Nyirahonora Théophila (left) speaking at a Kwibuka31 event in Busogo, Musanze district
For decades leading up to the genocide, the Tutsi population in Rwanda faced significant and systemic discrimination, including in education.
This discrimination was more evident during the Gregoire Kayibanda and Juvenal Habyarimana governments, where policies like ethnic and regional quotas (“iringaniza”) were implemented to limit the number of Tutsi students in schools and universities.
This meant that many qualified Tutsi individuals were denied access to education based solely on their ethnicity.
Like many others, genocide survivor Nyirahonora Théophila, a resident of Musanze district, says that she had to change her name from ‘Niwemuto’ to ‘Nyirahonora’ in order to get an education.
Born in 1962, Théophila says that upon hearing that she had passed her primary leaving exams, she rushed to the former Commune Mukingo (in Musanze district) to see the published list of candidates who had passed, only to find her name and marks erased with white wash ink.
Residents of Busogo at Kwibuka31 held April 8
Théophila returned home, cried all day, spent the next few days in deep sorrow, but convinced herself that she could retake the primary leaving exams and pass to further pursue an education.
She decided to resit the candidate year but failed to pass, to the surprise of many in her family. Frustrated, Théophila then decided to drop out of school and help her mother at the plantation farm.
This decision did not sit well with her mother, who decided to find out what could have caused her daughter’s failure.
Her mother discovered that it was because Théophila had her father’s name, ‘Mbanzarugo,’ who had died in 1969 but was well known in the community. She suspected that this was used against her daughter because she was a Tutsi.
“My mother wanted me to study. So, she thought that because my father is well known, that could be affecting my chances, and that is when she thought of changing my surname,” she narrated.
“So, my mother went to beg them to fill out a civic form for me, on which I was named as Nyirahonora instead of Mbanzarugo,” Théophila said. This also meant relocating to another school in Muhoza sector in Musanze town and spending a week practicing to identify herself with the new surname.
Théophila says that after graduating from high school and demonstrating good conduct, she immediately found a job as a teacher. However, this career path was not smooth as she continued to be harassed by her superiors, who asked for sexual favors. She refused and sought another job in Nyundo diocese.
Some of Théophila’s age-mates reminded of the past
In 1984, Théophila started working in the Diocese of Nyundo, where she was blessed to find a welcoming Bishop who even sent her on a work mission to Cameroon in 1990. She returned home a few years later in the face of the genocide, which left many in her family dead.
Théophila only survived because of the area Bishop who provided her with travel documents to escape from Busogo to Kigali, where the Rwanda Patriotic Army soldiers rescued many and stopped the genocide.
Today, Théophila goes by the name Nyirahonora, and even though she may not like it, it enabled her to get an education that also allowed her to meet people who saved her and stay alive to tell her story during the 31st commemoration of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi.
