An Interview of Consolee Nishimwee
The Teenage Survivor: Consolee Nishimwe survived the genocide as a 14 year old, and went on to become a powerful advocate for other survivors, an author, and a global defender of women’s rights
On February 18, 2021, I had the privilege to interview Consolee Nishimwe, a survivor of the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994. At the age of only fourteen, she survived the genocide along with her mother and younger sister. Tragically, her beloved father and three younger brothers were murdered. In order to survive, she spent three months on the run, hiding from Hutu killers, after her home was burned to the ground. While some community members offered temporary protection, many friends and neighbors turned their backs and refused to offer shelter. During the months of the genocide, she suffered tremendously, not only enduring the murders of many members of her family, but being sexually assaulted, herself. After enduring three months of trauma, fear, and homelessness, during which she witnessed and experienced truly unspeakable horrors, she finally found safety when French soldiers arrived and the genocide ended. Today, she is a speaker on genocide, including speaking before the the United Nations; a defender of global women’s rights; and a courageous advocate for other genocide survivors. She is the author of her incredible true story, Tested to the Limit: A Genocide Survivor’s Story of Pain, Resilience, and Hope.
As a survivor of the genocide, Ms. Nishimwe shared her purpose in speaking out. She stressed, “It is my duty to tell what happened so the world will not forget. . . That’s my way of making sure that the history is not forgotten.”
Ms. Nishimwe spoke to the origins of the genocide. She stressed that, “Genocide doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process. There are so many stages.” Like all genocides, there was a predictable pattern of classifying people to create an us versus them mentality, coupled with dehumanizing hate speech.
Ms. Nishimwe emphasized that the genocide was well “planned” and a result of, among other things, “a propaganda of hatred against the Tutsi.”
Ms. Nishimwe explained that originally, Tutsis and Hutus were “social classes” yet during a period of colonization decades before the genocide, these social classes were turned into ethnic identities. Identification cards were issued, classifying a person as either Hutu or Tutsi and supposed differences in appearances were emphasized. Ms. Nishimwe revealed that, “They [the Belgian colonizers] managed to make people believe that Tutsis look a certain way, Hutus look a certain way, they measured their noses . . . ‘
In her book, she recalled that in her home, her parents never said anything negative about ethnicity. It was not until a few years before the genocide, when she was in the third grade, that ethnicity seemed to become a significant source of division in school. At that time, even young students like herself were asked to identify their ethnicity. Ms. Nishimwe later learned that during this time, her parents, who were both school teachers, also had suffered incidents of discrimination because they were Tutsis. In the years leading up the genocide, she also witnessed an escalation in anti-Tutsi rhetoric.
Once the genocide began, not only did some friends and neighbors refuse to help, but in fact her family was betrayed by people they had previously helped and considered friends. Ms. Nishimwe recalled: “Everything changed . . . I lost my dad. I lost my three younger brothers. Throughout three months of hiding, . . . hiding in bushes, our homes were completely destroyed. Neighbors who were considered to be friends . . . did the most horrible things to us.”
Ms. Nishimwe also bravely recounted her experiences regarding how “rape is a weapon of the genocide.”
Ms. Nishimwe has chosen to share her painful experiences to help others and preserve the history of what actually happened to her and her family. “For me, to share is so I encourage my fellow survivors to share their story. I want to be a part of helping - making sure the history of my family is told. [I want to] make sure that the world knows what we’ve been through, the suffering we’ve been through, and how we overcame.”
Ms. Nishimwe stressed that her goal in speaking out is so that the voices of those who were murdered in the genocide are not forgotten. “I want to make sure that those that are no longer here - their voices, their lives, their names . . . are alive. They were alive. They existed. . . My duty is to make sure that what happened is heard. That is why I share my story.”
Ms. Nishimwe also emphasized her purpose in speaking out so that others may learn from her experiences and never lose hope, no matter what they may experience in their lives. “It was important for me to never give up on life. There is a reason why I am alive. I have a purpose. That is why I am here talking to you . . . My life matters. . . No matter what you’ve been through, you should never give up. Never lose hope.”
In the aftermath of the genocide, Ms. Nishimwe also shared the experiences of her family with the gacaca courts. Although the gacaca system has been criticized and regarded as achieving mixed results, Ms. Nishimwe stressed how important this traditional system of restorative justice was to Rwandan society.
“Gacaca was really important to our society. We had so many perpetrators. Our justice system was not meant to try a genocide.” Therefore, Rwanda used the gacaca system, “a traditional justice system that was used before to reconcile families. People come together in the community to reconcile.”
Others have criticized the gacaca system of restorative justice, arguing that some apologies by perpetrators of the genocide were insincere and offered only in order to achieve a reduced prison sentence. Ms. Nishimwe, however, stressed that some apologies were sincere. In the case of her family, it was traumatic for them to hear the testimony given during the gacaca trials about the deaths of their loved ones, yet they gained valuable information from the perpetrators, including learning the location of the bodies of her brothers. Ms. Nishimwe opined that gacaca was a “very necessary” process: “It [was] traumatizing, but at the same time, it helped with survivors finding remains of loved ones.”
Ms. Nishimwe also shared her thoughts on the failure of the international community to do more to end the genocide. As a fourteen year old who struggled every day to survive during the genocide, she noted that: “The international community was watching what was happening but they were not intervening which was very sad for me to see.”
Ms. Nishimwe emphasized that: “The genocide in Rwanda was preventable if the international community had intervened.” Yet, despite these failures, she does not hold grudges. Rather, she views it as her “duty” to make sure history does not repeat itself.
Finally, Ms. Nishimwe shared her message on the importance of being “aware” and knowing the steps or stages that precede a genocide. Dehumanizing language has destructive and deadly consequences.
“Words matter. Words have power. We saw in Rwanda, it [the genocide] started from words. Whenever you see injustice happening, you must speak out. Do something. . . Be aware. . . Learn from history. It can happen anywhere.”
Ms. Nishimwe, Thank you for your incredible bravery, kindness, and generosity in sharing your story so that not only will the truth of what you experienced be preserved, but that your experiences may also help others to learn from history, speak out against injustices anywhere, and never give up hope.
