Geneva, Thursday, 16th June 2011
I did not plan to blog RwandaDay but it is daunting my mind … joyfully though… (Remember Rwandadeyoze?)
The last panel discussion on Integrity & Unity: Pillars of Rwanda’s Development was amongst the top five powerful moments of last weekend in Chicago.
Flashback:
Chicago, Saturday 11th June 2011 around 11 am.
The panel moderator introduces two young Rwandan artists: Edouard Bamporiki and Kizito Mihigo. He says that the two young men are known to speak with their hearts.
Bamporiki, 27-year-old poet and filmmaker opens the discussion with his testimony. He starts by telling us that the first time he realized he was a Hutu he was nine years old or so. As homework, his teacher asked the kids what were their ethnic groups. Back home, Bamporiki asked her mother who told him: “Uri umuhutu utavangiwe, iso yari umuhutu kandi nanjye ndi umuhutukazi”. Meaning he was 100% Hutu, “plain-vanilla”, unblended.
Bamporiki is a talented storyteller in Kinyarwanda. He goes on cheerfully narrating his happy childhood memories of “a proud Hutu”, spicing up the stories with plenty of anecdotes. One of them is about a football match with his classmates: Hutus against Tutsis. But there were not enough Tutsi classmates to form a team so they (the Hutus) lent them a few Hutus. When the so-called Tutsi team won, the Hutus were angry at the lent Hutus who had helped Tutsis win. When they complained to their Hutu comrades, the later argued back saying “It is your fault we lost, why did you lend us?” With this first anecdote one can acknowledge how common was the discrimination against the Tutsis by that time. In the mindset of the Hutu children, this was a fair game.
A year later, when the genocide broke out Bamporiki had been admitted to hospital and a man carrying a baby had hidden under his bed. The following morning, both the man and the baby were slaughtered with machetes before his eyes. Bamporiki narrates this second story with tearful eyes and a broken voice. The painful memory of that day is still extremely vivid.
Bamporiki goes on with his stories. He tells the story of the first poetry contest he attended. He says, “I was scarred to death. My impression was that the place was filled with long noses (Tutsis) and white haired people; and the jury was exclusively made of long noses and white haired people. There was this lonely very big nose (and he points to himself)”. And, adds Bamporiki “ to my biggest surprise, I won”. Everyone in the room bursted out laughing and applauding.
For many years, though Bamporiki had won many awards (poetry contests), he was heavily burdened by the shame of being a Hutu due to the fact that the Hutus committed the genocide. It was only until 2006 that he could deliver his testimony and speak out about the shame he felt at a commemorative ceremony held in Kibagabaga (Kigali). Then he was able to regain a sense of self worth as he understood that he should not feel ashamed simply because he was a Hutu, as he had not committed any crime. The mere fact of being welcomed to testify among the survivors of the genocide also provided him with that peace within. Bamporiki added: “My classmates who died were my closest friends, a part of me also died during the genocide. I now know that I am, and we all are, children of Rwanda. During that commemoration I was baptized as Rwandan[1]”.
Bamporiki repeatedly said that his work, his message were dedicated to the next generations, that his only job was to leave behind a worthy heritage for the future generations of Rwandans.
With his candid voice, Bamporiki confronts us to the myriads of biases that are still at work in our society and ourselves.
He also shows us how powerful and freeing the truth[2] is.
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.- Leo Tolstoy
I WAS THERE - [A ] [WOZ] [DEYA]
rdayinchicago
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