illume creative studio

Remembering my neighbors and childhood friends In this photo, Cyicyi places his hand on Poussette’s head. Diane Uwera stands behind Emery. These four siblings from the Muhiza family in Gatagara were all killed and thrown into their family’s latrine during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. I am grateful to Charlotte, their eldest sister who survived and now lives in the USA, for sharing this precious photo as she knows how I am connected to them. After my family survived the Bagogwe massacre in 1992, we relocated to Gatagara, in Nyanza District where we became close neighbors with the Muhiza family. I attended the same primary school as Cyicyi and Diane , we walked to and from school together. Like many children, they enjoyed teasing me and starting conversations just to hear me speak, amused by my northern Kinyarwanda accent. Every word I said made them laugh. They would even joke that I wasn’t Rwandan, calling me “Mukiga.” Even as children, Cyicyi and Uwera were curious. They used to ask me what the Interahamwe looked like, as Gatagara was then dominated by opposition parties like PL, PSD, and MDR, before the rise of the extremist faction. Just days later, Cyicyi, Uwera, Poussette, and Emery would witness the unimaginable cruelty of the Interahamwe as former members of PL and MDR had transformed into “pawa,” indistinguishable from the Interahamwe and CDR members. Muhiza, an entrepreneur originally from Gikongoro, was married to two sisters. Together with his two wives and their seven children, he was brutally murdered during the genocide. We will always remember your faces. #Kwibuka31