About Africa Realities Media
A young Rwandan orphaned by RPF reacts to Ange Kagame’s ” I can’t live without my parents”
Paul Kagame, instead of taking his wife with him like other African presidents during their recent visit to the white house, took his daughter Ange Kagame. Afterwards, Ange Kagame was interviewed by one local online newline IGIHE.COM. One of the questions was to name one thing she can never live without. The president's daughter answered innocently: "my family". This angered so many Rwandans who lost their parents during the attacks of which Ange's father was the commander in chief. Here is the letter written by a certain Kanyabigega Elijah, an orphan who survived Kagame's cruelty. Admin
DEAR ANGE KAGAME: THE FIRST DAUGHTER OF RWANDA,
Allow me to write to you in English the language of which is one of the things your dad forced me to bear. I am Kanyabigega Elijah. I was told that my parents come from the former Kiyombe Commune. One of the areas your dad punished for the sins they did not commit. I am 24 now, hopefully if your dad's DMI does not dig into my computer and take my IP to know where I am writing to you from and punish me for writing to our first daughter then I am most likely to celebrate my 25th birthday soon. However, this is not one of the reasons I am writing to you. My letter is going to basically focus on your socialite, your visit to White House, and your dad as a president of my country.
After your visit with your dad to Washington, for sure your dad achieved what he wanted. He wanted to bring media attention and bring you into the international social media limelight which you got. Kudos to your dad's PR mogul. I wish he could do the same for our far remote village in Mukarange. We would get drinking water the next day. Anyway your interview got me thinking when theIGIHE.COM journalist asked you ONE OF THE THINGS YOU CAN NEVER TOLERATE TO LIVE WITHOUT (NI IKI UDASHOBORA KWIHANGANIRA KUBAHO UDAFITE) THEN YOUR ANSWER WAS AN OBVIOUS ONE. You said that you cannot tolerate to live WITHOUT YOUR FAMILY (SINABAHO NTAMURYANGO WANGE). Here I have to correct your Kinyarwanda grammar and remind you that you are no longer in UGANDA but in Rwanda. Therefore, in Kinyarwanda we don't say WANGE but WANJYE. Unless you want to change Kinyarwanda to Luganda the same way your dad changed French to English. No worries, we will still persevere the same way we have been since October, 1990. Coming back to your answer to IGIHE.COM. You are absolutely right. One's family is very important but I wonder whether your dad knows or even understand the pain millions of Rwandan youth had to go through after their parents fell to the AGAFUNI. You are too young to know what AGAFUNI is but in case your dad did not sit you at his feet and explain to you how he used to kill innocent Rwandans in KIYOMBE, MUKARANGE, BWISIGE, BUTARO, KIDAHO, and other places in Rwanda, I can volunteer to teach the history of Rwanda and how your dad prepared that fame you are enjoying today. HOW AGAFUNI MADE ME AN ORPHAN AT AGE 4
Dear Ange, I don't know how I was born, but at least you know because when you were born your dad and his friends took pictures and celebrated your birthday. As for me I was born |
| ANGE KAGAME |
when Katiyusha was flying over my head. It is said that when your dad sent 12 bombs of Katiyusha simultaneously, my mom's birth pangs came prematurely. As they were fleeing your dad's advancement. I am told that that day your dad was on killing spree. He had vowed to clear the whole of KIYOMBE, CYUNGWE, BWISIGE, KIVUYE, and KIYOMBE to prepare for your coming. In the process, things got worse for my mom. She had to deliver me. However, your dad's shelling was too much. She knew that any delay would expose her and my dad to your father's unforgiving sword. Therefore, my dad had to think on his feet on how to solve the situation at hand. I was his firstborn. He wanted me to live and my mother as well but your dad was approaching. Then my dad saw a granary "IKIGEGA" nearby the path they were taking. He immediately carried my mom who was in severe pain and threw her in that Granary and joined her inside there. He helped me to deliver me thus the name KANYABIGEGA.
