Rwandan guest speaker prescribes forgiveness

By Lilly Kujawski
Editor

At 14, Kizito Kalima experienced more than most do in a lifetime. Born into a Tutsi family in Rwanda, Kalima is a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Kalima visited WCC campus last week to share his story, as part of the college’s Global Discussion Series.

After Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana was killed, Kalima recalled his mother telling him, “be prepared… anytime a leader of this country dies, we, the Tutsi people, pay the price.”

A few days later, Kalima’s home was invaded and destroyed by police officers and soldiers.

Kalima was able to escape, and he walked 20 miles to a family friend’s house and stayed there. Eventually, he was spotted and targeted by the genocidaires, whom he referred to as “the killers.”

When the killers caught Kalima, he realized it was him against “50 grown-ups,” all of whom were armed. Kalima was surrounded by dead bodies. He tried to escape, but one of the killers cut his head with a machete. Later, he was brought to a “butcher house,” or a killing site that Tutsi people were taken to.

Separated from his family, not knowing if they were dead or alive, Kalima was positive that he was going to die. People around him were being killed in tortuous ways, with chainsaws and axes. Kalima decided the best, least painful way to die was by gunshot, and figured if he fled, the genocidaires would shoot him.

So, Kalima ran, but he wasn’t shot. He briefly reconnected with his family, before being captured again. This time, his mother was taken away and killed.

When talking about the death of his mother, Kalima became emotional.

“I’ve shared my story many times, but the story of my mom still gets me,” Kalima said.

Eventually, Kalima and some other people held with him in captivity were able to escape at night when the killers were sleeping.

They hid in a swamp, staying from April to July in 1994. Toward the end of June, Kalima said everything got extremely quiet and he wondered what was happening. He could no longer hear the sound of guns and bombs. A few weeks later, Kalima was rescued from the swamp.

Kalima survived, but suddenly he was completely alone, still just a teenager, and he became homeless. For a while, he attended a boarding school.

“Those were the worst days of my life,” Kalima said of his time at the boarding school. “I used to sit outside in a basketball court… hoping and praying that at least my mom or my dad is going to show up. Anytime I saw a car coming by the main gate, anytime I saw someone coming, I would imagine it was my family coming.”

Kalima began to feel suicidal. He decided to leave Rwanda.

“The country to me smelled like dead bodies; everything smelled like dead bodies or swamp,” he said.

After traveling around Africa playing basketball for some time, Kalima moved to the United States. He finished high school in Chicago and then attended Indiana University.

While “everything looked good on the outside” for him, Kalima was suffering on the inside. He experienced nightmares, migraines, anxiety and depression. When he started experiencing panic attacks, he visited a clinic on his college campus.

The healthcare provider asked Kalima if he’d ever experienced any kind of trauma. Kalima replied, “I was in a genocide.”

He began to share his story with people, which helped him to heal some of his trauma. However, the anger Kalima felt toward the people who committed the genocide and killed his family was eating him alive.

“I was being held hostage by the people who killed my family,” he said. “I forgave, so I could live… I was sick and tired of surviving.”

Kalima said there will never be enough justice served for any victim, so the only thing left to do is forgive.

Kalima later adopted two teenage Rwandan genocide survivors with his wife, Stacy.

Kalima encouraged students to take advantage of social media platforms when it comes to spreading messages of social justice.

“Be careful what you post… you can get up in the morning and say something and change the world,” Kalima said.

“College students: You have a platform, you have a chance to change the whole world,” he added.

Kalima said it’s everyone’s responsibility to help those in need.

“We are all human beings, first. If you see somebody dying, I don’t care where they come from; black, white, whatever, it’s a human being,” Kalima added. “At the end of the day, we all bleed the same blood, right?”

Kalima said some red flags he noticed before the Rwandan genocide were negative propaganda and hate speech.

He added that he’s observed similar parallels in some of the anti-immigrant rhetoric he has heard in the United States.

“Everything I see, I see in the eyes of a genocide survivor,” he added.

Kalima is the founder of the Peace Center for Forgiveness and Reconciliation in Indiana. There, he assists victims of injustice get resources, educational opportunities and emotional support.

Devin Streur, an international student adviser at WCC, has worked to bring various speakers to campus as part of the Global Discussion Series. He said to look out for the “Women’s Place in the World” discussion on campus in late March or early April.

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