Looking at the pre and post-Genocide period, the youth played a big role both times.

The pre-group played a major part in inciting and carrying out one of the worst atrocities known to mankind during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in which over one million innocent people were mercilessly slaughtered because of their ethnicity.

On the other hand, the post-genocide youth are encouraged to reconcile, forgive and reconstruct the country. Endless effort has been put into rebuilding the nation over the last 24 years, and much of it has been through the youth.

The youth have a big role to play in rebuilding the country, especially during the commemoration period when we honour the innocent souls lost, and help survivors rebuild their lives.

The youth should understand that they are at the forefront of the fight against genocide ideology, and by working together, we will end it.

Below is a poem written by Samira Uwase. Uwase has played a part in spreading the word of renewed hope, love and trust; it is now our turn to play our part.

OUR PAST

History has become a beautiful stepping-stone

Though it burns of flames

Stinks of hate and rape and murder, we still aren’t ashamed of sharing it

Inside of it are the thousands of lost souls

There’s an unbearable scene

Full of screaming voices, bloody rivers

Gangs of murderers singing their lungs out

Passing in an alert to the rest.

That the worst moments are yet to come.

History has broken homes

It has taken lives

It has left us with no hope, no love and no trust

24 years now,

We should be having more criminal cases

Shouldn’t we?

We should be having comrades getting justice for their lost ones

Right?

Sometimes resting on your past doesn’t clear the scripts

It doesn’t change the discomfort

It doesn’t heal the wounds

It doesn’t make it beautiful

So we learn to forgive.

We mend the scars and repaint the hearts

On this burning platform, we’ve built a bridge

Not to hide our history but to shield it.

Till forever we will always remember

Not for revenge, not for regret, not for terror

But for growth

For accepting our past and using it as a tool

To save the lost hope, love and trust