Rhema Nkundiryayo is among the few artists that have used their talent to tell stories of hope, 27 years after the genocide against the Tutsi. In his portrait, he reveals a candle shining between two people. He says that this picture demonstrates two people-male and female- both of whom seem sad starring at a burning candle. This, he says is basically an indication of the incident that left thousands of innocent souls dead in cold blood. The contemporary artist notes that such kind of art is not only aimed at remembering the horror that occurred in Rwanda, but is also purposed to bring healing by the light of peace and hope among Rwandans today. one of his portraits “We learn from history and can build something great and precious from the bad history we had, but all in all, have no doubt that hope prevails,” he says. To him, all artists should use their tools to display the message of healing because sometimes art communicates vividly about many issues that cannot be expressed verbally. He calls upon artists to ensure that their works are clearly aimed at healing the broken hearts. “Art can be used to bring unity and reconciliation, this can be done by for example, having an art exhibition with a theme relating to forgiveness and unity among the people.” Nkundiryayo has embarked on the journey of using his art to tell stories that will not be erased but bring confidence, and forgiveness even to the generations to come. He says that the best way to build unity mostly among the young generation, is through making more storytelling books with illustrations about what happened and the measures to fight against genocide ideology.
