Coexist-Documentary Film Outreach Project

Stories of the Genocide: Clémentine

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(Maraba Coffee Planation, Rwanda) – Clémentine’s name means ‘merciful’ but she credits her sister with her ability to forgive.

After surviving genocidal attacks in Butare, Clémentine Mukaruziga fled to the woods. Distraught by what she had seen, she tried to hang herself. “I tied the knot and I climbed the tree,” Clémentine says, “but unfortunately, I fell down. I was afraid of machetes and clubs so I made a decision to commit suicide, but God hadn’t planned my death on that day. After falling down from the tree I saw some light in my eyes and I wasn’t scared anymore of machetes and clubs, and I said tomorrow morning I’ll go and face the murderers so that they can kill me if they want.” She approached Hutu soldiers the next day at a checkpoint, and they refused to kill her.

Meanwhile, her sister Jeanette was on a similar terrifying journey. After the murders of her husband and his family, a stranger spared Jeanette’s life. With their parents murdered, after the genocide Jeanette took over as caretaker for her little sister, teaching her about patience and helping her heal.

A Caring Sister

Jeanette extended her goodwill was to everyone across the settlement. She became a mother-figure to many people in her village. She gave out loans, sometimes multiple loans to the same people, without ever asking for repayment. Jeanette also took care of the sick and worked on reconciliation programs like AVEGA and the Gacaca Courts. Clémentine says she even chose to work side-by-side with murderers in the coffee fields of their settlement. “It amazed me so much about how she approached people who did wrong to us long ago and how she showed them love and that could teach me a lot.”

Revenge Killing in 2009

Jeanette was murdered in March 2009, by the same people who she strived to teach and help. Clémentine says she doesn’t know exactly why her sister was targeted. But she believes it has something to do with Jeanette’s role as a teacher of forgiveness. She says the killers must have been jealous “knowing that (they) committed a crime and didn’t plea for forgiveness … jealousy can make you kill once again.” Clémentine says one of the killers committed suicide, the others are in prison. But some of the killers who murdered Clémentine’s family during the genocide still walk the same paths in and around the coffee plantation where she works. And while she probably won’t ever know exactly why Jeanette was killed, she prays for strength and, like her namesake, clemency. “Whenever we meet, I greet them. And I wouldn’t wish anything bad for them.”

When asked if she is afraid that she will be murdered too, Clémentine says her death is known to only God and he will decide when she leaves this earth to rejoin her family, “I’m not scared, I’m not scared, I’m not scared.”

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Read more about Clémentine’s sister Jeanette in the Christian Science Monitor