Meet Martin Muhoza, child survivor of genocide

Martin Muhoza was our official guide from CNLG (The National Centre for the Fight Against Genocide) while we were in Rwanda.   He is a child survivor of genocide.



In 1992, when Martin was twelve years old, there was a small genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda.  Martin and his family fled to the church at Nyamata (for further info you can see my Nyamata blog entry or google "Lisa Turner Rwanda" to find my other, more-detailed blog about Rwanda) where they sought refuge.   In 1992, Tutsis were safe when they fled to churches.  Martin, his parents and his five brothers sheltered there in the church until the danger had passed and it was safe to come out. 

In 1994 Martin was accepted into school in Kigali, and arrived at his school on April 2.  The genocide started on the evening of April 6, with Martin separated from his family by distance.   He managed to make his way to the Centre St. Paul (where we stayed in 2010 - you can read about it on my other blog), where he sheltered until that area of the city was secured by the RPF.  Martin's family, however, did not survive.  Martin assumes that they again sought refuge in the church at Nyamata.  This time however, all of the people sheltering in the church, some 10,000 individuals, both within the church and in the churchyard,  were killed.

When the genocide was over, Martin made a huge effort to locate his family.  He registered with the Red Cross, and he travelled to every orphanage in the country to locate his five brothers. When that was not successful, he travelled to every Rwandan refugee camp, both inside Rwanda, and in Congo, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda, to try to find them, again without success.  

Martin has devoted his life to the memory of Rwanda's genocide victims.  He works at CNLG, and heads many programs designed to preserve the physical evidence of what happened there in 1994.  He is also involved with recording verbal and written testimonies of victims and witnesses.  He travels the country as part of his job, going from site to site.   We were astonished at how many people knew him, and how many doors would open for us, just because he was there.  When he described us as "friends of CNLG"  people would nod knowingly, but I think they were less impressed with us as just us, than they were by the fact that we appeared to be on good terms with Martin.