Its morning hours at his home together with the wife and a classmate, busy reading for the evening exam, the 27-year old poet and an award winning filmmaker Edouard Uwayo Bamporiki speaks to igihe.com reporter and shares his painful memories experienced during 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
Bamporiki’s first poem iyobadatsembwa tuba dutwenga literally meaning ‘If they were not exterminated, we would be joyful together that is compiled in his book icyaha kuri bo, ikimwaro kuri jye shares well his true story.
He says that due to the strain of the massacres he was experiencing while in the hospital forced him to tell his mother to quit the hospital.
Bamporiki realized he was a Hutu when he was 8 years old. He was by then in primary three when his teacher gave class homework to ask their parents about their ethnic groups.
He also says: “When I joined secondary school, I met with genocide survivors and from their anguishes I could think of composing for them poems to fortify them but I could feel ashamed of what I am.
“When I came to Kigali in 2002, I joined Urunana (a creative communication for community development) but during presentations I could feel bothered,” he explains.
He says he gained public audibility when he went into competition where the judges were Tutsis, presented his testimony and won the competition.
From his stories of hope, unity and reconciliation, Bamporiki was among the 2009 recipients of Young Rwandan Achievers Awarded by Imbuto Foundation for his own authored, directed, acted and produced film. Later the Long Coat award received from New York that again was ranked the best movie in Rwanda in 2010.
“The award I got strengthened me and now I have to fight for peace to prevail not only in Rwanda but the whole world.
“What will make me happy is to see the world that has peace and stability with no conflicts and I know I will contribute greatly for this success. I found out that if I am doing something developmental to my national, then I shouldn’t feel ashamed,” Bamporiki added.
Bamporiki who witnessed the first hand of the horrors says he will center his work on ensuring that peace prevails in Rwanda using his natural gift as an artist.
He also focuses on being an international peacemaker. “I want the future generation to know me as an international peace advocate and that is why I author books, make films focusing on peace building that will last long.”
He calls on the public saying: “Do not hesitate to speak the truth about the pain we went through and fight for peace for the future generation to experience the tragic history we suffered.”
He is born from Cyangugu in a family of six children with only him as a boy. Apart from him, no one else from his family managed to study up to at least secondary level.
It’s from this background that the Award winning Filmmaker is sponsoring the annual best candidate at his former primary to promote and empower education at his home area.
Bamporiki likes the government campaign of empowering women because he is born in a family of girls and for that matter, he awards the best peace activist student at a Kigali based girl’s school Lycée Notre-Dame de Cîteaux where he also gives lecture about peace building each year.
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