Rwanda: Révéraien Rurangwa getting married 25 years after the Genocide.

Reverien is getting ready to get married, 25 years after surviving the genocide against the Tutsi- a ceremony stretching over two days, during the weekend of July 13th and 14th 2019. Here, Reverien and his wife, Jeanne, is drinking milk in Rwandan tradition prior to the church ceremony.

April 7th marks the date when the genocide against the Tutsi started in Rwanda in 1994. The day before, on April 6th, the plane carrying the Rwandan President, Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down- it is seen as the trigger to what became the worst genocide in modern history- more then 800000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu was killed, during 100 days. (The number is even likely to be above 1 million victims).

The Rwandan flag is waving at at half mast at the Genocide memorial site in Bisesero, close to the boarder of Congo (DRC) and lake Kivu on April the 7th, 2014. The day marks 20 years since the genocide in Rwanda, killing more then 800000 people, started.

Every year since the genocide in 1994, commemoration is taking place in Rwanda. It lasts for 100 days starting on April the 7th, the date the Genocide started in 1994. Several services takes place in different parts of the country. Last year, I visited a commemoration service with friends near Musha, a little bit outside of Kigali.

Staff are preparing for the official burial which will took place in June 2014 at the Genocide memorial site in Bisesero, close to the boarder of Congo (DRC) and lake Kivu on April the 7th, 2014. All temporary graves were ordered to be dug up and the remains to be reburied in official mass graves.

Révérien Rurangwa was only 15 years old in 1994. Like other Tutsi families during those days, they went to hide at the local church hoping it would spare them from the people committing genocide. 

The church in Mugina is now being restored, although, it still very much is left the way it was in 1994. Opposite the church is the memorial, where the victims of the 1994 genocide from Mugina have been laid to rest. This is where all 43 of the closest family members of Reverien were killed, right in front of his eyes. Reverien himself was also injured, losing one arm, one eye and cut multiple times in his face, behind his head and elsewhere in his body.

Reverien visiting he village where he grew up, Mugina. The person responsible for murdering his family ran a café down the road.

However, this time, on April the 20th 1994, it was not going to work, the priests were in on the killings and informed the killers that it was time to come. Hundreds were killed in and around the church were the family of Reverien was hiding. All 43 family members were killed, Reverien was the only survivor and witness to what happened. The dead includes his mother, father, siblings, uncles and aunts as well as cousins. Reverien himself lost an arm, an eye and have major scares in his face, behind his head, on his shoulder and his hip. 

Reverien with friends at Hotel Chez Lando in Kigali, Rwanda, 2015.

Révérien has been living and working in Switzerland since 1996. He travelled back to Rwanda in 2015, in order to visit his village, 20 years after he survived the genocide. This was his second time back since the genocide, but the first time since he felt “ready to go back”. Last year, he announces to his friends that he is getting married! The wedding was to be in Rwanda, in July, to a girl, Jeanne, who is from a town just outside Kigali. This, exactly 25 years after the genocide.

Reverien lives in La Chaux Fond, Switzerland where he works and studies nearby. It is a huge contrast to his past life in Rwanda.

After the visit in 2015, Révérien had made several more visits. He is still living in Switzerland but enjoys spending more time in his original home land. A quarter of a century after the loss of almost his entire family, it seems Reverien is finally ready to make a new chapter in his life, as a married man. 

Reverien visiting an old neighbour in his village, Mugina, an hour away from the capital, Kigali. 

Reverien, such an inspirational young man is a living witness and symbol of what happened in 1994. He has written a book about what happen to him and his family (My stolen Rwanda). It is important, important not to forget, important not to hide what happened, important to educate people about history in order for it not to be repeated, according to Reverien. He has even turned down offers of surgery to cover some of his scares. 

Still, it is also important to look forward. A quarter of a century has passed. Reverien now is a dual citizen, carrying a Swiss as well as Rwandan passport, and is now a married man. He chose to get married in Rwanda, his birth country. It marks an important event for him and the people who knows him. The place which today carries many of the demons in him as well as numerous other people is also where Reverien chose to get married and to start a new life.

Reverien walking with his aunt and friends near his childhood home.

Reverien's uncle and family lives in Kigali and has been his place to visit during the last few years.

Theodore Karemangingo is the uncle of Révérien Rurangwa. He lives with his family in Kigali and is the closest family Révérien has in his birth country.

Reverien met Janviere when both had been rescued and taken to the same red cross field hospital in 1994. She was 11. She had been thrown into a very pit. As a result, she is paralysed from neck and down. She has been 20 years in bed and can not move at all. They continue their very special relationship.

From her bed, Janviere can see the corridor in the house where she lives. The little girl often comes to play. Janviere was 11 in 1994, this girl is younger, but one can only imagine how different her life would have been without her injuries.

Janviere got help to be in Kigali (3 hours by car from Kibungo where she lives) in order to meet the married couple after their ceremony.

Reverien is getting ready to get married, 25 years after surviving the genocide against the Tutsi- a ceremony stretching over two days, during the weekend of July 13th and 14th 2019. Music plays an important role in the part of the church ceremony.

Family and friends getting ready for the wedding of Jeanne and Reverien.

Reverien is getting ready to get married, 25 years after surviving the genocide against the Tutsi- a ceremony stretching over two days, during the weekend of July 13th and 14th 2019. Here, Reverien is dressed in traditional clothes before the first day of the ceremonial wedding.

Family and friends getting ready for the wedding of Jeanne and Reverien.

A married couple, proudly displaying their new found union after the first day of the wedding ceremony.

Reverien is getting ready to get married, 25 years after surviving the genocide against the Tutsi- a ceremony stretching over two days, during the weekend of July 13th and 14th 2019. The married couple leaves the church after the church service which concludes the official service the second day of the ceremony.

Reverien is getting ready to get married, 25 years after surviving the genocide against the Tutsi- a ceremony stretching over two days, during the weekend of July 13th and 14th 2019. Music and dance plays an important role in the part of the ceremony.

Friends and family of Reverien came from around the world to celebrate his wedding to Jeanne. Here is his aunt and his cousins daughter who lives in Norway.

After all ceremonies are over, the family and the closest friends of Reverien gather at his place in order to debrief and evaluate the union- all agreed that it was a well deserving couple! 

Near the Juru Park restaurant, on top of Kigali, you can see the hills surrounding the city. This is the spot, where the end of the war started after 100 days of genocide in Rwanda in the summer of 1994. 

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