As Rwanda commemorates the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi that claimed over one million lives in just 100 days, one survivor’s tale of bravery and cleverness in saving lives comes to light. Fifty-three-year-old Jeanne d’Arc Mukabucyana, a mother of four living in Kimisagara Sector, Nyarugenge District, demonstrated unwavering resolve and courage during the country’s darkest period. With just a needle and pen ink, she altered identity classifications, ultimately saving over 10 lives. ALSO READ: ‘They hacked my kids to death and dumped them in toilets’: A survivor’s traumatic story and the initiative to help Genocide orphans “As one ethnic group was being targeted and killed, I utilised skills learned from a friend. Using a needle and pen ink, I altered the ethnic identification from Tutsi to Hutu, thus protecting a few individuals who managed to get to me,” she said. Mukabucyana, 23 years old at the time, with two young children, couldn’t leave her location. Instead, she assisted all her neighbours in relocating to safer areas. “My babies and my facial features were a big challenge at the time as anyone could easily tell that I was of Tutsi ethnicity, this led to difficulties in relocating, and often resulted in further complications whenever I attempted to move. Eventually, I decided to stay home and be killed from there with my family, but that’s where I survived,” she said. ALSO READ: Kwibuka28: Rwandans in Middle East commemorate After some of her neighbours were killed, all six orphaned children went to Mukabucyana’s small house. Realising it wasn’t safe to have many people, she decided to change the ethnicity on their identity cards. “The first take on my husband’s ID wasn’t successful, and then my next trial on one of the children was. I would alter the letters in Tutsi, or change the names, and this helped them cross some of roadblocks in the country (Tutsi weren’t allowed to go through),” she added. “I helped even more of my neighbours after seeing that my tactic was working.” ALSO READ: Books that reflect on the Genocide A survivor’s recollection Daniel Nshimiyumuremyi, a 44-year-old resident of Kimisagara, is one of the survivors who received assistance from Mukabucyana. He shared his story after she changed his ID ethnicity classification. “After my ID was changed I was able to cross a couple of the borders, which wasn’t an easy thing to do because some of the people well knew that my parents were of Tutsi ethnicity which automatically made me a Tutsi,” he said. “They would delay me asking questions regarding how I got the ID description of a Hutu, I would come up with the excuse of my father being a Hutu and saying that it is how I got my ID.” He said that after a lot of struggles, running from shootings, he later made it to Sainte Famille Hotel where his life was saved. Beating the odds Mukabucyana said that she later survived from her own home as many of the people who went there to kill her knew her. “I was once taken by Interahamwe to be killed with my family, we then met Hakizimana who was a family friend and he told the group to leave us, as we were going to die anyway,” she said. “He later showed us a safer path to take that didn’t have Interahamwe roadblocks, so we could make it back home safely.” After a long period of relying on water for the most part from her Hutu neighbours, she received positive news that RPF-Inkotanyi was rescuing people and reclaiming territories, including Sainte Famille where she and her family would later go to seek refuge. “My neighbours would sometimes give us water and firewood, or even potatoes, which was rare, but we lived like that until we heard that Inkotanyi was rescuing people. And so we found our way to Sainte Famille as we feared that anytime Interahamwe would come and kill us. We later made it back home when it was safer,” she said. Mukabucyana’s husband later got a job from a businessman who would import second-hand shoes for sale, and in 2002, he (her husband) brought her into the business to sell them in mini-markets. “For a shoe priced at Rwf 5,000, I aimed for a Rwf 2,000 profit. Over time, I honed my business skills and eventually secured a bank loan to import my merchandise. This venture became my primary income source, as the government helped me cover my children's school fees,” she said. Mukabucyana and her husband had managed to construct a home and improve their living standards until the prohibition of second-hand products in Rwanda. Their adult children began to support the family, along with a monthly allowance received from the Genocide Survivors Support and Assistance Fund (FARG) — an organisation in Rwanda that assists survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
