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  Banyasekera, Philippe

  Philippe Banyasekera

  Philippe and his 3 other siblings did not attend school, as it was rare to go being Hutu without experiencing harm or death. His father was the first relative closest to Philippe who was captured by the armed forces in Burundi. Philippe’s father was a woodmaker and did construction work for a living. One day on the job, his father and uncle were approached by a man they once had acquaintances with, they even helped construct parts of his home. The man, who goes by the name Bimpenda, tells Philippe’s father that he and his brother are wanted at his office for a discussion, where they assumed he had a job opportunity assorted for them. They arrived and were arrested, packed on military trucks, and taken away. A communal administrator named Nzogera, brought a group along with him and looted Philippe’s whole home, taking 24 of his family's goats. The men responsible for this claimed that they were taking traitors' belongings and how no one deserves them, to justify their actions. That same week, they forced Philippe and his family out of their homes, causing them to move in with their grandfather, on his father’s side. Days later came, where the interior minister ordered them to go back to their homes, but at that point, everything they ever owned was stolen, causing them to go back to nothing but an empty home.

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  Buzirigi, Isaie

  Isaie Buzirigi

  Oral history of Isaie Buzirigi.

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  de Dieu Rwasa, Jean

  Jean de Dieu Rwasa

  Jean's father was taken away by authorities when he was just 12 years old. While his father was on his way to do business, in regards to his job as a shop merchant, he was later captured and never seen again. His fathers disappearance resulted in Rwasa having to drop out of school in Kibonde. Like any child would, Rwasa religiously asked the people of his community about his fathers whereabouts, After a month of uncertainty, he was told that his father had disappeared like others who were taken away. It was later revealed to the interviewee that his father had been taken where the “traitors” are placed to be exiled. He and his family fled to Rwanda during a period of unrest. They returned later but did not settle back in Rusarasi due to fears of similar repercussions. Rwasa’s father was a businessman, but after his disappearance, his family did not obtain any belongings left behind from his store in Bunyari. The store had been looted after his capture. The interviewee's life took a different route after his father was captured. He lived among priests for a period, then engaged in selling goats and later pigs until he could afford to build a house.

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  Evariste, Bivugire

  Bivugire Evariste

  Bivugire Evariste was born in the village of Rurira, Busoni commune in Kirundo province with his 3 other siblings. His father and several accused Hutus from Gitobe and Bwambarang were falsely labeled as “criminals'' engaged in political affairs. They were all placed on packed trucks on their way to imprisonment, which resulted in being killed for many. Because of Bivugire’s father being arrested, he and his siblings were bullied and labeled as a “traitor”. The day his father was put into custody, was the last day he ever saw him again. His father was killed, and two days later, Bivugire’s home was raided and robbed. For years, he and his family were labeled as those who wanted to overthrow the country and its leaders. This resulted in him and his family growing up in fear, grief, and trauma.

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  Hatunga, Remejiyo

  Remejiyo Hatunga

  Remejiyo recalls a traumatic situation from his childhood when his father was forcefully taken away by authorities while he was working in his home as a carpenter. The police arrived to ask him to come to the commune for questioning. Despite some initial hesitation, he agreed to go. The interviewee vividly remembers the details: the police in khaki clothes similar to shoes and a specific type of hat, the location (Murore), and the events leading up to his father's arrest. After his father was taken away, Remejiyo's family heard that he was loaded onto a dump truck with others and taken away. This was the last time they ever saw their father again.

  Following their father's arrest, the family faced additional hardships. Their home was later looted by thieves, taking a new bicycle and 18 goats. Having witnessed these events, the interviewee explains how it caused him to feel powerless and afraid to speak out due to fear of the authorities returning for them, just as they had taken his father.

  Remejiyo also mentions the emotional impact on his family, especially his mother who struggled to take care of them, without their fathers support. After this incident with his father being captured, Remejiyo would hear cruel comments from others speculating about his father's fate and mocking his hope that he might return.

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  Hicuburundi, Athanase

  Athanase Hicuburundi

  Hicuburundi lost his brother in 1972. On April 29 a meeting was organized at Rumonge and the leaders urged everyone’s attendance. At that time anyone who didn’t go could be jailed. Hicuburundi was a teacher at Minago but he didn’t go. Some people came running and told him that a small group of armed men with machetes, called mulele attacked the meeting. The killings continued on Monday. When they returned to school, he was told that his headmaster had been killed. People became scared, most of them fled to the priest's compound but the soldiers arrested people later. They took them to the market of Minago to dump them into the pit dug by construction machines. In that period they mostly arrested teachers and salesmen. Soldiers came to arrest Hicuburundi but they didn't find him, and he decided to run away to Congo. They killed his small brother Simbananiye and his nephew Ntangibingura. The head of village Ntagumuka is among the perpetrators who killed many people. All the people who owned lands were killed by him. He then plundered those lands. Hicuburundi’s brothers didn't continue to study they dropped out of school. The communal administrator called Nyambere is one of the perpetrators who persecuted many people.