After I was born things did not go well at all. You remember that IKIGEGA saved the lives of three people, myself, my mom, and my dead. I don't have a time to go through all details of how I was born just know that God stood between me and your dad in the name of a granary so that your dad's men don't harm us. Let me fast-track to another day in my life, my families, and your family's. Some in 1993, my dad and my mom went to look for food because we had spent three days without anything on our mouths. This time we lived in a refugee camp in Muhura. I hope your dad told you where Muhura was located then. My younger sister was only 4 months and my young brother was only 2 years old. However, on this fateful day, he was sick, and hungry. Therefore, my parents had to carry both of them because they did not want to leave him behind in that condition. They carried my sister who was just 4 months and my brother who was a bit older but sick. They went to a place called Nyagahanga. At this place my aunt was married there near a place called NEKE. She had invited them to her house to pick whatever food they could because children were starving. Indeed they went. However, they never came back, actually only elderly women that your dad left to tell the story. You go and ask where NYIRAMITSINDO used to stay. She is the one who told the story of how your father's men came and besieged my aunt's home. They were 11 RPF soldiers full of hate determined to make me an orphan forever. It was around 3pm when your dad's men entered my aunt's home carried AGAFUNI. They killed everybody in that home but NYIRAMITSINDO. My brother MIGISHA (Blessings) and my sister AKIZANYE did not live to see this day, simply because your dad exists.
MY SISTER AKIZANYE ON FACEBOOK SMILING
As you stole the show in Washington DC, and became an overnight socialite smiling next to your dad at Rwandan taxpayers' expenses one thing came into my mind. My sister AKIZANYE would have celebrated her 21st birthday today. She would be on Facebook just |
| ANGE KAGAME AND HER FAMILY |
posting and sharing with her friends of how much she has enjoyed this day. AKIZANYE would have clicked liked on my comments after writing on her wall a midnight comment saying: "HBD baby girl I am glad to have a sis like you." However, this has never happened because your dad exists. When I see you growing happily I wonder whether you ever think of other Rwandans who lost their parents because of your dad's actions. Did your dad tell you that he refused a ceasefire and 40% that Habyarimana's government had assigned to him and his clique from Uganda? Did your dad tell you that his actions caused a massacre of innocent Tutsis who would have survived and be enjoying life the same way you do? Have he ever confined to you that there are millions of Rwandan babies who were only one year old when your dad shot down the plane carrying the then President Habyarimana Juvenal and his Burundian counterpart Cyprian Ntaryamira? Do you ever ask yourself how your dad barred me from mourning my parents and my siblings AKIZANYE and MIHGISHA leave alone burring them with respect.
As I conclude my letter to Dear Ange, I would like to remind you the following. Rwanda is for Rwandans: Hutus, Tutsis, and Twas but your dad has made our land his own private farm ignoring that all Rwandans have right to it and have right to mourn for their dead. Rwandans |
| PORTIA MBABAZI, KAREGEYA'S DAUGHTER |
know very well without haziness that with your dad's actions Rwanda is remembered for genocide of which he could have prevented if he did not follow his greedy heart. Rwandan youth are hurt but no one to tell their stories because we fear your dad will come for us as he did to KIZITO MIHIGO and Patrick Karegeya now his daughter Portia Mbabazi Karegeya, 23 would be also celebrating to be next to her dad if your dad never existed. Dear Ange, I am a young Rwandan who has been denied right to have my parents and siblings and my story cut across the board whether you are a Tutsi there are millions of Tutsis who lost their parents because your dad exists, whether it is about Hutus there millions of Hutu kids who cannot afford a smile in this Rwanda simply because your dad exists. Let's forget about Twas because neither did the previous government give them chance to be proud of themselves nor did your father's regime. Next time when you go to media to vomit please remember that there are millions of Rwandans that your dad has trampled on that ground.
Source: Karisimbi online
Support Our Work Now !
Africa Realities Media is independent. Your support helps us expose injustice, challenge silence and produce evidence-based analysis on Africa and the Great Lakes Region.
Africa Realities Media offre un espace aux écrivains, chercheurs, experts, activistes, voix communautaires, militants, analystes et personnes ayant une expérience vécue qui souhaitent contribuer à des contenus réfléchis, responsables et courageux sur les changements nécessaires dans la région des Grands Lacs, ainsi que sur les réalités politiques, économiques, culturelles et sociales africaines souvent ignorées, minimisées ou mal représentées.
