In December of 2023, Northeastern Illinois University students and faculty traveled to Burundi to conduct research for the Genocide and Human Rights Research of Africa in the Diaspora (GHRAD) Center. Over the course of sixteen days, this modest group of individuals diligently worked together to reveal a hidden piece of history that continues to plague Burundians every single day. The main objective of this endeavor was to gather as many survivor testimonies as possible from those who endured the extremely stifled and shrouded 1972 Genocide of Burundi.

Survivors were forbidden to mourn the death of their loved ones and persecuted if they spoke about the brutal massacre. Educated Hutu members of the community were targeted, hand-selected, arrested, slaughtered, and dumped into mass graves. This tragedy did not happen overnight. This tragedy did not happen by chance. This tragedy was a strategic and gruesome plan that was specifically created to eliminate the entire Hutu ethnic group.

Now, more than 50 years later, GHRAD is recording their stories allowing victims to finally shatter their silence. The testimonies collected by the GHRAD Center at NEIU are pivotal in creating a research compilation in the form of an Oral History Archive for the Library Digital Commons website.

All images are courtesy of Viktor Gerasimovski.