The Maranyundo Senior Three students took part in a memorial
ceremony to commemorate the genocide that was specially formatted for
children. Schools from all over Nyamata
attended to learn more about the events surrounding this dark part of the
Rwanda’s history. Because the genocide
occurred in 1994, no current students were alive at the time and the government
has taken it upon itself to educate the upcoming generation.
It started with a walk in remembrance, with Maranyundo
students wearing somber grey shirts.
Then all the students sat down and listened to an expert
tell the story of their heritage with a child friendly approach.
That was followed by open questions. The questions reflected the innocence of
children who cannot quite correlate the horrific events with their own
experiences of home.
“How could the killers tell Hutus and Tutsis apart? [they
are extremely similar and it is not always possible to visually differentiate
them]”
“Were the foreigners at fault also put into prison?”
“How do we know this won’t happen again?”
“If you say there is no difference between Hutus and Tutsis
and we are all the same, then why do you talk about it during this ceremony?”
“Did Hutus also die?”
“Why do Hutus and Tutsis look different?”
The questions were answered by a few different experts.
Following that, there were performances by a few different
schools and the ceremony ended with a composition presented by Maranyundo.
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