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SPECIAL FEATURE
ACTIVIST OF THE MONTH |
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Stephanie Nyombaire: Taking a Stand Against Genocide
Stephanie Nyombaire is no ordinary college student. She is an 18-year-old Rwandan whose own family was touched by the genocide* that happened there in 1994.
And now she is actively demanding change to protect the victims of a new genocide in the region of Darfur in Sudan.
Stephanie is a student at Swarthmore College
in Pennsylvania, majoring in psychology and political science, who plans to return to Rwanda to help rebuild a country and a people devastated by the turmoil
of war and genocide. Teen Voices had the opportunity to interview this remarkable teen and we are honored to highlight Stephanie's international work in our
very first Activist of the Month feature.
Teen Voices: Where did you grow up?
Stephanie: Kigali, Rwanda. It's a country in Africa.
TV: How long have you been in America?
Stephanie: I came over here for my sophomore year in high school. I was 14 and I had been given a scholarship to a boarding school called Kent School in Kent, Connecticut.
TV: What was it like coming to America for the first time?
Stephanie: It was very different. It's a very different country and I wasn't expecting to see the things I saw. It was a very difficult thing to get used to.
I lived with students at the Kent School, so that helped me adjust and get used to things. Being at a boarding school and living with students in such a close
community played a big role in helping me adapt to life in the U.S.
TV: Why Swarthmore? Was there an activism culture on campus that you were drawn to?
Stephanie: During my sophomore year at the Kent School my advisor had a son who attended Swarthmore at the time and he introduced me to Swarthmore. I chose to go there
for college because of the close community, but most importantly, I chose to come to Swarthmore because I knew that if I came this far from home, I should do all I can
to have the best education that this country could offer me and I believe I have found that at Swarthmore.
TV: Many of our readers may not know about what happened in Rwanda. Briefly describe the Rwandan genocide. Who did the killing? Who was killed? Why? How did it end?
Stephanie: The genocide in Rwanda happened over the course of 100 days in 1994. The conflict was between two of the three major tribes, called the Hutus and the Tutsis,
and it was the fastest and most systematic genocide in history. Close to one million people were killed—that's more than one thousand a day.
The conflict between the Hutus (the majority) and the Tutsis (the minority) originated when the Germans and then the Belgians colonized Rwanda in 1889.
They divided the tribes by arbitrary* physical characteristics such as being tall or short or having certain features. The king of Rwanda at the time was Tutsi,
but being in power then was a matter of class and the amount of cattle that one had.
The colonists [the Germans and Belgians] introduced the doctrine that said the Tutsis were superior to the Hutus because of their position in power at the time.
They encouraged people to think that the Tutsis thought of themselves as superior and although interactions and intermarriage was common between Tutsis and Hutus,
colonists sought to spread a feeling of injustice among Hutus because of the Tutsis in power.
The Tutsis were in power until 1959, when a Hutu was elected president. The Hutus ruled from 1959 to the end of the genocide in 1994. When the Hutus came to power,
a slow build-up of rebellion started to form among the Tutsis, who had now become refugees in the bordering countries. The Tutsis had been chased out of their homes
when independence was declared from the colonists and the Hutus were given power.
A civil war broke out between the two tribes in 1990. Everyone had to start carrying around an ID card that identified each person as a Hutu or Tutsi. Harmful
propaganda was spread by the Hutus to eliminate the Tutsis. They called the Tutsi tribe "cockroaches." They wouldn't let the Tutsis be educated or have jobs.
The killing started on April 6, 1994. Nearly one million people were killed in a hundred days, on the basis of being Tutsis or moderate Hutus who did not agree
with the anti-Tutsi propaganda. This genocide was nothing else than a mass slaughter as men, women, and children were encouraged to pick up machetes and kill their
compatriots*. The genocide ended when a rebel group called the Rwandan Patriotic Front, who had been fighting for four years, claimed victory.
TV: Describe how your life changed in 1994 with the start of the Rwandan genocide.
Stephanie: I was actually living in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1994 because my parents left Rwanda early on because of all the discrimination against Tutsis.
We went back after the genocide because we wanted to help rebuild the country.
I was only 8 at the time, so I didn't grasp everything that was going on. I remember the anxiety and fear my parents had as we waited to know which of our family
members were still alive. The only updates in Congo about the genocide came from a few minutes of coverage on television and all anyone could do was wait and hope
that their family members were still alive.
TV: What was it like to go back after such devastation?
Stephanie: While I was living in Congo, my parents always told us about the day we would return home and be reunited with the rest of my family. Instead, we returned
to find out that most of our family had been killed. We were in a constant search to find who had been able to survive the atrocities. Everyone was still talking about it.
It was part of all conversations. You could still see skeletons and mass graves. It was a part of everyday life and I was so young.
It wasn't until I came here that I matured and grew old enough to look back and think about what was going on. My own family was lucky because we still had each other.
My five sisters and I still had our parents, but the genocide left 500,000 orphans who were left begging in the streets. When we went back, it was still very fresh in
people's minds, but everyone was trying to look forward.
The ID cards were thrown out and discrimination in schools and jobs ended. In the schools, children were no longer asked to be aware of their ethnic groups as the
education became centered on teaching children about forgiveness and reconstruction of our country.
*Genocide: the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.
*Arbitrary: random or by individual preference.
*Compatriot: a person who is from the same country as you.
*Pretext: a hidden motive that is different from what is openly acknowledged.
Continues on Page 2
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Are you a teen activist or do you know any teen activists? Contact
Teen Voices and share your story.
Don't Just Imagine
Marina Tharathattel, 16,
New York
Suppose everything
you dreamed of
came true.
Just suppose
for a split second
that you can have
things your way,
The right way.
Just suppose
you had the power to change
places and
conflicts,
the power to make
a difference.
Now,
don't just suppose
anymore.
Take action!
The Darfur Editorial-Writing Contest:
The Genocide Intervention Network works to mobilize citizens to help protect victims of genocide throughout the world.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee on Conscience is asking high school and college students to enter their published editorials
on Why does the Genocide in Darfur Matter Today? The winners will be flown to Washington, D.C. for the annual Holocaust Days of Remembrance at the
Capitol Rotunda. For more information, visit www.ushmm.org.
Past Activists
of the Month
November 2005:
Stephanie Nyombaire
December 2005:
Kaley Rosinski
January 2006:
Kyla Carpenter & Erika Chase
March 2006:
Shelby Knox
April 2006:
Cisnell Baez & Ashley Cotton
May 2006:
Makalay Tarawally
June 2006:
Becky Marks
July 2006:
Geneva Johnson
August 2006:
Rachel Powell
September 2006:
Liz Funk
October 2006:
May Lan Dong
November 2006:
Karoline Evin McMullen
December 2006:
Maggie Astor
January 2007:
E. Jane Handel
February 2007:
Ana Slavin
March 2007:
Shaina Patel
April 2007:
Amity Paye
May 2007:
Evelyn Eng-Nol
June 2007:
Ava Lowery
July 2007:
Chela Élan Counts
August 2007:
Alexandra Pates
September 2007:
Alexandra Abend
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