Ntunzibigaba, Sereniya

Ntunzibigaba, Sereniya

Sereniya Ntunzibigaba

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Interviewee Age

Guesses about 80 years old

Interviewee Gender

Female

Interviewee Level of Education in 1972

Did not attend school

Geographical Location(s) during the genocide

Nyagaseke Village, the commune was Mabayi, the province Cibitoke

Current Geographical Location

Nyagaseke Village, Mabayi commune, Cibitoke provinc

Interview Date

3-26-2022

Interviewer Name

Yollande Niyubahwe

Summary of Oral History

Sereniya Ntunzibigaba was born in Murungugu subvillage, in Mabayi commune, Cibitoke province. She didn’t get school education, she had two siblings but one of them was killed in 1972. During that period, she missed a lot of people: her husband, her two nephews, her grandson and her sister in law.

Her husband was a teacher, he taught at a catholic mission, he used to work and came back home for lunch. Sereniya was informed by her husband’s colleagues that her husband was taken away from job. They gave her the message he sent to her, that she should not go to look for the money he had saved at Fadara’s, and that he would return back by God’s sake, he sent to tell her to send him money and coat because he thought he would return back. He didn’t know that they took him to be killed. He was called Prosper Rwabaye. He left four children, three girls and one boy.

There was a man who attempted to remarry her, but she refused and decided to remain a widow and raise her orphans. Her husband died on Wednesday whereas she had gone out from postpartum period on Monday. What shocked Sereniya was that her husband was killed without enjoying the son he had envied for a long period.

When they took him, they said that it was the money they had stolen, his mother came and told sereniya; “ Give me the money so that I go to pay it, maybe he hid it on the house roof”. They sent the housekeeper, he went up to the roof and he didn’t find it. That was the lie, the rumors spread by people. He was the first one they arrested in that area with a certain doctor who was at Mpinga.

There were some people who were stabbed and thrown into pits. Sereniya’s sister in law was killed with her child while bearing another on her back. Sereniya went to pick up the baby she was bearing. When sereniya’s family saw that, they decided to run away to hide themselves in forest, she went with her four children. Belongings of her husband perished after her husband’s death: cows, goats and pigs; perpetrators looted them. Sereniya made her elder daughter dropout of school in order to help her to raise other children as they lived in very bad conditions of poverty.

Sereniya said that she gave up the matters of those killed but she said that whenever she sees her husband’s photo, tears flow from her eyes. She said that if she met perpetrators who made her a widow, she couldn’t forgive them but she gave up that matter.

Named Persons

Rwabaye Prosper: her husband killed in 1972; Mugurano: her father; Inamugisha: her mother; Fadara: a person who kept Sereniya’s husband’s money

Named Places

Murungugu: where Sereniya was born; Kivuruga: river; Mpinga: subvillage; Mabayi: commune; Cibitoke : province.

Length of Oral History

00:33:29

Language(s) of Oral History

Kirundi

Language(s) of Transcripts

Kirundi, English

Translator for Transcripts

Translator: Pasteur Niyomwunger, Transcriptionist: Sylvane Ndihokubwayo

Field Folder Number

41

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT - EDUCATIONAL USE PERMITTED This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. In addition, no permission is required from the rights-holder(s) for educational uses. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Download Sereniya Ntunzibigaba - Oral History Transcript and Translation (Kirundi and English) (373 KB)

Ntunzibigaba, Sereniya

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