Copyright © 2019 GM&A Publishing
Excerpts by permission of Publisher
PROFILE
Pierre Muhoza Seminega
Tutsi survivor
Second child of Tharcisse and Chantal
12 years old when the genocide began
Bullied in school
Survivor’s guilt
Pierre was born in Rwanda and went to France with his family around the age of three. He remembers having friends of all races and getting along with everyone while living there.
Bullied in School
When Pierre returned to his homeland at seven years of age, he was faced with the reality that some people would not like him just because he was Tutsi.
In school, Pierre’s teacher made every student stand up in the morning and state to which ethnic group they belonged. This was a new experience for Pierre. He had no idea what to say as ethnicity was never discussed in his family. After brutally hitting him, his teacher told him to go home and ask about his identity. Pierre realized then that, out of 50 students, only three to five of them were Tutsi.
Over the next few years, Pierre’s fellow students started making fun of him and calling him names. His teacher did not help him. Pierre hoped that his classmates would come to accept him, but things only got worse. He was harassed by his Hutu schoolmates, even being pushed down the stairs. He felt guilty and had asked his father if he could stop being a Tutsi, but he could not choose or change what he was.
Trapped
As the violence increased and the killers were approaching, escape was impossible. Pierre and his family were trapped in their home. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Fearing the worst, Pierre and his siblings ran and hid in closets and under beds. Their mother called them out of hiding. Adolphe, a friend, had come to help them. They needed to leave their home. The family split up into small groups and Pierre fled across the valley with his parents and two of his siblings.
Pierre hid with his family for 11 weeks suffering hunger, thirst, insomnia, asthma, humiliation, and the constant fear of being killed. When the family had to separate into small groups Pierre was anxious that some of them would not survive.
At one point Pierre became convinced that the Tutsi had done something wrong that his parents were hiding from him.
Survivor’s Guilt
After Pierre and his family were rescued, he could not imagine being among his former schoolmates. He wondered if they would still want to kill him. He felt unsafe and completely out of place. Pierre felt guilty that he had survived when so many had died. He doubted that he and his family could ever fully heal.
The Seminegas, including Pierre, immigrated to Canada in 2003.