As Rwanda continues to remember the victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Rwandans and friends of Rwanda across the globe continue to stand together with Rwandans during this period.
The commemoration runs for a hundred days which represents the period in which the Genocide took place twenty-one years ago.
On April 7, about 300 Rwandans from France and their friends converged at Père de La Chaise Cemetery in Paris.
At this world memorial which is visited by close to four million people annually, Rwandans have built a monument in honor of over a million Tutsi that were massacred within a hundred days in 1994.
A walk to remember event in Belgium
Paris officials who came to support Rwandans appreciated the Rwandan spirit and suggested more should be done to help them feel even closer to home as they commemorate their lost ones.
“We shall find you a public and very accessible place in Paris where we shall be commemorating the Genocide against Tutsi. The place will be ready next year,” said Pierre Klugman, the vice mayor of Paris during the event.
By the time Rwandans in Paris were commemorating, those in Senegal, a former French colony were also in the same spirit.
Korean school children sing at the #Kwibuka21 commemoration event in Seoul
At “La Place du Souvenir”, a site that was built to honor all the late African heroes, Rwandans were supported by Senegalese who know the Genocide and who refer to the victims as heroes.
Those Senegalese include Boubacar Boris DIOP, who wrote about Genocide in “Rwanda: écrire par devoir de mémoire and “Murambi, le livre des ossements”.
He told mourners: “We are with you in this time of sorrow. We are proud of all you accomplished in the last 21 years and we will always support you and your people or should I say our people.”
In these places and others, Rwandans in diaspora are making #Kwibuka21 so touching through testimonies, movies and other events, which also teach the world about the Genocide atrocities and Rwanda recovery.
In Belgium, 300 mourners participated to a walk to remember, all with lit candles.
In Korea, school children sang the national anthem of their country, and Rwanda’s.
Families in host countries are also showing solidarity, even in communities that have been going through atrocities like Soudan.
“There is a saying in Kinyarwanda that goes: Inshuti uyibona mu byago, meaning a friend in need is a friend indeed,” Jean Pierre Karabaranga, Ambassador of Rwanda at Hague told Dutch people during commemoration on April 11.
More events are coming. In Canada, on April 25 Rwandans will lay a wreath in river Outaouais to honor the Tutsi that were thrown in Rwandan rivers.