From  2008, the Association of Graduate Genocide Survivors (GAERG) commemorate, each year, completely perished families during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. 

This year, the commemoration of these families will be held on Saturday May 15 at Nyanza Genocide Memorial in Kicukiro district.

This is one of the activities which are carried out by GAERG to keep alive the memory of victims of the Genocide especially those families which were totally decimated. Up to now, GAERG has already identified  about 15,593 completely wiped out families which comprised 68,871 members.

The fact that 15,593 families were completely killed and no one survived is a sound evidence of the Genocidal plan to kill all the Tutsi as it had been declared several times by various media (Kangura Newspaper, Radio Télévision des Milles Collines,…..). 

However, even if none survived from those families, they are not forgotten at all and they will not be as long as GAERG members live! Our promise to them is " Ntukazime nararokotse,” literally translated : "As I survived, you will never be forgotten.”

Today, I would like to share a brief story on a close family of mine which was completely annihilated during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. It is the family of a brother to my maternal grandfathe Denis Rwangeyo. 

The family  I am commemorating through this article and many more commemoration activities belongs to André Kabera. He was the last born to Paul Rwabanda and Nyiramusengo. His family tree reads as follows: Kabera son of Rwabanda, son of Ruhuga, son of Bukuba, son of Rugirangoga, son of Kagabo, son of Sentama, son of Mutana, son of Sabudugu. 

They belong to the ABASINGA clan while the extended family name is ABADUGU. History says that the family migrated from Ndorwa to Nyaruguru, Bufundu and Bunyambilili (Mugano and Karehe). 

André Kabera was born around 1925. After primary school, he joined the Minor Seminary of Save and, later on,  his parents did not allow him to continue to Major Seminary because, at that time, they did not wish him to join priesthood. They therefore  advised him to drop out of school and apply for a job. 

He was hired as a primary school teacher. He was a kind, loving and very patient teacher. All pupils from Karehe village (it was situated within a kilometre north of Kaduha Primary School) used walk to and return from school with André Kabera. They were never late because Teacher André was always on time. He exercised this noble profession until he went to retirement in early 1990’s. 

André Kabera married Félicité Yabaragiye and were blessed with eight children (three sons and five daughters): Evariste Nzaramba, Védaste Sebera, Marie Gemma Mukabutera, Callixte Usengumuremyi, Marie Josée Byukusenge, Prisca Mukashyaka, Vincent Karangwa and Jeanne d’Arc Uwizeramariya. 

By the time of Genocide, in April 1994, three among Kabera’s children were married: those are Sebera, Nzaramba, and Mukabutera. 

Sebera was a tall, soft spoken man. He had not had a chance to enroll in secondary school like his sister Marie Gemma and Evariste Nzaramba. He rather joined a post-primary vocational training centre in Kaduha where he studied masonry. 

He made his living from this training. He married Béatrice Mukabutera with whom they had four beautiful children (Vestine, Alexis Sebera, Uwineza and Ingabire). His wife, Béatrice passed away before the Genocide while Vedaste Sebera and all his children were killed on April 21, 1994 at Kaduha Parish.

Evariste Nzaramba was an agronomist in OCIR-Thé at Shagasha Tea Factory. He was a brown (inzobe), cool, soft spoken and courageous man. He annually took his holiday and brought his six children and wife to visit his own family as well as the extended family members. He was killed in April 1994 with his second born Jean Claude Nzaramba (14 years old at that time and S2 student). His wife and five children survived but the wife and one son also died later on.

Marie Gemma Mukabutera  was a kind and smart girl. I still vividly remember her air-filled perfume wherever she passed by. She was a primary school teacher as her father André Kabera. 

She married Martin Habayo, a secondary school teacher at Ecole des Sciences at Nyanza. They lived at Mugonzi (Nyanza) and  had five children (three girls including twins and two boys). They were all killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. 

It means that the Habayo family was also completely wiped out.

Prisca Mukashyaka was a black beauty with long black hair. She was a kind, smart and courageous girl. After primary school, she joined a  3-year female training centre (Ecole Familiale) at Kaduha, and later on a 2-year course in type-writing which did in Butare.  Thereafter, she  was hired as clerk at Kaduha Intermediate Court. 

She was humble and friendly. During the weekends, she used to wash her own clothes, her parents’ clothes and sibling clothes at the water well from morning to afternoon. She also used to sweep their compound and surrounding. 

I remember that she had been the first to inform me that I was admitted into secondary school, as the list was hung at the Sous-Prefecture office, nearby her work place.

Marie Josée Byukusenge was a brown tall and smart girl with long black hair. Like her sister, after primary school, she joined a  3-year female training centre (Ecole Familiale) at Kaduha, and later on a tailoring  training centre at Nyanza.  

She eked out a living as a tailor for some years in Nyanza town and later in Kigali and later on returned home in Kaduha. She would make clothes for her nieces and nephews as well as her  neighbors' children who were mostly her extended family members.

Vincent Karangwa was the second last born in André Kabera’s family. He was a brown tall young man with thick black hair and beard. He was smart, cool and soft spoken. He had been lucky to attend secondary school at Collège du Christ Roi at Nyanza. 

When he completed secondary school, he worked  as IPJ ( Inspecteur de la Police Judiciaire) at the Primary Court of Musange (Gikongoro Prefecture). 

In 1990,  Karangwa joined the National University of Rwanda in the faculty of law located at Mburabuturo as a private student. Because he was a brilliant student, he was awarded  a scholarship in 1993 but was killed before he benefited from it. 

He escaped from Kaduha with the help of his friend; Dr Léandre Hakizimana and fled to Nyanza where joined his older sister Marie Gemma but, unfortunately, was killed with her entire family.

Jeanne d’Arc Uwizeramariya was the last born to André Kabera’s family. She looked like her older sister Prisca Mukashyaka. She was a black beauty with long black hair. 

After primary school, she joined a private secondary school which was freshly opened at Nyanza (ESPANYA) where she enrolled as a day student. She  was hosted by her older sister Marie Gemma. 

During the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, she was in senior six and had come home in Kaduha for Easter holidays. She was with her parents and siblings with whom she was killed near Kaduha Parish. She is the only one, amongst her family members whose body was identified. We decently buried her in Kaduha  Genocide memorial.

While commemorating the family of André Kabera who was a primary school teacher, let me use the same opportunity to  pay tribute to other primary school teachers whose families have been completely wiped out.  

I particularly think of my primary school teachers: Abdon Gatarayiha, his wife Mathilde Kabarere and their five children, Jean Baptiste Kalinda and his wife Agnès Nyiransengimana and their three children, Antoine Harelimana, his wife Clothilde Umuraza and their five children, Marcellin Kaneza and his wife. 

You all whose families have been totally massacred testify that Genocide against Tutsi was meant to kill all of us. You live through our hearts, our everyday thoughts and lives.  We will always cherish your memories. Your exemplary, wise and trustworthy lives will continue to inspire us. As we survived, you will never be forgotten!

The writer belongs to the CYUSE Family within the GAERG community