Geneva, Monday, 3rd July 2011
It happens that today is Rwanda Liberation Day’s eve, and that I can finally sit and try to share with you the inspiring story of Kizito Mihigo, 30-year-old songwriter and musician.
Let’s re-immerse ourselves in the spirit of Rwanda Day.
During the discussion on Integrity & Unity: Pillars of Rwanda’s Development, Kizito Mihigo took the microphone straight after Bamporiki.
There was so much poise in the way he spoke. To the contrary of Bamporiki, Kizito started his testimony telling us that he had no message to deliver through his testimony, but he was honored to share it with us. He promised to make it short as we were running out of time.
Kizito who is also called “Artist of God” was born and raised in Kibeho, Southern province of Rwanda. Kibeho is a place that became famous all over the country and beyond because of reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Due to fact that the Church of Kibeho sheltered the Tutsis during the 1959 massacres, almost exclusively Tutsis inhabited Kibeho in 1994. They believed the small city was a safe heaven. Kizito’s father, Buguzi was the primary school director’s and his mother was working as a teacher in the same school.
Kizito remembers that in October1990, after the first RPF[1] attack in the North of Rwanda, he was very proud to tell his father that he knew that cockroaches, Inyenzi Inyangarwanda, invaded his country. Repeating the message he heard at the radio, he begged his father, to do his best to fight the Inyenzi Inyangarwanda so that they could not reach Kibeho. He recalls that from that day, instead of attending church only on Sunday, his father would attend it every single day. The children would always wonder why. In April 1994, Kizito remembers that even before President Habyarimana’s plane was shot, people in Kibeho were scared to death. Schools were already closed; Hutu students would openly threaten their Tutsi comrades. Their neighbors, who were also friends, all of sudden started threatening Kizito’s parents, saying that their children would be killed in their eyes, that their cows will all be slaughtered and eaten very soon. Kizito adds, “I did not believe that our friends with whom we shared everything would kill us. They could not.”
When the genocide started, Kizito’s father was on the top list of the “wanted” people in Kibeho. He was scared to death but decided to stay at home with his old mother who could not walk. The rest of the family – Kizito’s young brother on his mother’s back, sisters and mother – flew to Runyinya by foot. After a while, a group of Hutus noticed them. Amongst them were his parents’ colleague and other local authorities. Immediately they started shouting, “ those are the rich people, we must catch them, we must!!” The whole family started running in different directions. Kizito’s mother who could hardly run with the little boy in her back found a hole close by the river where she could hide. Kizito remembers that, a few kilometers further on; he met with his sisters, one by one but not his mother. They were pretty sure she was killed. But they were lucky to finally see her in Butare the day after. They cried a lot together, in fact his mother had spent the night in the hole by the river. She was completely scared as the Hutu group who noticed them kept chasing them around the hole. A couple of hours after the family was reunited, they saw the Church of Kibeho burning and they could hear guns in the night. It was the first time ever that the children heard guns and they were extremely worried about the plight of their father. He had promised to come on his bike if things got worse. But he was not coming back.
Kizito’s father never came back. The rest of the family reached Karama and stayed there up to the 19th April. The downtown area of Karama was packed with Tutsi families and every night Hutus would attack them, kill a few people but the Tutsi regrouped would resist and fight them back. During the panel discussion, Kizito did not give the details of what happened on the 19th April 1994. He just mentioned that the gendarmerie and the Interahamwe militia launched a massive attack upon the Tutsi refugees in Karama (in the church, the schools and other public places were Tutsi could hide). It was butchery. Hidden below dead bodies and covered with blood, Kizito managed to escape Karama and find his way to neighboring Burundi. In Burundi, he was lucky to find his sisters, mother and young brother. He also met with many survivors from Kibeho who told him the story of his father’s death. Kizito’s father was killed by a group of Hutu lead by Dr Mutazihana.
