Rwandan Testimony: Beata Uwazaninka

My name is Beata and I was born in Rwanda in 1980. At the time of the genocide, I was 14 years old. My father’s name was Joseph Nemeye and my mother’s Devotha Uwimana. My father was a farmer and my mother used to help him in the fields or looking after our cows. On the day I was born, our neighbour gave us a cow to celebrate. I was born at six o’clock behind our house and my father gave me the name ‘Uwazaninka’ – it means ‘if you bring a cow, you’ll get the bride’ because in our culture when a man asks for a girl’s hand in marriage, he has to give cows. So my father definitely wanted a cow from any man who married me! My mother told me that. My father had two boys by his first wife and he was very happy when I was born. He loved me so much. I cried every night when I was a baby and stopped my parents sleeping, so my Dad gave me the nickname ‘Shobya’. Later on, my Grandma changed my nickname to ‘Kiki’ because I made her laugh.

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