Rwanda will, today, mark Heroes Day, a day on which the country pays tribute to Rwandans who lived at different times and who did extraordinary things in service of the nation, paying the ultimate price in the process.

The heroes we honour today are laid at the National Heroes’ Mausoleum in Remera, Kigali, where different dignitaries, led by President Paul Kagame will today lay wreaths in their honour.

According to the law establishing the Chancellery for Heroes, National Orders and Decorations of Honour (CHENO), a hero is any person who pursues objectives he/she undertakes to obtain a special achievement for the public interest and with high proven integrity, sacrifice and noble courage in their acts and who avoids being a coward in their actions in very trying situations.

Rwandan heroes are classified into three categories: Imanzi, Imena and Ingenzi.

Here is a look into the National Heroes being celebrated today.

Imanzi

CHENO defines Imanzi as the supreme hero who demonstrated outstanding achievements charactersed by supreme sacrifice, outstanding importance and example.

A person cannot join this category when they are still alive.

So far, heroes in Imanzi category are two; Maj. Gen. Fred Gisa Rwigema, the first commander of the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) and the ‘Unknown Soldier,’ who represents all fighters who died during the liberation struggle.

1. The Unknown Soldier

This soldier represents all the unidentified members of the armed struggle who paid the ultimate price in the effort to liberate the country from a dictatorial, divisive regime.

The soldier exemplifies the devotion by the numerous soldiers who dedicated their lives as they strived for the independence and protect the sovereignty and unity of Rwanda.

Rwigema was born on April 4, 1957 in Kidahwe Cell of Nyamyiyaga Sector in Kamonyi District.

At the age of five, Rwigema was, together with his parents, Anastase Kimonyo and Catherine Mukandirima, forced into exile in Uganda after the start of the 1959-1960 pogrom that was characterised by persecution and killings of the Tutsi.

From his childhood, he detested injustice and discrimination, and fought against them.

In 1976, Rwigema completed military training and went on to become a senior commander in Uganda with outstanding behaviour and performance, and he was exemplarily law-abiding, according to CHENO records.

He later joined hands with other Rwandans – largely refugees – who were grouped in Rwandese Alliance for National Unity (RANU) in launching preparations to liberate the country.

In 1987, he and others broadened RANU’s horizons to include Rwandans who held various politics converging to common goal to achieve democracy, peace and unity.

This is how Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi) came into being.

After being elected leader of RPF-Inkotanyi, and strengthening mobilisation as well as training activities, Rwigema convened all the people including soldiers who he realised shared the common vision with Inkotanyi to love Rwanda, and launched the battle to liberate Rwanda in 1990.

He gathered FPR party members and soldiers who were scattered in different brigades in Uganda, mobilised arms and ammunition ready to attack and liberate the country.

According to CHENO, Rwigema did all that in short time and in great secret.

Unfortunately, Rwigema died in Kayonza Cell of Matimba Sector in Nyagatare District on the second day of the liberation struggle on October 2, 1990.

Imena

A hero in the Imena category is one who is reputed for his/her extraordinary acts for the country which are characterized by supreme sacrifice, high importance and example.

Presently, heroes in this category include King Mutara III Rudahigwa, Michel Rwagasana, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, Félicité Niyitegeka, and Nyange (students) Heroes.

King Rudahigwa was born in 1911, and passed away in 1959.

In his lifetime, he led by example by placing great importance to the welfare of the people of Rwanda.

For instance, during the infamous famine called Ruzagayura – or Matemane as some name it – which struck Rwanda from 1942 to 1944, the King committed himself to save the lives of his people.

That time, he gave his numerous cows, and took others from the Chiefs as a contribution to feed the hungry [people].

Moreover, King Rudahigwa delivered impartial justice, and had zero tolerance to injustice such that he openly reprimanded prominent people who were convicted of misappropriating public resources in the trials held in the Royal Court which he led.

In 1954, King Rudahigwa abolished serfdom, a state of subjection to an owner or master or Ubuhake in Kinyarwanda; and in 1956, he ended forced labour called "Akazi.”

That showed the love he had towards Rwandans as he blocked the channels through which ‘greedy’ leaders were exploiting them.