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  Kandava, Riberata

  Riberata Kandava

  Riberata Kandava shares how she studied till the first grade and after one year, studied at catechetical school. However, she stopped attending school, because her mother viewed it as a risk, after her father was captured. Riberata narrates how armed individuals came to her home, arrested her father who was a merchant, and subsequently killed him. The perpetrators looted her family's belongings, taking away a bicycle and a radio, and later returned to take whatever remained in the house. The family was left in appalling circumstances, constantly harassed by local authorities who accused them of being traitors. The term "traitor" was unclear to the speaker as a child, but it was used as a derogatory term against those who were targeted. The interviewee also mentions an alarming practice where some perpetrators would return to marry the widows of the victims they had killed. The speaker's mother, a young and attractive widow, became a target of such advances, which intensified their hardships. The family lived in fear and poverty, struggling to survive amid ongoing harassment, as well as threats from local authorities.

  Overall, the interview paints a vivid picture of the brutal consequences of political violence and how it profoundly affected the lives of innocent civilians in Kandava during that period.

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  Macumi, Béatrice

  Béatrice Macumi

  Béatrice recounts the tragic times of 1972, where there was a massacre. She mentions incidents where people were arrested and killed, due to accusations of witchcraft or other reasons. She mentions that in 1972, some people disappeared, possibly taken away to work and never returned, presumed dead.

  Béatrice denies knowing about traitors or any specific details of the killings, indicating a lack of clear information or memory due to the passage of time. She mentions losing her husband, who was a soldier and taken away, and also losing a child during that period. She also recalls being called to live in a camp with her husband temporarily, and later returning home where her husband was again taken away and ultimately killed.

  The interview provides the interviewee's fragmented memories and the traumatic events she experienced during the 1972 massacre, highlighting the uncertainty and loss that affected her and her family.

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  Mazina, Makariyo

  Makariyo Mazina

  When Makariyo Mazina was just 14-years old, he explained that Hutu militia abused, tortured and killed his father. His father was a successful business man that was taken off of is bicycle, tied up, tortured and was murdered. Mazina says after the militia took his father away, they came after him. One solider took Mazina to a banana plantation, knocked him down tied his hands behind his back, and then dragged his body to a nearby car. Mazina was dumped into a car with others who were also moaning and screaming in pain. Then Mazina said he was thrown out of the moving car, rolled down the road, and landed in a thorn bush.

  Mazina and his family were never able to ask why their father was killed, nor were they ever able to persecute the perpetrators. When his father passed away- they took all of his father’s belongings and he and his siblings were forced to flee to Rwanda.

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  Mugemangabo, Angelo

  Angelo Mugemangabo

  Angelo Mugemangabo lost his brother and his relative in the 1972 tragedy. All of them belong to the Tutsi ethnic group but they were killed by Tutsis. Ruberankiko Salvator, a soldier who worked in Bujumbura was killed because the perpetrators said no Hutu lived in Kirundo. Nkundabanyanka Emmanuel was a gendarme who worked in Kirundo. Ndabaneze Laurent, a former army brigade commander, took him away because he supplied food to a Hutu man who was in Kirundo prison. Angelo Mugemangango, whether he was at home or at school, saw soldiers coming to round up Hutus like teachers or other kinds of people and took them away. But he thereafter learnt that they were massacred for they were ‘Abamenja’ traitors.

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  Mwemerabugabo, Léonidas

  Léonidas Mwemerabugabo

  At the age of 15, Léonidas witnessed his father being taken away by authorities. The father, who was a catechist teacher, was arrested and never seen again. Léonidas’s family was informed about his fate through a radio broadcast that reported all the demonstrators and those arrested had been defeated by the authorities of Burundi in 1972.

  After his father's disappearance, life was filled with hardship for the widow and nine children left behind. The children faced persecution and bullying at school from classmates who were from a different ethnic group (Tutsi) and acted on the influence of their parents' beliefs. The interviewee and his siblings eventually had to drop out of school due to the abuse and discrimination they faced, being labeled as children of traitors.

  Despite these difficulties, their mother never remarried and took on the responsibility of caring for the family alone. Before their father's arrest, the family had a comfortable life with livestock and a well-maintained household. Although, after becoming widowed, their mother struggled to support nine children without the father's income or support.

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  Ndaripfane, Perajiyo

  Perajiyo Ndaripfane

  Perajiyo recounts the tragic time in Burundi in 1972, where people were rounded up and arrested by soldiers. The interviewee was at home with her husband when soldiers arrived in trucks and took him away, explaining very little about a planned plot. There was no information available concerning the husband's grave or location, despite the interviewees attempts to learn more about his demise.

