At a time when genocide denial is rampant abroad, in countries where some of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi still live, Rwandans in the diaspora have taken on the responsibility of challenging denialism narratives.

Many Rwandans living abroad, including Genocide survivors, some residing in countries that still do not term what happened in Rwanda properly, have chosen to not only challenge the deniers but also present them with their own documented narratives and encounters.

A good example is Jason Havuga Nshimye, a Rwandan author who lives in the United States, who, together with his wife Francoise Uwimana Nshimye, both Genocide survivors, decided to confront Genocide deniers and revisionists head-on.

Nshimye, who is currently the chairperson of Ibuka - US Chapter, has together with his spouse, authored a book titled "Rwanda: Remember, Unite, Renew” which dwells on Rwanda’s horrific past and the country’s remarkable recovery over the past three decades.

As the president of Ibuka, a position he has been holding since 2020, Nshimye, who also serves in the U.S Air Force, has been at the forefront of efforts to ensure that Rwanda’s history is not twisted or misrepresented abroad, especially by people with their own interests.

In their book, Nshimye and his wife delve into Rwanda’s dark past, focusing on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. They elaborate on how the Genocide was orchestrated, tracing its origins to colonial powers who fostered ethnic rifts among Rwandans.

It is a book Nshimye believes will go a long way in dismantling false narratives aimed at misleading people and the world at large, by bringing out the true depictions of what transpired in Rwanda and how it goes many decades back.

Making it out alive

Born in what used to be known as Kibuye, now Karongi District, in Western Province, Nshimye and Uwimana grew up together and survived the Genocide together. He was 15 and she was 8 when the massacres began in 1994.

For them, April 1994 was the climax of something that had been going on for years, as the western and northern regions of the country had been testing grounds for the Genocide against the Tutsi before its full implementation.

"Our own experience didn’t only start in 1994 because we faced discrimination and torture from a very young age. I was beaten several times by Hutu teachers in front of the class,” Nshimye said.

"I remember one day I had to jump through a classroom window and run for my life because the former mayor’s son was chasing me with a knife. Later that week, I found out that this attempted crime was planned by several students, who also included the school inspector’s son,” he said.

Nshimye and Uwimana witnessed such incidents several times and no legal actions were taken by authorities, just as it was across the country, where Tutsi families endured years of difficulties and discrimination in the lead-up to 1994.

The couple, then young children, witnessed and survived the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, from the beginning to the end, in the most difficult of circumstances and in a region where horrendous massacres occurred.

When full-scale massacres unfolded on April 7, 1994, Nshimye did not know much about what awaited them. When tensions rose, the Tutsi, as they did before 1990, went to Mugonero Complex, a facility operated by the Seventh Day Adventist Church, to seek refuge.

Here, they hoped to be spared because Mugonero Complex, which had a church, a hospital, and a nursing school, was considered a ‘holy compound’. Many Tutsi had survived massacres by hiding there.

"I was happy to get there because I remembered that I survived there before and hoped that they would be afraid to kill us in God’s house,” recalled Nshimye, but this time it wasn’t going to be the case.

When the attacks started, escalated by radio and TV announcements that called on Hutu to hunt down Tutsi, who they described as ‘snakes’, many Tutsi in the area sought refuge in church complexes.

"Roadblocks had been mounted everywhere in the country and Tutsi were not allowed to travel inside or outside of the country. When we got to the complex, there were about 18,000 people,” Nshimye said.

Here at Mugonero complex, Nshimye and many of his relatives stayed for many days without food and other basic supplies. A few days later, they cut off the water supply to the complex.

What followed later came to be known as one of the most atrocious massacres at Mugonero, on April 16, 1994, where the majority of those who sought shelter there were killed.

"A few days before the mass killing happened at the complex, we saw two policemen in government uniforms, at that time they were called gendarmes, with their weapons coming into the complex,” he recalled further.

"The duo stayed there watching who was present and who was not because they had a list of adults and well-known Tutsi to kill,” he said, adding that among them was the Director of Mugonero Nursing School, Jean Nkuranga.

Nkuranga Jean had been hiding in the hills of Gisovu, and when the armed men kept asking about his whereabouts, "one of the people went to him and told him to come.”

"He came into the complex. This was the strategy used to get us together to facilitate the mass killing. Truly, I did not recognise the danger until April 15, 1994, when there were rumours that we would all be killed the next day,” Nshimye told The New Times.

Before the Friday evening prayer, seven Seventh-Day Adventist Tutsi pastors had written and sent a letter to Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, who was the head of the complex, seeking assurances and protection.

The pastors, identified as Ezekiel Semugeshi, Isaka Rucondo Seth Rwanyabuto, Eliezel Seromba, Seth Sebihe, Gerome Gakwaya, and Ezekias Zigirinshuti, appealed on behalf of the helpless people.

Our dear leader, Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana. How are you? We wish you to be strong in all these problems we are facing. We wish to inform you that we have heard that tomorrow we will be killed with our families.

"We therefore request to intervene on our behalf and talk with the mayor. We believe that, with the help of God who entrusted you with the leadership of this flock, which is going to be destroyed, your intervention will be highly appreciated, the same way as the Jews were saved by Esther,” they wrote.

