00:00:00 IGIHE NETWORK KINYARWANDA ENGLISH FRANCAIS

Rwanda 1994. The Color of a Genocide: A Memoir

By IGIHE
On 20 May 2019 at 11:00

Dr. Bideri Diogène has just published the book ’Rwanda 1994. The Color of a Genocide’, a family autobiography with testimonies and memories on the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi.

This book was published in Paris, by L’Harmattan, on May 7th, 2019.

In an interview with IGIHE, Dr. Bideri observed that his book is a contribution to the preservation of the memory of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and a presentation of the political and cultural context of the tragic event, and a means of transmitting the history to the younger generations.

Dr. Bideri had the chance to leave Rwanda at the end of 1993 when all the signs already announced the prospect of a genocide that would target Tutsi. Thousands of civilians had already been exterminated in northern Rwanda and Bugesera between 1990 and 1993. Later after his departure, five months to the day, the genocide took away six members of his family, including his parents, his sisters, and brothers.

Even though he had left Rwanda, the massacre of his family was told to him by witnesses of his family who escaped from the genocide, they are the ones who speak in the book.

The title of the book, The Color of Genocide does not mean color in the first sense of the word, but rather "calamity", "extreme misfortune". Indeed, says the author, genocide is without "color", a tragedy that man inflicts on man, [...], the sum of the individual tragedies, that of the author, those of the other victims, is the color of the genocide.

The author shows that genocide is a crime that does not stop with the cessation of the massacres, its sequels continue to haunt the survivors several years later.

In his book, Dr. Bideri says that he knows in detail the massacre of his family, how his parents and his family members were killed by grenades thrown inside the house by soldiers: "the roof and the walls crumbled, [...] my parents died shredded."

They were killed on the 8th of April 1994 in Gisenyi, a few hours after the start of the genocide against the Tutsi.

One of her sisters was shot in Kigali neighborhood of Kigali, thrown into a trash bin and woke up when dogs began to devour the bodies. She was able to walk and reach the ICRC offices, less than 500 meters from the massacre site.

Dr. Bideri was born in the former commune of Mukingo, in northern Rwanda, today in the Busogo area. As the eldest son, his father told him the family story, especially the persecution and massacre of Tutsis since 1959.

His dad told him how he was arrested in 1963 and imprisoned in the terrible Ruhengeri prison. He will be released a few days before the execution of several Tutsi at Nyamagamba hill near the prison of Ruhengeri. Arrests and summary executions of Tutsi took place throughout the country, especially in Bugesera and Gikongoro.

In particular, the author recalls that in 1973, Tutsi were attacked, houses burned, and many fled to churches. He did not understand why the Tutsi were persecuted and hunted like animals. The ruling power was attacking the Tutsi as it saw fit.

From 1990, things took a dramatic turn, the call for the extermination of Tutsi was made in the open. Media of hatred, especially the RTLM, and the Kangura newspaper, openly called for the massacre of the Tutsi and even announced the month of April 1994 as the beginning of the genocide.

In this book, we read fear and arbitrariness. An omnipresent fear in the Tutsi who, by being Tutsi, is condemned to live in despair because he can suffer from any other fellow-citizen controls, arrests, imprisonment, torture, rape, death. Arbitrary responsible civil authorities who ignore the basic rights of any Rwandan citizen.

The author says that he never thought of writing a family tragedy, but that circumstances led him to do so. He wrote by duty of memory, to bring into the body of readers the unspeakable fear of the victims.

The author shows in several places that the survivors of his family were saved by soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front. It pays homage to the courage of these young soldiers who shed their blood to save lives.

It shows that even Hutu who were pushed by ex-FAR and Interahamwe to leave Rwanda and flee were saved in the bottom end of Zairian forests (now Congolese) by the Rwandan Patriotic Army. They were fed with biscuits, transported and repatriated to Rwanda voluntarily. Hutu civilians served as a human shield for escaping genocidaires.

After the genocide, life slowly resumed, with enormous difficulties. His two younger sisters succumbed to the consequences of genocide, trauma and pain had the last word. They were marked by genocide, their broken inner balance.

In his interview, the author insisted a lot on the memory: "let everyone know what happened, never forget, that they were women, men, and children, all of us, in any corner of the world."

Dr. Bideri has already published in 2008, at l’Harmattan, another book, Rwanda 1990-1993, the massacre of Bagogwe, a prelude to the genocide of Tutsi.

The Color of a Genocide will be launched very soon in Kigali on June 14, 2019.

Dr. Bideri Diogène, author of the book 'Rwanda 1994. The Color of a Genocide'

Advertisement

YOUR OPINION ABOUT THIS ARTICLE

RULES AND REGULATIONS
Kwamamaza