Nos articles et vidéos visent à ouvrir le débat, renforcer la sensibilisation, encourager la pensée critique et favoriser une réflexion plus profonde sur les réalités vécues par les populations africaines. Nous voulons aider les peuples de la région des Grands Lacs à mieux comprendre leurs droits, notamment leurs droits humains, leur droit au développement, leur droit à la dignité, à la sécurité, au bien-être et à une vie meilleure.
À travers nos contenus, nous cherchons également à rappeler aux décideurs, aux institutions publiques, aux acteurs régionaux et internationaux, ainsi qu’aux responsables politiques, leur devoir de transparence, de responsabilité et de redevabilité envers les populations qu’ils prétendent servir. Notre objectif est de contribuer à une culture de vérité, de justice, de participation citoyenne et de protection égale pour tous les peuples africains.
Why We Exist
Many abuses facing African people are committed by African states, ruling elites, armed groups, military forces and security services. But these abuses are often sustained by international silence, Western lobbying, trade interests, migration deals, mineral access, diplomatic partnerships and unequal global accountability.
Africa Realities Media exposes that system.
Lived Experience Matters
Survivors, displaced communities, refugees, families affected by repression, journalists, activists, women, young people and diaspora voices are not passive subjects. They are knowledge holders.
Their experiences must shape policy, advocacy, journalism and public debate. The people closest to injustice are often closest to the solutions.
Our Principle
Africa Realities Media is rooted in one principle: African lives deserve equal truth, equal justice and equal protection.
Why Africa Realities Media Is Different
Africa Realities Media speaks to Africa and to the developed world. Many abuses facing African people are committed by African states and ruling elites, but they are often protected by international silence, lobbying, public relations, trade interests, migration deals and unequal global accountability. While governments pay lobbyists to present a good image abroad, ordinary African people continue to face violence, hunger, disease, poverty, repression and exclusion. We challenge the normalisation of African suffering and demand equal truth, equal justice and equal protection.
Pourquoi Africa Realities Media est différent?
Africa Realities Media s’adresse à l’Afrique et au monde développé. De nombreux abus subis par les peuples africains sont commis par des États africains et des élites dirigeantes, mais ils sont souvent protégés par le silence international, le lobbying, les relations publiques, les intérêts commerciaux, les accords migratoires et une responsabilité mondiale inégale. Tandis que des gouvernements paient des lobbyistes pour présenter une bonne image à l’étranger, des Africains ordinaires continuent de faire face à la violence, à la faim, aux maladies, à la pauvreté, à la répression et à l’exclusion. Nous contestons la normalisation de la souffrance africaine et exigeons une vérité égale, une justice égale et une protection égale.
Policy and Systems Change
Our work is designed to trigger debate, discomfort and action. We do not only expose injustice; we work for policy and systems change.
We want governments and institutions to address the root causes of inequality, disadvantage, discrimination, exclusion and barriers affecting African people. We believe lasting change must be shaped by people with lived experience.
Exposing Injustice in Africa
Africa Realities Media is an independent African accountability platform based in London. We report, analyse and challenge the systems that shape African suffering, silence African victims and protect abusive power.
We are not here to repeat diplomatic language. We are here to ask the questions that are often avoided: why are African deaths treated as normal? Why are African victims given less urgency? Why are governments that imprison, exclude, displace or kill their own people protected when they serve powerful international interests?
Africa Realities Media gives space to writers, researchers, experts, activists, community voices, campaigners, analysts and people with lived experience who want to contribute thoughtful, responsible and courageous content about the changes needed in the region, as well as the political, economic, cultural and social African realities that are often ignored, minimised or misrepresented.
Our articles and videos aim to encourage debate, raise awareness, stimulate critical thinking and support reflection. We seek to help people in the Great Lakes Region understand their rights to human rights, development and wellbeing, while also encouraging decision-makers to be more transparent, responsive and accountable.
Comments
Post a Comment