Collège St Albert de Bujumbura, a secondary school established by Rwandan students exiled in Belgium and DR Congo for their fellow Rwandan refugees in Burundi, is a legacy for all Rwandans who were once uprooted from their homeland, said First Lady, Jeannette Kagame. She made the remarks during the launch of the book titled “Collège St Albert de Bujumbura, un monument de la solidarité humaine” which was written by Club Solidarité St Albert. The book launch which took place on March 25, brought together different government officials and other multi-sectoral dignitaries who are among other people who either studied, taught, or had a certain connection with the school. In attendance was also one of the founding members, Athanase Gafirigi, 87, and family representatives of other pioneers. The book is written in five sections that tell the difficulties that the pioneers went through while establishing the school, the journey from DR Congo to Burundi, the transformation it went through challenges and success as it made roots before the liberation struggle. It includes also the commemoration of the lives lost, the golden jubilee celebration as well as 21 testimonies of former students and teachers. In her address, the First Lady said that the long-awaited College St Albert Book by many, honors the triumph of a whole country, on ethnic division as it narrates the splendor and benefits of a victory of harmony over hate. “At St Alberts College, the price of change that has marked many of our lives was a non-negotiable academic, ethical and cultural commitment. No student could deny the strong expectations of the whole community for each child of St Albert,” she said. She commended the founding members of the school saying that: “although they were only slightly older than their students, they knew how to project themselves in time, and establish the discipline of rigorous training and versatile, of each child.” While the refugee status deprived Rwandans the right to a political commitment which is yet necessary, she said, St Albert rose up like a majestic rampart “for our academic and civic development.” Mrs. Kagame was also among students from the neighbourhoods who were able to do their evening studies at St Albert school. The school was founded on November 15, 1963, in Katobwe, South Kivu, now DR Congo, but after only one year, due to the Mulele war that broke out in that period, it was relocated to Burundi in the neighbourhood of Ngagara which hosted a big number of Rwandan refugees. The private school which started with 76 students of whom only 11 are still alive, performed outstandingly in the face of other Burundian public and private schools, and it issued around 1,119 certificates in the period of 1968-1994. A total of 447 teachers from different countries including Rwandans, Burundians, Congolese, and Canadians among others taught at the school which not only enrolled Rwandan students but also other nationalities who wished so. Dr. Juru Ruranganwa, a retired medical doctor who also taught Physics at St Albert school while he was still in university, said that this is a legacy of what the love of the country means, students who sacrificed their well-deserved careers and opted to start and teach in a refugee school without a salary. He added that despite lack of resources and in an unconducive environment, students had the hunger to succeed driven by the Rwandan culture instilled in them through dialogues, theatre, poetry, among other ways. General Jean Bosco Kazura, Chief of Defence staff in Rwanda Defence Force, said that the love of the country, human and patriotic solidarity is what brought them this far. It was from St Albert school that he and other male and female students joined the Rwanda Patriot Army (RPA) in the liberation struggle of Rwanda from the period of 1990-94. Francine Umurungi, Alumni of St Albert who was also at the frontline in RPA to stop the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, honored the school’s commitment to providing equitable education to girls and boys and transmitted cultural values to them which guided and protected them along the way. She said that despite the challenge of lack of girls’ dormitories in the school, no girl student dropped out of school because of pregnancy even though they were day scholars subject to different forms of deceptions. The Solidarity Club of St Albert plans to construct a new Collège St Albert in Rwanda, and officials disclosed that they have already acquired land in Bugesera. Gen. Kazura requested the attendees to build on what is already accomplished in the country as they establish another St Albert school in Rwanda with the same values, without wasting time.
