AS I STRUGGLED to find a title to better describe what I feel after the passing of my brother, Yvan Burabyo, this one struck me: ''An ever-living legacy from dreams cut short''. I'll explain. We have all witnessed Yvan's hustle, from his rising back in 2009 up to now. We have all heard of his newly launched album ''Twaje'' (which just made me think of this song by Donnie Sumner ''Lord I'm coming home''), and we all saw him represent the country at the ''Prix Découvertes RFI'' back in 2018. Did he have to die now? Now that he had a whole promising future to explore? In our last chat on WhatsApp, Yvan promised to never stop touching lives. Today, as I woke to the sad news of his passing, I wondered, now what? How on earth will you touch lives when you are not here with us? But then I remembered Michael Jackson. Have we forgotten ''Will you be there?'', Do we not remember Jay Polly's ''Ndacyariho'' or Minani Rwema's ''Sur la terre''? Chuck Palahniuk said: ''The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will''. You will live on and on, brother Yvan. On and On! Your dreams have just been cut short, but your legacy remains. An ever-living legacy from dreams cut short. I met Yvan for the first time on October 15, 2021. I was working for a marketing agency back then and we selected him to be the face of a campaign for one of our clients. We had quite a number of people to select from, but Yvan was the best for me. After weeks and weeks of negotiations with his and my management, we finally signed him. Now that I think about it, I have always believed in this guy. The excitement at the office when he was about to arrive with Bruce Intore was something else... Yvan was always surrounded. I remember when I went to his place in Kicukiro then later to the studio (''stu'' as he called it) kwa Bob. He always had people around him, not because he was a star, no, far from that. His vibe was unmatched. I always told my friends, ''Yvan is mysterious, in an intriguing way, and that's absolutely rare and special''. Yvan was an introvert and was super confident (something I admired so much about him), which people mistook with ''kwiyemera'' but hey, everyone who really got to know him knew exactly that this was totally wrong. Yvan was humble, disciplined, a very good guy! A very nice guy! When I lost one of my closest friends and former high school classmate in October 2020, it was said that people who accomplish great things at a young age don't live for long. Barnabé was an accomplished 24 years' old who was earning small but engaged in huge projects (About to pursue his masters' degree abroad, while building his two floors' residential house in Gasogi). Never would we have thought that he would die in his sleep on a morning like any other. This made me think of Yvan. He was just 27 damn it! He was too young to die! I have always enjoyed talking to Yvan, always! We often talked about mental health (something that I’m passionate about), he had this great ''sens d'analyse'' of how much our generation is so desperate and mostly sad, which I admired. We talked about love, he loved love and believed in love. I once told him that I hate being in love and he replied: ''You have understandable reasons, but if you believe in love, wait ‘bizacamo'' Never would I have imagined that we would be mourning you today, brother! How about all these mental health projects and Europe tour concerts? What now? Why now? I believe in God, and so did you, but it's at moments like these, days like these that our faith is tested. Faith teaches us to trust in God's plans even when we fail to understand why. Faith teaches us to give praises to God in good and in bad times and as it's written, ''The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” Job 1:21. Yvan, I would like to dedicate this song to you by the Soweto Gospel Choir: ''Lay down my dear brotherLay down and take your restI wanna lay your headUpon your Savior's chestI love you, but Jesus loves you best, I bid you good night''.
