Nyzimana, Asteria

Nyzimana, Asteria

Asteria Nyzimana

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Interviewee Age

58

Interviewee Gender

Female

Interviewee Ethnicity

Hutu

Geographical Location(s) during the genocide

Muyinga

Interview Date

2025

Summary of Oral History

Asteria’s father and grandfather worked as medical assistants at a hospital in Muyinga. Her father was passionate about helping nurses care for others in their community. One day, Asteria’s grandfather came home with horrific, life-altering news.

At the delicate age of five, Asteria listened in terror as her grandfather explained that the perpetrators tied up her father with rope, loaded him onto a truck, and took him away. Later, she learned that her father was tied up with rope, taken by force, tortured for days, and then his body was tossed in a hole. Unfortunately, her father’s death became the catalyst for even more suffering. Their home was looted, they were forced off their land, and the family lived in horrible living conditions while her mother tried to support six children. Asteria said she and her siblings were becoming thinner and thinner. Eventually, she lost her younger brother due to sickness and starvation. Asteria said they were able to bury her baby brother with dignity- which is not something they have even been able to do for her father.

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Nyzimana, Asteria

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