Renowned Rwandan poets Better Benigne Uhiriwe and Mxnzi Le Poète have released poems ‘I Was Told To Remember’ and ‘Blame Game’ respectively reflecting on the time the world watched as hell was unleashed in the country. The poems were released as Rwanda marks the 29th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi which claimed over a million lives in a period of 100 days. Below are the poems respectively: I Was Told To Remember I was born Rwandan. It’s all I had ever known; it wasn’t just that I knew I had always been told. My mother told me stories In hushed voices I was brought to the knowledge that I had lost; People, we shared blood and yet they will never know my name. But I had to know theirs. I was born 4 years after those one hundred days that claimed the simple joy of just being neighbors. I had to know how ignorance told us we were different and our eyes chose to see a different face. I was little and yet I knew I walked on a land that saw blood. It became a recital, Ndi Umunyarwanda To engrave in our minds that we raised weapons against each other. That Laughter of old should have been enough, And yet that rotten seed seemed to intertwine our hearts in a weave of hate. I saw sadness in My Mothers’ eyes, To lose a father she had never had the chance to know, To a war that claimed to survive was to slay a friend. Every year the elders remember, and young ones are told, How one night, many woke up to be called names. To classify us like animals ready for slaughter. I sound raw but those nights and days were those our history came down to, Forget that we were a flourishing kingdom. Men on horses came and we forgot we had legs that once ran to the greatest battles. Liberation came from men who knew how home could turn into a myth. The handshake of forgiveness was extended, So, we could never turn into what we once ran away from. For our vision to be that we shall rebuild, That we never saw an end. Our voices were never muffled, we just never knew how high our pitch could go. Decades have long passed, as a history that I never got to see unfolds. My heart wrenches from that unforgettable journey my mother undertook to save herself and her own. That tale that sounds absolute. How human we are, and how to take and to give can be blurry. For we are each other’s’ mirror, for from the eyes of your companion you will know, Will I be lifted if I fall? Blame Game Here I am, here I am. Here I am grieving hard like I normally do, here I am standing firm like I know what to do, here I am teaching love like a novel review.” Who do I have to blame? He who saw potential in us and found no other way to exploit us than separating us and preaching hate, he who saw that the God we had cared less about our possessions or the length of our noses. Who do I have to blame, he who killed his own wife, minding less who will breastfeed these toddlers, he who killed who he preached to the 12 families of Israel and how Judas betrayed his master but yet failed to betray his master but rather betray who followed what he preached? Who do I have to blame, he who took a flight to go and sign peace agreements but knowing well that it’s a monologue and that’s a complete act. Who do I have to blame, he who invested in the buying of machetes to destroy his own country? Who do I have to blame, he who claimed to be the peacekeeper and ended up being the peace destructor? He who orphans millions of kids with no actual reason, he who betrayed who conceived him? He who picked up arms with the motive of GUTERA HAMWE to kill his own people? He who claimed that his blood brother is a stranger from Ethiopia? He who failed to feed the hungry citizens rather take debts to buy arms that will abolish them? I’ll blame every one of them, they failed humanity, they failed love they used to preach, they failed us, and they failed me, Rwanda. “Here I am, here I am. Here I am grieving hard like I normally do, here I am standing firm like I know what to do, here I am teaching love like a novel review.” End of blame game, you saw a lot, I’ve heard a lot, he read a lot. A lot is our history, a lot happened in just 100 days, tears were shed, lives were ended, debts were taken, love was buried, orphans were made, Tutsi were hunted but guess what... also, the nation was saved, the mystery was ended, the rebirth has started, the narratives were changed, peace was restored, love was re-preached, songs of victory were sang, we experienced peace not peace in papers, we experienced real peace. “Here I am, here I am. Here I am grieving hard like- I normally do, here I am standing firm like I know what to do, here I am teaching love like a novel review.” Young, homeless, broken, hungry but determined. Be the change you want to see, they say, from the exile to rescue the country where the government with the international help was killing the people, from the exile to rescue the nation that was destroyed by its own people, from the exile to come and stop blood brothers from killing each other. They said we were chased out of our country but our country was never chased out of us u RWANDA URUVAMO NTIRUKUVAMO. After 100 days of misery, with the country full of orphans, peace was restored. And before we knew it was a bright sunshine after a crazy storm, it was igihugu gitemba amata nubuki, it was kwiyubaka like never before, it was ibihozo ahahoze imiborogo, happy faces all around. We owe you a lot, you did what many failed, you selflessly did this, and we owe you our respect. Muri inkotanyi cyane! “Here I am, here I am. Here I am grieving hard like I normally do, here I am standing firm like I know what to do, here I am teaching love like a novel review.”