In partnership with the then National High Council (equivalent to today’s parliament), King Rudahigwa requested that the ethnically divisive words Umuhutu, Umututsi, Umutwa be removed from the national identity card – Indangamuntu, but the Belgian colonial rulers of the time declined the request.

Sadly, the King died unexpectedly on July 25, 1959 in a hospital in Bujumbura, Burundi as he prepared to travel to New York to address the United Nations.

Born in 1927 in Ruhango District, Southern Province, Michel Rwagasana became the secretary of the National High Council since its establishment in February 1954.

That was after he completed secondary education in administrative assistance at Groupe Scolaire Astrida in Butare (Current Huye District) in 1950.

He became the first secretary of Union Nationale Rwandaise (Rwandese National Union)/UNAR in 1959, which called for immediate independence of Rwanda from Belgian administration.

Rwagasana became the party’s face in advocating for the independence of Rwanda, for which he was persecuted in 1960.

In 1961, he fled to Uganda with aim to organise legislative election because he, and some of his colleagues in UNAR, were committed to carry on the independence endeavor, and fight against the discriminatory politics led by white people and Rwandans who were appointed by Belgian rule.

Rwagasana became a deputy representing UNAR in the parliament of Rwanda from 1961 to 1963. He was killed by the regime of the first republic in December 1963 in Ruhengeri (current Musanze District).

Uwilingiyimana was born in Kansi Sector, Gisagara District on June 23, 1953.

She became the Minister of Education from April 16, 1992 to July 1993. 

She dared to abolish the ‘equilibrium policy’ in education that was based on placement of students in schools based on ethnicity. The policy oppressed Tutsi in terms of access to education.

Uwilingiyimana rooted for the fact that children should be allowed to pursue studies based on their performance in national examination, not ethnic consideration.

That stance led to persecution against her by many who favoured exclusion.

In July 1993, Uwilingiyimana became Rwanda’s Prime Minister. In that capacity, she challenged the dictatorial regime of the time – even as she was serving the country in the same period – by firmly standing against discrimination and injustice.

She was killed by former regime’s army on April 7, 1994, at the very beginning of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.

Niyitegeka was born in 1934 in Gishamvu Sector, Huye District.

She became the first Rwandan and African woman to be trained in Lourdes, France and took up her vocation as member of the "Auxiliaires de l’Apostolat” – Auxiliaries of the Apostolate – an organisation of the supporters of good evangelistic activities.

In 1994, when the Genocide against Tutsi was being committed, Niyitegeka was in Gisenyi, at a Catholic-run centre called Centre St Pierre, a hospitality facility that she managed.

The centre had hosted a retreat for members Auxiliaries of the Apostolate and among them were Tutsi.

Besides her colleagues, Niyitegeka received the Tutsi who sought refuge at the centre and spent most of the time praying with those people she was hiding.

At night, she would sneak them across Lake Kivu to flee into DR Congo after bribing soldiers, according to accounts of survivors.

Her brother, Colonel Alphonse Nzungize, told her to leave the Tutsi at the centre so that she does not get killed with them, and promised to provide soldiers to protect her.

But Niyitegeka refused to abandon the people she risked her life to protect.

Eventually, the Interahamwe militia picked them up and drove them to Commune Rouge, an infamous killing ground in Gisenyi town, where they were all killed.

5. Nyange Students

It was about 8pm, March 18, 1997, when students at Nyange Secondary School in Ngororero District, had finished their supper and were doing their night-time revision. 

Then, infiltrators (Abacengezi) sneaked into school and entered a classroom, ordered them to separate; the Tutsi on the left and the Hutu on the right.

The attackers were part of the Interahamwe and former soldiers, who would infiltrate the country mainly from DR Congo, kill people and run back across the border.

At Nyange, the students refused to yield to orders to divide them based on ethnic lines, replying "we are all Rwandans.”

The attackers started shooting the students indiscriminately.

Those Nyange heroes are 47 in total and, according to CHENO, seven of them died.

They include six who were killed immediately during the attack, and one who died in 2001 as a result of wounds inflicted from the attack.

Their example will serve as a model of unity of Rwandans for the current and future generations.