  During the roundup, Perajiyo nearly escaped being arrested while at the Kabuye market. Friends alerted her and assisted in hiding her so the soldiers, who were also pillaging her house, wouldn't find her. They discovered her step-wife had been taken into custody upon their return, but soon spotted her in a local bar.

  The only person Perajiyo lost in the disaster was her husband, who was a businessman. When he was arrested, they had two kids. After that, they experienced loneliness and a lack of help; nobody came to see them or provide support. Nevertheless, they continued, deciding to endure the suffering in silence.

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  Ndarugirire, Adèle

  Adèle Ndarugirire

  Adèle Ndarugirire narrates how the massacres in 1972 occurred, describing how people by the names of Rwabaye and Maritino captured individuals from Cendajuru. The interviewee recalls that while she was cooking, her loved one was taken into custody. The Elders known as "Nyumbakumi '' were the ones who made the arrests. When asked if she knew the names of these Elders, the interviewee lists Gosito and John, among others, but says that most of them are already deceased. Adèle explains a situation where a disagreement over alcohol at a bar led to her husband's incarceration. Three people arrived and said they needed to take him with them. Adèle’s husband had previously sold alcohol, and there had been a falling out after the seller of the booze accused the husband of not making his payments. Adera’s spouse believed that he was falsely accused of claiming that Tutsis were eradicating the Hutu people during the dispute.

  The spouse was then taken to jail by the authorities, which included a man known as Mpagaceri, a councilor leader. Family members reassured him, but he never came home.

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  Ndihokubwayo, Espérance

  Espérance Ndihokubwayo

  Esperance Ndihokubwayo said , “I saw horrible things, people were being killed before me, being rounded up before me, being loaded into trucks and transported to the judicial court before me. I was living nearby, they killed them before me and each night I heard people howling and agonizing. I couldn't sleep, I felt so sad. we saw the cars transporting[dead bodies], there were things like pits that they prepared to dump them into, they then piled them full and then covered them with ashes.”

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  Ngabo, Léonce

  Léonce Ngabo

  In May of 1972, Léonce Ngabo said the school principal entered his classroom with a priest. He said the principal read the names of nine students, and one of those names was in fact, his name. Ngabo explained he and the children were removed from the classroom and as he tried to make jokes, he heard his classmates crying as police officers screamed at them. He was then taken to a prison cell where he was forced to surrender his personal belongings and was repeatedly beaten with a large stick. He said a priest questioned if he was Hutu or Tutsi. He convinced the priest he was Tutsi and his life was spared. His eight classmates, however, did not survive the interrogation. After escaping death, Ngabo said that the priest would make children wear a blue cross or red cross to differentiate if they were Hutu or Tutsi. Decades after being beaten, losing loved ones to genocide, and witnessing his family home burn to the ground, he hopes for a better future for Burundi. Ngabo wants everyone to remember that they are all first and foremost Burundians, and the young people in Burundi need to develop this beautiful country.

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  Nibigira, Bernard

  Bernard Nibigira

  Bernard Nibigira, also known as Ntibankange, was a nickname that was given to him at his administration sector job for protection. He attended school until the 6th grade and dropped out, due to the lack of school fees and the political state of the country.

  Government workers, including teachers, were forcefully taken by soldiers in Toyota vehicles. Perpetrators initially targeted teachers and later expanded to other civilians. The interviewee's own family was affected, with several members, including teachers and a soldier, being taken away. Bernard’s brother, Tharcisse Mugabonutwiwe, was among those arrested and taken to a place called Mukenke. The family was not allowed to visit him, and eventually he never returned. Other family members, such as a teacher named André Baranyizigiye and a cousin named Badadi, were also killed. The interviewee's brother, who was a mason, was among those who did not survive as well.

  Family members who survived were labeled as traitors and treated unfairly by others in the community. The interviewee was even publicly humiliated by local authorities, where they made him undress in a communal office due to assuming the soccer jersey he had on was some sort of government uniform.

  He describes how those arrested were killed at night, either by stabbing or hitting with hammers. The bodies were buried in mass graves, with pits being dug by machinery in places like Karama and Vumbi.The perpetrators consisted of local authorities and soldiers who would round up people based on lists and transport them to communes where they were taken to be executed. The interviewee describes how the arrested individuals were transported and the bodies were disposed of.

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  Nibona, André

  André Nibona

  Oral history of André Nibona.

  In April of 1972, Andre Nibona was taken away to be killed but he said an administrator of the commune saved him and 70 other civilians. While their lives were spared, Nibona said they were forced to become servants for a Tutsi family and spent their days living in fear. Nibona explained that the survivors burned photos of all those killed to avoid “Gucusasa” – a Kirudni word for great sorrow.

  Nibona is still trying to get his land back. The people who stole it are now dead, but their children have his land now.

