideas of race became political and legal realities. The film moves between Kigali, museums in Germany and Belgium, and archives that still hold unsettling remnants of that history. Told with Ishimwe, a genocide survivor, as a guide, it offers a clear-eyed look at Rwanda’s past and the questions it still raises today. Catch it April 17, 5:30 p.m. at L’Espace. Open Mic Weno Kwibuka Open Mic Weno brings poets, writers and performers together for an evening shaped by memory, reflection and shared expression. The gathering offers a space for individual voices to speak into a collective moment, using spoken word and performance to explore how remembrance lives in everyday art. It takes places April 22, 6:30 p.m. at L’Espace. Imfura screening Imfura, a film by Samuel Ishimwe, follows Gisa, a young man who travels to his mother’s village in search of answers about the woman he never knew. His mother disappeared during the genocide, and his journey becomes one of memory, identity and inheritance. In Kinyarwanda, imfura refers to a firstborn child, someone noble or honourable, and the film uses that idea to frame Gisa’s search for belonging. Blending documentary elements with staged scenes, the film gives the story a close, immediate feel. It was the first Rwandan production selected for the Berlinale Shorts competition. Catch the screening on April 22, 7 p.m. at L’Espace. The 600 screening The 600, a documentary by Laurent Basset and Richard Hall, tells the story of a 600-strong battalion of the Rwandan Patriotic Army that found itself surrounded in Kigali as the Genocide against the Tutsi began in 1994. Tasked before the violence with protecting opposition political leaders during a fragile peace process, the battalion held out for days while relief forces moved in from the north. The film also follows the rescues of civilians trapped in and around Kigali, including in churches, the stadium and their homes, as the RPA worked under fire to save as many people as possible. April 24, 7 p.m. at L’Espace. Didy Didy is a quiet, intimate portrait of the late mother of filmmaker Gaël Kamilindi, who died when he was five. In tracing her story, Kamilindi travels from Switzerland, where he grew up, back to Rwanda and pieces together her life through the memories of her three sisters and others who knew her. The film paints a picture of a strong, independent woman while also reflecting on Rwanda’s violent past and the history that shaped the family she left behind. Directed by Gaël Kamilindi and François-Xavier Destors, it screens April 29 at 7 p.m. at L’Espace.

Entertainment

Top nine ‘Kwibuka 32’ events blending remembrance and creative expression