From Olaolu Ihechukwu in Yola, Adamawa
Another April has come and gone. As has become usual since the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi of Rwanda, April witnessed another round of remembrances and solemn memorials around the globe for the one million-plus lives lost to that massacre. Nigeria was not left out of the solidarity against the genocide ideology.
In Yola, the capital of Adamawa State and seat of the American University of Nigeria, Africa’s only development university, #Kwibuka22 (the Kinyarwanda translation for the 22nd annual memorial) was marked at AUN with a solemn ceremony and fiery speeches.
This year’s remembrance theme is “Fighting Genocide Ideology.”
Before the April 16 date at AUN, there had been solemn commemorative events in other Nigerian locations.
The first in Abuja on April 7 was attended by the Minister of Foreign of Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, who delivered a message of solidarity for the Rwandans. Also present were the Minister of Communications and Technology, Adebayo Shittu; the Permanent Secretary at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bulus Lolo; ambassadors and high commissioners accredited to Nigeria; members of the Rwandan community in Abuja, and other dignitaries from many countries.
Addressing the solemn gathering, Onyeama said that the circumstances leading to genocide in Rwanda must not be allowed again. He called for home-grown solutions to African problems and challenges as a panacea for lasting peace and development on the continent. The minister also praised the steady progress made by Rwanda after the genocide experience.
The Rwandan Ambassador in Nigeria, Stanislas Kamanzi, had earlier paid homage to the memories of the genocide victims, while also remembering the survivors. Kamanzi said that Rwanda had come a long way after the genocide and has charted a new course for the common good and development of Rwandans.
The amabassador roundly condemned the dastardly killings, but added that Rwanda is now “proud to celebrate our national identity…beyond the simplistic arbitrary ethnic-based identity.” He referred to the UN General Assembly resolution of 2003, urging world leaders to continue to fight against genocide and its ideology in totality. Kamanzi also thanked the Federal Government for standing by Rwanda during her trying moment. “We can never thank Nigeria enough,” he concluded.
April 11 witnessed another commemorative event at the Osborne Government College, Lagos, co-organized by the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) and the Rwandan community in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital. The event was marked under the patronage of Lagos State. Speakers engaged with the youths regarding their role and commitment in combating the genocide ideology.
The following day, April 12, the breakfast session of the First Africa Bar Leaders Conference in Lagos, was dedicated to the commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsi of Rwanda. Ambassador Kamanzi addressed the session on how Rwanda brought genocide perpetrators to justice without jeopardizing national reconciliation.
On April 16 at AUN, where #Kwibuka22 has been marked since the 18th anniversary, Ambassador Kamanzi was there to address the University community, which includes a large number of Rwandan students. He told the campus community that a “sizable number” of undergraduate students were involved in the 1994 massacre of more than a million Tutsi in 100 days. It was a “shameful reality,” said the Ambassador, that these young people “…killed their classmates who they had been harmoniously sharing campus life with, until evil was unleashed.”
Kamanzi noted, however, that the mayhem was stopped by the determination of equally young people who put up a courageous fight and “heroically confronted the powerful weaponry before them.” These youths defeated the then government that planned and executed the genocide.
This act, Ambassador Kamanzi said, was due to their patriotism and resilience, virtues he demanded of all the youths in the audience at the AUN library auditorium. “Refuse to be by-standers when your actions can make a difference…As you grow older and in wisdom, make sure that you oppose any negative influences…”
Kamanzi counselled the youth to take advantage and make a good use of available communication technologies to spread the right message, not hatred, through social media.
President Ensign, who has researched and published books and articles on genocide, gave a brief history of the genocide after a minute silence was observed in memory of those who died in 1994. Dr. Ensign said that genocide is predictable because it follows a known process, as opposed to being a singular event. She had some tough words for intellectuals and journalists who deny or distort the authentic genocide narrative but noted that they labor in vain as the truth is inviolable.
A discussion group, moderated by President Ensign, offered the audience more insights into the Tutsi genocide and lessons for other countries facing internal conflicts. The panel also had Ambassador Kamanzi, Dr. Jean-Pierre Karegeye, professor of Literature and Critical Theory at AUN, Professor Boubacar Boris Diop, also of AUN, the renowned Senegalese writer has a novel, The Book of Bones, based on the 1994 genocide] and Eugene Uwiringiyimana, a Rwandan student at the American University of Nigeria.
Each panellist offered his or her perspective on the issue of genocide ideology and denial. Mr. Uwiringiyimana said that Rwanda’s youths of today have the opportunity to learn how to prevent genocide since the educational system in Rwanda now has genocide studies up to the graduate degree level.
Professor Karegeye, who has just published a special volume in USA on the theme of Bearing Witness, informed the audience that many of the theorists of the genocide ideology and denial are academicians. One of the reasons of denial, he explained, comes from the representation and the vulnerability of Africa. He estimated that “the discourse on Rwanda means the perspective on Africa. Victims of genocide are still invisible to the World.”
Professor Diop described the Tutsi massacre as one of the most documented political events of the last century. “Victims were deprived of their identity.” The perpetrators of the genocide have been politically and morally defeated, he said, regretting that African researchers do not have a clear idea of the genocide.
A candlelit procession to the AUN Huts was held to end #Kwibuka22
