Ineza


I decided to travel to Rwanda a place that once hosted genocide. On the first day of our visit, we arrived outside of Ineza. Unexpectedly, the president told us some of the women from Ineza would be telling their stories about rape and genocide.

Among them, I was instantly drawn to Cècile’s large, soft brown eyes. At

15 years old, her family home and cattle had been burned and destroyed by Hutus in the 1973 genocide in Rwanda. Just twenty — one years later, in 1994, militant Hutu rebels again

attacked, essentially exterminating her family. Then twelve men raped her.

Cècile had been called to testify in front of a collection of judges for a trial relating to her assault and rape

during the genocide the week before. Instead of acting as a source of reconciliation, the experience only succeeded in further trauma.