For many years, Jean Népo Sibomana was not able to come back to Rwankuba, his home town, where his family was among those who were brutally killed in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Rwankuba was divided, and following the Genocide, everybody was ashamed of calling it home. It used to be famous for being home to Jean Baptiste Gatete, former Bourgmestre of Murambi Commune in today’s Gatsibo District. Gatete was sentenced to 40 years in 2012 by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for his responsibility in the killing of thousands of Tutsis in Murambi in 1994, more than 14,000 of whom are buried in Kiziguro Genocide Memorial. A sense of unwelcome was felt by Sibomana in 2014 when he returned for the first time to visit the place that used to be home for his extended family. Many showed fear and distrust as they thought that he might be holding a grudge against families of those who killed his. However, that was not the case, the survivor had forgiven and moved on, and he was seeking nothing more than unity, reconciliation and development in Rwankuba and beyond. Sibomana, 38, with his wife, Sabrina Joy Smith, decided to work with residents and local leaders to tackle the Genocide ideology that had destroyed the area, especially during Gatete’s era. In July 2017, they launched a social enterprise named “Mustard Seed Institute” which they built exactly where Sibomana’s childhood home stood and he wanted it to be “a light in the dark”. The goal was to create opportunities for people with different histories to meet with the same purpose, work in pursuit of development and being united and reconciled in the process. It is where farmers learn best agricultural practices and women meet to weave baskets. This year, 45 farmers and 38 local leaders were trained in farming; 40 in basket weaving, while 21 of them are part of the permanent weaving community of the centre. The couple has managed to find markets for the products in Australia. Veneranda Mukagatete, weaver and mother of four, said: “Those whose relatives were in prison [over Genocide crimes] and survivors had a sort of fear for one another. People looked like they were not free to talk, and only spoke when others were not present, but now it is over”. “Weaving has brought us together,” she added. Josiane Mukeshimana, echoed: “I feared being with others, but since I joined the basket weaving business, we are open to each other and we make money together”. Sibomana told The New Times that they created jobs for people to teach them that poverty was their real enemy: “As they kept working together, they got closer and closer to each other,” he added. “It is like destroying invisible walls between people using work. We have many examples of families that were in dispute, but because they are working together every day, it became a beginning for them to reconcile”. Sibomana said he can see an impact in his home town. “Their mindset has changed positively, they want to grow crops in a more productive way than before,” he said.
