Rwanda will on February 1 mark Heroes Day, a day on which the country pays tribute to its nationals who demonstrated the highest values of patriotism and sacrifice for the well-being of the country and its citizens.The national heroes are in three categories – Imanzi, Imena, and Ingenzi, according to the Chancellery for Heroes, National Orders and Decorations of Honour (CHENO). Imanzi are supreme heroes with outstanding achievements occasioned by supreme sacrifice, outstanding importance and example. Only two people fall in this category; the late Maj Gen Fred Rwigema and the Unknown Soldier, and were all awarded posthumously.ALSO READ: HEROES DAY: Celebrating Félicité Niyitegeka’s life as a selfless martyrALSO READ: Rwanda's leading lights who exemplified heroismThe Unknown Soldier represents all the fallen soldiers of the liberation struggle that ended in 1994 with the stopping of the Genocide against the Tutsi. The tomb of the Unknown Soldier, just like the one for Rwigema, the first commander of the liberation struggle, is at the National Heroes’ Mausoleum in Remera, next to Amahoro National Stadium, in Kigali.ALSO READ: Heroes' Day: The spirit of the Unknown Soldier is still aliveThis soldier exemplifies the thousands of soldiers whose remains could not be identified after the liberation struggle.EulogyWars are as old as history. Over two thousand years ago, Herodotus, a famous Greek historian and geographer, wrote: “In peace, sons bury their fathers; in war, fathers bury their sons.” The Unknown Soldier will forever remain a son/daughter to Rwanda.If death is a debt we all must pay, he or she paid it before owing it.We do not know whose son or daughter the unknown soldier was.We do not know his or her name.We do not know if he or she was a parent by then.We do not know if his or her mother received the sad news of the passing.We do not know what he wished to be doing after the war.He or she could have been a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer or still serve in the army.Was he or she someone who loved music?There is a lot we don’t know because the story of an unknown soldier is not just about one person. It’s about many sacrifices of those that paid the ultimate price to liberate Rwanda.As Rwanda honors the unknown soldier, the only certainty about him or her is that they strongly believed in a united Rwanda.Had they lived, they would be happy with what Rwanda has become today.The unknown soldier could have been better than many. By honouring him or her, we agree to the cause they fought and died for.Rwandans give thanks to those who were willing to sacrifice themselves and who sacrificed their youth, and their future, so that the country could live in peace.With their lives, they ransomed Rwanda’s future. Rwandans have a wealth of witnesses who fought alongside the unknown soldier to tell the new generation what the cause was about and how it must, jealously, be protected.In reality, it is a frightening thing for human beings to think that we could die and that no one would know to mark our grave, say where we had come from, say when we had been born and when exactly we died.In honouring this unknown soldier, through a national event, Rwandans are saying that ‘because we do not know him or her and we do not know what he or she could have become, he or she has become more than one body, more than one grave. He or she is a model, a symbol of all sacrifice. They are every victorious soldier in all our wars.’The veterans and all those still serving soldiers know what it is to have been in battle and to have seen their friends and comrades in arms die in the very flower of their youth.That is why remembrance and honoring is so necessary and yet so difficult. It is necessary because Rwandans must not forget. It is difficult because the pain is never forgotten.And the sense of loss that this soldier's family must have felt. Ultimately, the unknown soldier gave Rwandans a bright future. And for that, Rwandans are eternally grateful.Whatever dreams Rwandans have, they were shared in some measure by this unknown soldier who is only unknown by name but is known in the hearts of all Rwandans by all the virtues that they hold in the highest regard - his or her selflessness, honour, courage, and commitment.The Unknown Soldier reminds Rwandans that a sacrifice can never go for nothing; it cements a foundation for a true nation, a nation united in spirit for a high cause and humane purposes.The unknown soldier, in sacrificing himself, or herself, totally through duty, commitment, love, and honour, became part of the nation’s life, forever.
