Rwandan prosecutor, genocide survivor shares story with FSU students
Agnes Muhongerwa has the heart of a survivor.
She tells the story of her life to students at Florida State University with poise, her voice steady, in spite of the tears that lie just below the surface. Her mother’s words, the words that sustained her through genocide in Rwanda, echo in her mind — “You must be strong.” So Agnes pauses, dabs a tissue to the corner of her eye and keeps talking.
She is small, diminutive even. I’m 5’6″ and I feel like I tower over Agnes, but strength, as it is in her case, often has nothing to do with stature.
“Every time my mother asks us to be strong, and I wonder why,” Agnes tells the class at FSU. “And then I look, this is the fruit from the speeches of my mother. Now, I can tell everyone: Be strong.”
At age 32, Agnes is a prosecutor in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, and she’s in charge of domestic violence and child abuse cases. Since July, she has been studying English and working as a visiting scholar at the Institute for Family Violence Studies in the FSU College of Social Work.
Agnes survived the genocide by hiding in the forest and in a neighbor’s home. She is the sole survivor of her family, but she has found peace and purpose.
“I ask god to be with me every day, and I look that god does it because if I am quiet and not talk about genocide, you cannot imagine if I am a survivor or not because many times, you can see I am laughing and happy,” she says.
Agnes’ visit is a recent example of ties between FSU and Rwanda. A student group, Global Peace Exchange, has taken students to Rwanda to teach English and computer skills, and Rwandan President Paul Kagame was one of several world leaders to speak at FSU in 2008 in support of a United Nations initiative, the Alliance of Civilizations.
Many have credited Kagame with improving the country since the genocide in 1994, which killed 800,000 to 1 million people. His focus has been on education, a message he shared at FSU.
“The issue of quality education remains a considerable challenge,” he said during his visit. “Education is almost everything.”
Agnes’ past has made her determined to create a better future for herself and her country, a republic working to develop legal and educational frameworks for change.
“I have to work for my country, not for myself,” Agnes tells the students, who are studying family violence. “Who is the country? The country is not the building … it is I and you. We are the country.”
As a young leader in Rwanda, where women are increasingly taking on leadership roles, Agnes has come a long way since leaving school at age 16 because of the unrest.
“My uncle, he advise me every day to go back to school and continue your life,” she says. “I try to respect him and go back to school. I finish high school in 1998, and then I go to university. I get good success, and then the government accept that Agnes can be the prosecutor.”
The Rwandan government is funding Agnes’ trip, which demonstrates its commitment to her future. She will return to Rwanda in December.
“The government wants its leaders to have U.S. training, so with Agnes here, she is going to go far,” says Karen Oehme, director of the Institute for Family Violence Studies.
The message Agnes shares resonates with the students. She describes a world very different from ours. In even the developed parts of Rwanda, most streets aren’t paved, and the country has no DNA lab, she says. Samples are sent to Germany for testing.
Before 2001, domestic violence was not considered a crime in Rwanda, according to research Agnes presented last month at a conference in California. Since then, the country has adopted laws addressing family violence toward adults and children, but Agnes sees room for strengthening them.
She says she will carry the knowledge she has gained back to Rwanda as if she were packing “big, new luggage.”
“I have many things in my mind like in the big bag,” she says. “I read the statutes about domestic violence, and you have a good definition.”
Upon returning, she hopes to establish an organization similar to the Oasis Center for Women and Girls in Tallahassee. Agnes liked what she saw there during a summer camp.
“They give them the education and they make in their mind how they can be a strong woman,” she said. “I like that. I made a decision. When I go back, I will be able to create the same Oasis for the young girl to help them to be strong and to be smart and be the leader in the future, good leaders.”
Agnes says people often tell her, “You look so young. You look as (if you have) no power.”
She closes her fists and says, “But I have the power.”
I don’t doubt that a bit.