Rwandan youth in Manchester organise Genocide commemoration

On a breezy April day in Manchester, candles of hope were lit for the 18th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Some people gathered to learn more about the Genocide. Others gathered to inquire about the banner on Oxford Road displaying the words ‘Remember Rwanda, say no to Genocide’.  All of the Rwandan students who organised the commemoration realised that they have, at one time or another been in that awkward situation where the next sentence their interlocutor says, after they know he or she is from Rwanda is almost predictable: Genocide, Hotel Rwanda, ethnicity or that overly long silence. It is never reconstruction, resilience, reconciliation, thousand hills or mountain gorillas.