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  Nijenahagera, Sylvestre

  Sylvestre Nijenahegeira

  Oral history of Sylvestre Nijenahagera. After only four months of marriage, Sylvestre Nijenahagera said the 1972 Genocide of Burundi erupted and killings began to creep into his country. He evacuated Burundi in hopes of finding safety in Tanzania. He was sent back to Burundi because he said his name was written on a list of those who should be killed. He said due to a clerical error, he was marked as dead and this mistake saved his life. Nijenahagera escaped a brutal death by hiding on the roof of a church. He said without the help of the church, and a clerical error, he would not be alive today to share his story of survival.

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  Nindamutsa, Gertrude

  Gertrude Nindamutsa

  Gertrude narrates her experiences during the tragic events of 1972 and life afterwards in Burundi. At the age of 18, Gertrude got married and soon after had a child. On the same day as her child's birth, turmoil erupted in the community, leading to extensive fear and people fleeing their homes. Despite the mayhem, the speaker's husband returned shortly before being taken away and never seen again. This marked the beginning of profound distress for the interviewee, who was left alone with a newborn during their postpartum recovery.

  Later on, Gertrude remarried but shockingly lost her second husband in 1973 during the continuing unrest. The interviewee became a widow twice due to the violence that swept through her region. Throughout these hardships, Gertrude depended on the support of her in-laws to help raise her children. In her testimony she also touches upon the origins of the tragedy, accredited to tensions among Hutu residents in the Imbo region who were allegedly planning to buy an airplane. This plan did not succeed, leading to violence that targeted both Tutsis and Hutus indiscriminately, with countless massacres reported.

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  Nindorera, Aruberi

  Aruberi Nindorera

  Aruberi began elementary school in the early 1980s and completed his national exams around 1989-1990. He attended primary school in Nyagatovu, moved to Marangara in Ngozi province, and then went to secondary school at Collège Buye in Burengo. He pursued a career in teaching and worked for the government, initially as a teacher, then in municipal roles, and returned to teaching. He currently teaches in Vumbi.

  The interviewee was very young during the 1972 massacres, but he shared insights based on his mothers witness to the tragedies. His father, who was Tutsi but had a Hutu mother, was targeted due to his perceived association with Hutus and his size, which was uncommon for Tutsis.

  His father, working in Kirundo, was accused of helping "traitors" and was killed. The family lived in a refugee camp, then moved to Nyagatovu.

  The interviewee recounted that during the 1972 killings, Tutsis, including some who were mistakenly identified as Hutus or suspected of supporting "traitors," were also targeted.

  Specific individuals who faced these tragedies, included his father and other Tutsis who were killed or disappeared under similar circumstances. Nindorera described his father's killer as Ndabaneze Laurent, who was a lieutenant in Kirundo, and reportedly involved in the violence and later killed in Vumbi.

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  Niyonzima, Therence

  Therence Niyonzima

  Therence Niyonzima witnessed his father die after he took a spear to his side.

  After he watched his father die in agony, he said he carries his father’s wound and death with him in his heart every single day. He has never recovered from this heartbreak nor has he ever been able to recover his land or livestock taken by the militia. Niyonzima also lost his uncle in the genocide but explained that mourning their deaths would be strictly forbidden and punishable by death. Niyonzima was forced to live with the person who stabbed and murdered his father right in front of him. He had to pretend it did not happen to survive. Now, Niyonzima encourages Burundian youth to learn the truth about the painful past and to not be arrogant or vengeful.

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  Ntiranyibagira, Zerida

  Zerida Ntiranyibagira

  Nitranyibagira watched in fear from her elementary school window as Hutu pastors were loaded onto a truck by militia. Nitranyibagira said they suspected everyone that everyone loaded on to the truck was going to be killed and their bodies would dumped in Ruvubu. When Nitranyiba was traveling to Bururi, soldiers loaded her and her classmates onto a truck. Terrified, they were taken to Matna and they took refuge in an abandoned house in ruins. Every day, they lived in fear, praying they would not be the next to die. Nitranyibagira explained that the soldiers decided who’s lives would be spared if they found their victims’ faces attractive or not.

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  Sindabizera, François Xavier

  François Xavier Sindabizera

  Sindabizera comes from a village named Murore. He had three siblings and two parents who passed away in 1970. His only brother was a teacher at his school and was captured during 72, due to the accusation of engaging in political affairs. He was arrested for 6 months. Older students would mock Sindabizera about his brother being captured and claimed he was taken to Vumbi to be tortured. This caused him and his family to lose hope that their brother was still alive. Sindabizera's neighborhood consisted of Rwandan Tutsi families, where a rumor spread that claimed they were the ones who were the capturers of Sindabizera’s brother. Some of his neighbors were chiefs, who worked at the municipality, who were said to be responsible for taking his brother.