Resources

Appolinaire Kageruka was 24 years old, and working as a teacher, when the Genocide in Rwanda began in 1994.

Henriette Mutegwaraba was born in 1972 in the Butare province of Rwanda. Her parents were farmers and owned land. She was the firstborn of the family and had two brothers and three sisters. She says that life was ‘not too bad’ before the Genocide. She was 24 when the Genocide in Rwanda took place.

In this transcript of her speech to the UK HMD 2013 Commemorative Event, Sophie Masereka describes how she survived the Genocide in Rwanda.

Adrien Niyonshuti is an Olympic Mountain Biker for Team Rwanda. He survived the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, but lost many of his family and loved ones. He was the flag-bearer for Rwanda in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.

Genocide survivor Clare lost her family in the violence which engulfed Rwanda in 1994. She was repeatedly raped and left mutilated after being left for dead in a killing pit. Here she describes her experiences.

In this testimony, survivor of the Genocide in Rwanda Beatha Uwazaninka talks about life before 1994, and how she survived 100 terrifying days of Genocide. She explains how she sees Rwanda today, and what she thinks about forgiving the people who killed her family.

Freddy was 18 when the Genocide in Rwanda began. Only he and his sister survived from his family. In this testimony Freddy describes how his family were killed, and how he survived.

9 December is Genocide Prevention Day, marking the anniversary of the UN Genocide Convention.

Andrew Sutton has kindly provided these photographs relating to the Genocide in Rwanda. You can use these at your HMD activity.

On 24 June 1900, Raphael Lemkin – the man who coined the word ‘genocide’ – was born. Lemkin was deeply saddened by massacres of the past and was affected by genocide himself when his own family were murdered during the Holocaust. He dedicated his life to getting genocide officially recognised as a crime by nations across the world.