Omar Ndizeye was only 10 years old when his father, younger brother, members of his family and people he knew and loved as a child were slaughtered right before his eyes.

Ndizeye was born in the former Kanzenze Commune that is currently part of Bugesera District, Ntarama Sector in the eastern province, and he was among the very few who survived the mass killings at Nyamata Catholic Church in Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.

"My life during the Genocide was daily survival, our life expectancy was almost one minute. For me specifically, I survived the two-day massacre at Nyamata Catholic Church, Sunday school and Priest’s monastery on April 15 and 16.

"From then to May 13, when Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) Inkotanyi liberated Bugesera, I escaped the many killings taking place in different locations of Nyamata from Rwakibilizi, Nyirarukobwa to the forest of Karambi and Kayumba.”

As a child, Ndizeye had to witness shocking moments that he had never seen before, and so he decided to share his story with the world.

"I wanted to tell the world the life we lived and the lives we lost in Nyamata because when people don’t know history, it becomes easy for them to deny it or minimise it,” he says.

He says he wanted to "give a voice” to the people the country lost during the Genocide by not only talking about their last days that were full of uncertainty and brutal killings, but also highlighting their life which was characterised by sharing, happiness and resilience to overcome many years of torment.

"I wanted to give hope an image and to tell the world that hope is what surviving the Genocide means, because it represents life and not darkness — as the latter links to the Genocide.

"Overcoming the Genocide and its aftermath, at the same time working with others to remember our past, with a focus of building a peaceful future full of hope, was my biggest motivation when I started writing this book,” he says.

Ndizeye always sees life through positive lenses despite challenges and human weaknesses. He is currently focusing on co-authoring the second book project titled "Journey through Rwandan Memorials”.

It is a book that will combine the history and cartography of memorials in Rwanda as well as the memory process of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda.

He is a graduate of the former Kigali Institute of Education (KIE), now University of Rwanda –College of Education where he majored in Economics with Education.

In 2011, he worked with AERG as the second vice coordinator at the national level and executive secretary.

He also worked for ‘Never Again Rwanda’ for nearly seven years. Ndizeye has dedicated his life to Genocide memory work and peacebuilding.

As a youth leader, he was a public speaker in the community, schools, institutions, on radio and TV in Rwanda, mostly during the commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.

In 2019 he was also a guest speaker during ‘The Holocaust Remembrance Week’ at Weber State University in Utah, USA.

About the book

Ndizeye says that "Life and Death in Nyamata, Memoir of a Young Boy in Rwanda’s darkest Church” is a personal story and journey.

"This book was my humble way of representing life we lived and the life we lost in Nyamata. It is a memoir that I wanted to share with hope because as someone once said ‘At the end of the tunnel there is light’,” he says.

The process of writing the book and reaching a deal with Amsterdam Publishers to publish the book took Ndizeye a year in negotiations.

"Life and Death in Nyamata, Memoir of a Young Boy in Rwanda’s darkest Church” is a biography that brings the reader to an unimaginable place of fear and disbelief when at any moment life could end.”

"Yet Omar manages to tell his story with a sense of gratitude and joy at being alive. Journey with Omar as he vividly describes the days preceding the Genocide, his escape into the hills of Bugesera, and days of survival, believing in the strength of the human spirit to live a life of hope beyond fear, pain, and loss,” the book synopsis reads.

You can purchase Ndizeye's book on Amazon using this link Life and Death in Nyamata: Memoir of a Young Boy in Rwanda’s darkest Church