Ghana’s Ashesi University is set to establish a lasting monument on it's campus on the outskirts of Accra, in remembrance of the Genocide against Tutsi.
The announcement was made by its President and Founder Patrick Awuah during a commemoration event that took place on Friday, May 17.
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He said the monument will also recognise the contribution of the Ghanaian contingent that constituted the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) under the leadership of Retired Major General Henry Kwami Anyidoho, who despite the order to evacuate convinced the Ghanaian government and stayed, saving thousands of lives.
Referencing Rwanda’s transformation after the Genocide against Tutsi, Awuah said the country now represents Africa’s hope, and proves that when people put their minds to something, they can achieve it.
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Rwanda’s High Commissioner to Ghana Rosemary Mbabazi told more than 300 gathered at the commemoration ceremony that what Ashesi University has done shows that remembering the victims of the genocide is not just for Rwanda alone but "all of us in Africa and the whole world.”
"By remembering, we restore dignity to those who were brutally massacred as though they were not humans and stand in solidarity with survivors, who were left with immense physical and psychological scars,” she remarked.
"In our present world, even here in Africa, we have groups who are still facing state-sanctioned discrimination which has all the indicators of genocidal targeting. We must all be agents in the fight against hate speech – which includes the denial of genocides such as the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi – and refusing to fall victim to the same,” she urged her audience.
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General Anyidoho, who was also at the event, made a presentation about his memory of the events that unfolded in Rwanda.
He challenged his audience to be determined to defy the status quo to make Africa great.
"If you do not do it, do not expect that anyone else will ever do it for you,” he said.