The African Students Association marked the 24th anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide at a commemoration Tuesday.
Rwandan students hosted a Walk to Remember three years ago to mark the genocide, but last year was the first year the ASA hosted a memorial, said Grace-Kelly Muvunyi, junior nutrition major and global studies minor from Kiyovu, Rwanda.
The Rwandan genocide was a 100-day massacre between the tribes of Tutsi, Hutu and Twa. Over 1 million innocent lives were lost. The official date was April 7, 1994, but Grace-Kelly argues the it actually began when “one man could look at another man and not see a human.”
The memorial was organized by nine Rwandan students. During the memorial they gave personal testimonies, read poems and participated in a candle-lighting ceremony.
“This genocide occurred before the lives of us students, but it was our parents’ generation that experienced the genocide. It was our parents’ generation that choose to heal, forgive and rebuild our country,” Muvunyi said. “And it is our generation that will continue to remember the lives lost, and to continuously fight against genocide ideology.”
