Metro State College professor recalls horror of holocaust, celebrates rich Rwandan culture.
Left to right: Joseline Umulisa, Aline Ishimwe, and Jasmine Kabera
It has been fifteen years since this reporter lost her native country to a savage civil war that turned into the massacre of thousands of innocent people. The Rwandan genocide has been dramatized on television, documentaries, and in film but living through the actual event is an occurrence that cannot be forgotten, and fifteen years later Professor Dr. Hadidja Nyiransekuye who teaches at Metro State College of Denver is trying to paint over the country’s tarnished image by educating people about Rwandan genocide, culture, people, and traditions.
Rwanda is a small country, barely a slit on the map of Africa, even though the countryside itself is a vast region of grasslands and rolling hills stretching over farmland. During the start of the rainy season in April the Rwandan people commemorate the anniversary of the genocide from April 6th to April 11th as part of a whole week of mourning, which our culture calls for when someone dies in normal circumstance.
“Genocide is not a new phenomenon. For example the Jewish people experienced it sixty years ago. There was an Armenian genocide shortly after World War I, and then there was the Rwandan genocide,” said Nyiransekuye. “We always assume that it’s not our problem; it’s the problem of the people who are involved. If we continue to take that route there will always be genocide.”
With the help of Metro State’s African Student Union, the Department of African and African American Studies, and with contributions from the Office of Institutional Diversity, Nyiransekuye was able to organize a campus-wide event on the week of April 6th to April 11th. “My intention in organizing that, was not only because I wanted to educate the people and my students, but I also wanted to invite people to take action to prevent further ignorance,” said Nyiransekuye.
Starting on Monday April 6th Nyiransekuye shared a lecture entitled, The Migration Thesis and the Genesis of the Genocide. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday she showed several movies including Ghost of Rwanda and Sometimes in April adding panels to discuss the movies and how they were impacted by wars.
“I thought it was important to bring the views of the younger generations, those who are going to be carrying the legacy of what their parents and grandparents have done,” said Nyiransekuye.
On Saturday April 11 guests enjoyed a catered lunch buffet while listening to a panel that discussed how violent crimes affect people.
Tradition has always been an intricate part of the Rwandan culture. It is so heavily engrained in the blood that children are taught the history of their traditions from the moment they can speak; perhaps the most prominent of which is the Rwandan dance. It was no surprise that the final day of the event myself and seven other young Rwandan natives were called on to perform for the gathered group of administrators and students in the Tivoli Center. The mixture of cultures didn’t clash, and it was a time to share and understand in the hopes that together we could raise the awareness.
Nyiransekuye hopes that the event achieved its purposed. “Today in Darfur and Congo people are still dying and you wonder why the world does not react and stop those atrocities. From my perceptive nobody feels like it’s their business; it has always been ‘that other group. We’ve got to get to a point where it’s everybody’s business because it keeps happening in difference places,” said Nyiransekuye, who hopes we will get to a point where we are all advocates of peace.
