Author Reverien Rurangwa and his wife Jeanine. Photo/Courtesy
One of the most inspiring survivors of the Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi, Reverien Rurangwa, got married yesterday in a colorful ceremony in Kigali.
Rurangwa rose above incredible adversities to live almost a normal but at times astonishing, life. Every single inch of Rurangwa’s body bears witness to unspeakable atrocities Tutsis endured at the hands of Hutus in the 1994 genocide.
In addition to several machete blows that disfigured his face, Rurangwa lost his left eye, left arm and thanks to modern advances in medicine, doctors reattached parts of his sliced nose.
Today, this author of one of the best memoir on the genocide, my stolen Rwanda, is about to achieve his long-awaited life purpose: to give birth to little Tutsis who will continue his mission to tell the story. ”That is my greatest revenge to the Hutus who killed me” said Rurangwa in his book.
Rurangwa currently lives in Neuchatel, Switzerland. He is now a proud husband of Jeanine, a beautiful young lady from Rwamagana, a town in the eastern part of Rwanda.
Many celebrities attended their wedding ceremony including the legend Rwandan singer, Cecile Kayirebwa, who performed acapella singing with the crowd in a traditional ceremony following the vows at Kimihurura sub-county (Sector) office.
Reverien Rurangwa without his artificial eye/Photo: Kristian Skeie
Reverien Rurangwa was 15 when he watched 43 members of his family being butchered by the Hutus during the genocide. The story of Rurangwa was featured in the Guardian, TV France, DW, and other major European media outlets. Click here to watch the story of Reverien.
Written by Albert Gasake
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Categories: Be Inspired, Survivor stories
Justice4Survivors 
Nari mpari byari byiza cyaneee pe , Imana Ishimwe cyanee
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Thank you, Noam! Have a great stay in Rwanda and please do consider to contribute a guest post when you finish your field tour with SURF.
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We are happy for him ,imana yamuhaye kurokoka yarakoze hanyuma imana ikomeze kumugaragariza ibyiza byo kurokoka
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I visited Rwanda between 24/3/2019 to 29/3/2019. I stayed in LandMark Hotel. Visited places- Sorwathe factory, Musanze where I stayed in LA Palme Hotel before I went to Rubaya where I was told late President of Rwanda came from. From Rubaya we went back to Kigali through Muhanga. On 28/3/2019 went to Seasons Hotel in Kigali and later afternoon visited the Memorial site. Rwanda is a beautiful country with quite polite and disciplined people. My conscious was however disturbed by the stories of people and experience they went through after through the video clips,pictures and other stories captured in the memorial site. Though I was far from Rwanda in Kenya I felt the pain the people including Innocent children went through. Why on earth did they kill the babies and young children? Though my own country Kenya has come close to having a progrom I felt Rwanda and Burundi and DRC have gone through too much trauma. My only prayer is that the people of such nations should be told the 1994 genocide should be the last in Africa. The Rwanda case is unique because the so called Tutsi and Hutu and TWA are actually one people speaking one language with one culture! In Kenya we have over 40 languages and community is distinguishable through names,area of origin etc. In Rwanda that is not the case and I am happy the ethnic origin of an individual is no longer captured in the identity cards. Rwanda must still work through the healing process because even those who committed the heinous crime have more psychological issues too. Even the offsprings of the perpetrators must feel psychologically bad for crimes committed before they were born. Even more important is for the country to reach to those still in exile in DRC,Uganda etc so that in future no Rwandan will feel left out and decide to wage war. On my last thought I will advice Kenyan political leaders to visit Rwanda to see how just one inciting words can bring a whole nation to its knees. As Rwanda celebrate the 25th anniversary of genocide I will urge to make the whole nation one. Let no one section feel quilty. Bring out the stories of those who despite all odds assisted the others to live. I know for sure some Hutus must have hidden some Tutsi from the marauding Interhamwe militia. God bless Rwanda and Africa
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Thank you, Raymond for this insightful piece of advice
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Be happy in spending time together
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