TN

32 years ago today, something was taken from within us that cannot be described anatomically. I do not know a language that can fully capture that fear, pain, loss, and horror. By July 1994, Rwanda was shattered in spirit, and in the most practical sense. So when people tell us what we should tolerate, or ignore, I want them to understand that baseline, and what starting from scratch truly took. I also want them to consider what it says about this country and its people, that we are here today, with what we have built together. Our rebuilding is, at its heart, an act of remembrance. It is about being alive again and so present, so capable, so impossible to ignore that denial itself becomes the small thing. To those who survived: You’re here, what a gift. You were Rwanda when Rwanda almost wasn’t. Thank you for holding on, and for telling us what you could find the words for. To those who were taken from us so brutally: you are not lost to us. You are in everything that is beautiful. You are in the children. You are in the soft evening breeze, and the first light of dawn. You are in the hills, where your laughter was last heard. And we remember you. Always. #Kwibuka32