Ufiteyezu Manzi David & Nyirahategekimana Marie Josie

Manzi wants to tell his foster sister-cousin, Marie, the story of his survival during the 1994 genocide, and the fate of their extended family. She listens to details of his extraordinary story of his many escapes from death, and the horrors he witnessed as a young boy. The story describes how his parents’ mixed marriage saved him, plus the outreach from persons of both Hutu and Twa backgrounds. Even cows were his salvation one awful day; another time he was only survivor of a bomb blast that killed over 100. Although ‘inflating my nose at the roadblocks’ helped Manzi stay alive, he reflects on the destructive nature of ethnic conflict. Marie agrees with him, adding that “…since we have come this far, there is hope for a brighter future.”

“In the past when people met they observed each others' physical appearance height, weight and size of nose in order to classify them as Hutu or Tutsi. I would like to see this change today. We should forget about ethnicity, leave the past behind and remember that we are all descendants of Adam.
Even though am much younger than most parents, I would like to advise them to pay more attention to the young generation. Sometimes parents avoid the youth because they think we are coming to ask them for financial support yet what we really want is advice and positive ideas from our elders. I also believe that elders should be parents to all children in the community whether they gave birth to them or not they should set a good example and offer them a helping hand when they are in need.” Ufiteyezu Manzi David

“I think the genocide was caused by ethnic division and everyone thought that they had to reinforce their ethnic groups. This resulted in killings which also resulted in all the problems we face today. I urge everyone to focus on personal development instead of ethnicity because we are all Rwandese.” Nyirahategekimana Marie Josie