Young genocide survivour writes on forgiveness

A young Genocide survivor, Jean De Dieu Musabyimana has published a book on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and his long journey towards forgiving the people who killed his family. Musabyimana, 28, in his book titled “Love above all” narrates how the genocide started and how it ended leaving him the only survivor in a family of four. However, after struggling to put his life back on track for some time, he realized that the only way to heal completely was to forgive the people who killed his family. “I am talking about forgiveness as one way that can take us into reconciliation,” explains Musabyimana adding that in forgiveness, he also encourages those who killed to also seek for forgiveness equally. “Forgiving should be done in love that comes from the bottom of the heart, and not forgiving just for the sake of doing it,” he says. In this book, Musabyimana tries to take the readers back into a brief history of his family before the genocide. He talks of how he was taught about divisionism in school at a tender age and the evidence of a genocide prepared for a long time. He talks about how he lost his mother, brother and his grandfather. His father had been poisoned before the genocide. In the book, Musabyimana is quoted as saying: “My life struggle started then, commemorating my lost family and the way they died, searching if any of my relatives had survived and trying to earn everyday life as I did not hope for the future.” Musabyimana who is currently a second year student of TV and Video Production says that belief in God after all these events, has helped him to put himself back into order and contribute to the development of his country. He says that in the book, he focuses so much on the youth because he finds it hard to change grownups. But he also asks the grownups to give the chance to the young ones to think for themselves and take the right course. Musabyimana is also writing another book about children who were born out of rape during the genocide which he hopes to publish in a year’s time. The 119 pages book can be obtained from www.amazon.com and will soon be in the country.