This a post I shared with my friends last year, paying tribute to Amélie one of my childhood friends who was killed during the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Thursday last week would have been her 42nd birthday and this memory came up. Today I decided to share with everyone a bit of her memory.
13 May 2020
Today would have been Amélie Jacinte birthday. She would have turned 41!
Amélie was one of my childhood best friends. Her mum was my God Mother and my Dad was her brother Cédric’s God Father. Our families were close friends, those over the years become like families. We had regular visits to each other families and we always stayed late or they did. Also one of the rare sleepovers we were allowed to have during holidays (other than close family & grandparents).
19th July 1992
In January 1992 my family moved from Gisenyi to Kigali, as there were lots of insecurities in the North then (Gisenyi), as result I stayed with my God parents for a month in June/July when the High School I was in, extended the school year. It was one of the best time I had spending time with my best friend.
This photo was taken on Summer Holidays on Sunday July 19th 1992 on the occasion of Cédric’s first communion (the boy in black and white shirt with a bow-tie). I was there that day.
So why do I have to remember Amélie’s birthday? I am one of the few to share her memories because in April 1994 her and her entire family was killed during the genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. No one survived. Her parents Monique Mukankunze my God Mother, Havugimana Edouard My God Father, Arnaud her big brother (Born in 1976) & Cédric her young brother (Born in 1984). Fate being fate, my sister married their uncle, in 1996! Now my nephews would have been my best friend’s cousins! Unfortunately they are not here to see that, neither is my Dad or Jeannette!
Amélie’s at her family home in Gisenyi.
I realise I might be one of the few people who knew Amélie enough and her family to remember her. However her Grandma who survived became like a grandma to me after the genocide. We are really close (She is more than 100 years old) and for those who believe in God, I believe God works in mysterious ways, I believe besides Amélie being in my memories, she also somehow stays with me through those who knew her. Those who know me well enough, know how much I love birthdays, hence this post.
Recently I have been thinking about Amélie and her family. I have been finding it hard to reconcile with the fact that they were killed senselessly and that her and her family are no more. Amélie was killed a month before she turned 15 and I find myself wondering how life would have been with her in it. My siblings feel the same way about her family as we had a special bond and so many shared memories.
While writing this my heart is a bit heavy but I have the comfort of knowing or sensing that they are probably in better place.❤️
Marie-Claire Mimi