Kizito lengthy testimony can be found on his website http://www.organistecompositeur.com/genocide/index_en.htm
Dr Mutazihana daughter, Fifi was Kizito’s best friend. Kizito felt all the love and friendship he had for his friend turning into a passionate hate. He adds “ When I was in Burundi, I hated all the Hutus, I hated anybody who had a Hutu parent, I am sure I could have killed if I had a gun. I even wanted to join the RPF forces but they did not allow me to, I was too young. I was obsessed with revenge. Hopefully I was not in Rwanda; otherwise I could have killed many people. In fact, I did kill thousands of people in my mind. May God forgive me for all the hate and revenge I was filled of by this time”. In July1994, after the RPF liberated Rwanda, Kizito and his family came back to Rwanda. He had still strong feelings of revenge, tried to join the RPA[2] as a kadogo but his uncle who was a military at that time did not let him and even punished him ordering him to go back to school. He finally went back to school when he did not miss a single occasion to beat any Hutu children who would dare talking to him. Kizito admits he hit many innocent Hutu kids that way.
As he had promised to his father, he joined “Petit séminaire”[3] in Butare. He did it only because it was his late father wish but deep within Kizito hated all the priests and the Catholic Church. But at the “Petit séminaire”, Kizito met with his two life passions: Liturgical chant and karate. The young seminarian Kizito was deeply moved by the chants and he was an active member of the Karate team of his school. Because he was very talented, he was soon chosen to lead the school choir. At the school choir he met two boys who will become major figures in his transformation, the sons of the formal authorities of Kibeho who put his family on the list of “people to kill”. Kizito says that singing liturgical songs with the two boys everyday helped him overcome his feelings of hate and revenge. One of them in particular was a very good singer. He adds: “It was Grace, it was God who opened my heart and made room for forgiveness” He continues, “ Those two boys taught me that the key of reconciliation lies in the heart of the survivors. We have a huge responsibility and great power. It is only when the killers find that there is room for forgiveness in our hearts that they can dare asking for forgiveness. They mirror themselves in our eyes. Nobody can come to beg your pardon if you show an angry face”- “Hanging onto resentment is letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head” Esther Lederer
In 1997 Kizito made the decision to become “The Artist of God”. Since then, he became a very prolific composer (with more than 400 hundred compositions) who was honored to take part to the composition of the new National Anthem. Kizito also attended Conservatoire de Paris where he refined his art and won many competitions. It is only until 2003 that Kizito got to know that Dr Mutazihana and in his wife were in jail. In 2004, Kizito managed to get in touch with their daughter, Fifi .The young woman could not accept the genuine friendship that he was offering to her. Fours years after, as he had made it a commitment to himself, Kizito found his way again to Fifi and this time the young woman accepted his friendship as a gift from a true Christian.
At that very precise moment of his testimony, Kizito Mihigo made me remember of the German genius of music, Johann Sebastian Bach. It is said that a human lifetime would not be enough to copy down Bach composition works. But not only did Bach compose music; he played music (organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist) all over Europe (traveling by horse) and had an incredibly rich family life (with many wives and children). Bach is considered to be one of the most prolific and greatest composers of the all time. Whatever God you pray to, whatever floats your boat, within the vast repertoire of Bach’s music, you will find a cantata, a partita or a simple prelude that will transport you, it will uplift you. So will Kizito Mihigo music.
Although he claimed that he had no message to deliver through his personal testimony, Kizito indeed delivered a powerful message about taking responsibility for one’s feelings and moving beyond the blame game and the status of victim. Devotional music healed Kizito Mihigo and through his work, Kizito contributes immensely to the healing of what he calls “the soul of Rwanda”[4].
Happy Liberation Day to you all!
“I do not make music to be famous but to be useful. “Kizito Mihigo
“The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.” Johann Sebastian Bach
[1] Rwandese Patriotic Front
[2] Rwandese Patriotic Army
[3] Before 1994 when RPF took power and abolished the ethnic mention, the best school education Tutsi young people could access was through « Petit séminaire », meaning they should enroll themselves as future catholic priests in order to access secondary school.
[4] In his inspirational speech on Rwanda Day, President Kagame said « Rwanda, your body was killed but your soul refused to die »
I WAS THERE - [A ] [WOZ] [DEYA]
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