Nshimye was among the few people who were present when they were writing and reading the letter.

Ironically, it was Ntakirutimana, who personally drove in a convoy of militias who annihilated the thousands of helpless refugees hiding in the complex with grenades and bullets, killing the majority of them. Just a few managed to escape.

Ntakirutimana, and his son Gérard Ntakirutimana, who would later be convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR), were said to have personally participated in the killings along with his son, very often coordinating massacres.

Out of the thousands hiding at Mugonero Complex, only a handful, including Nshimye, managed to survive and marched to Bisesero, where Tutsi, led by Aminadab Birara, put up a spirited defence against the killers.

"We hid in the hills of the Bisesero area until June 30 when were rescued and then RPF transferred us to a safe zone in the current Muhanga District,” the couple said, expressing special gratitude to RPF-Inkotanyi soldiers who risked their lives to stop the Genocide and rescue them.

It was miraculous to survive in the area, which also fell under what was known as ‘Zone Turquoise’, manned by the French military, which shielded genocidaires who were fleeing west, towards then-Zaire, killing many Tutsi along the way.

Nine years later in 2003, Nshimye relocated to the US, and in 2005, he got married to his childhood sweetheart Uwimana and they currently have four children.

Writing their story

When they set out to write the book "Rwanda: Remember. Renew. Unite”, their mission was to document their own experience but also ensure that those who want to revise history will have to grapple with the reality people faced.

"There are many reasons that inspired us to write this book; one of them is that if something is not written, it means it never happened or might disappear,” they said.

"Secondly, there are many fictitious materials circulating around the world which have false information, so we wanted to tell the true story and the root cause of Genocide against Tutsi since 1959,” they added.

The couple said they wanted to make sure that the current international community leaders and the next generations have enough evidence to prevent genocide from happening anywhere else in the world.

Nshimye and Uwimana said they wanted to tell the world that race, ethnicity, and other policies of discrimination can lead to hate ideology or crimes against innocent citizens.

Thirty years on, there are fears that many Genocide survivors have not been able to recount their stories or document them in a book or film. Nshimye and Uwimana believe their book can encourage other survivors to document their stories while they still can.

"We hope that witnesses continue to speak up. It is not a good idea to assume that community members or citizens of the world know the truth about the Genocide without telling them,” Nshimye asserted, emphasising the importance of documentation.

Confronting Genocide denial

As the president of Ibuka, the umbrella association of Genocide survivors, in the US for the past three years, one of the biggest concerns he has is that genocide ideology and denial remain rampant abroad.

Despite efforts by Rwandans and friends of Rwanda to be storytellers in many places, particularly in educating the younger generation abroad, genocide denial and revisionism continue to get bolder by the day.

"The sad part is that sometimes we see genocide denial among foreigners who know the truth and hold government offices. The said government officials spread wrong information and avoid using the proper name of "Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

"These attacks are very devastating and offending to survivors and Rwanda in general. Our message is that wrong doesn’t become right and a lie doesn’t become truth no matter what,” Nshimye said.

Nshimye reiterated President Paul Kagame’s message during Kwibuka 30—that those still grappling with vagueness and ambiguity in naming the Genocide against the Tutsi should just keep quiet or go back in history and learn.

"President Kagame is very right, and we the people have an obligation to continue fighting this last stage of genocide which is genocide denial,” Nshimye said.

"We do know that among genocide denial strategies is vagueness and ambiguity in naming it. It is not by accident or ignorance for any country to choose that partway, but it is a hypocritical policy that is unjust,” he said, cautioning against efforts to politicise people’s lives.

In the book, they emphasise how unity and reconciliation have helped Rwandans, including themselves, to heal, have long-lasting peace and achieve bigger dreams for themselves and their country.

"But the most important thing is that we can testify that Rwanda’s future generations will never be divided into ethnicities again or accept to be discriminated against because of how they look,” Nshimye said.

Keeping it Rwandan

Much as they live abroad, Nshimye and Uwimana have been able to keep tabs on what is happening back home and stay attached to Rwanda as their country of origin.

"It is very simple because we are citizens of the world that work together. Also, serving another country is a goal and a dream like any other dream in life, but it doesn’t take away someone’s history, freedom, and basic human rights.

"Rwanda gave birth to us, and we will never forget where we came from regardless of any current or future situations,” he said.

Nshimye and Uwimana believe that every Rwandan, wherever they are, can be a voice and an ambassador of Rwanda, given that if the country had not taken the current path and if people hadn’t chosen to become one, it wouldn’t be where it is today.

"Peace and healing were going to be almost impossible if there was no unity, reconciliation, and forgiveness in Rwanda. Thank you, President Kagame, and the RPF for giving a second life to survivors, because some of us "survivors” survived from the grave,” he said.

Nshimye and Uwimana’s book touches on the role of Bishop Andre Perraudin in propagating the ideology that fuelled hatred, alongside the continued perpetuation of this sentiment or perceptions by other Europeans, which led to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The couple demonstrates how unity and reconciliation sparked the country’s rebuilding across various aspects of life, including the economy, medicine, education, technology, investment, and sports, to mention but a few.

The book which was published in February can be found on Amazon and other platforms.