President of As We Forgive, Antoine Rutayisire Travels to the U.S.!

Hope remains no matter what someone has suffered, said Rwandan genocide survivor Antoine Rutayisire.

Rutayisire has experienced a variety of personal tragedies throughout his life, from the murder of his father to multiple experiences of ethnic discrimination, he said. But despite these challenges, he decided to learn from the past, forgive others and move forward. Rutayisire spoke

to The Jackson Sun editorial board on Thursday.

“We don’t need to be slaves to our past, because it’s up to us to emancipate ourselves in our minds,” Rutayisire said. “You forgive the past and leave it behind you.”

Rutayisire said he grew up a prisoner to his anger, as his father was murdered during a genocide of the Tutsis, Rutayisire’s ethnic group, when he was five. Twenty years ago, another genocide took place against the Tutsis, with about one million Tutsis killed in three months.

With about 3,000 people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in New York City, Rutayisire said the 1990’s Rwandan genocide was equivalent to having the Sept. 11 attack occur three times a day for 90 days.

“The wounds from the past are like landmines planted on the way into the future,” Rutayisire said. “You find that the wounds of the past stay with us, whether we want it or not.”

Oppressors do not have to physically attack someone to hurt them, Rutayisire said, as the Rwandan government also hurt Tutsis by taking away their dreams. After losing his job as a professor due to his ethnicity, Rutayisire said he was sent to work as a school teacher in a remote village. Rather than allow the situation to destroy his dreams, however, he worked hard to become the best teacher at the school.

While he noted that reconciliation is not a popular message, Rutayisire said he found the ability to forgive after reading the Bible – which taught him not only how to live but also gave him a goal for his future.

“God created me for a purpose, and that’s why I refuse to leave my country,” he said. “My purpose is to help the country rebuild.”

But Rwanda is not alone in experiencing problems among its people, as Rutayisire said every community contains potential for tension. The problems often are rooted in the past, where generations of anger can keep people from thinking positively.

While there are no easy solutions to finding forgiveness,

Rutayisire encouraged communities to explore the wounds of their past, note the consequences these wounds have upon the community and develop answers from these evaluations.

“There is hope,” Rutayisire said. “No matter what you have suffered, there is always tomorrow. And it’s up to us to define. Because where we come from is not where we end. It’s all in our hands to define what tomorrow is.”