‘These women saved lives’: the film inspired by surviving Rwanda’s genocide
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Loading... - Deborah Kalisa
- 06 Apr 2023
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As a child, Jo Ingabire Moys saw the slaughter of her family. Thirty years on, her film Bazigaga, about a shaman heroine of the genocide, is shortlisted for a Bafta
As Jo Ingabire Moys lay wounded on the floor, surrounded by the bodies of her family, her 14-year-old neighbour, Arifa, came in to the house in Kigali to see if anyone was alive.
Moments earlier, Ingabire Moys’s father had prayed before the bullets sprayed their home. He was killed, with two of his children and a cousin; Ingabire Moys, two other siblings and her mother survived.
“Our family name was on the list and they lined everybody up and shot us with the purpose of extermination,” says Ingabire Moys. “We didn’t think anyone would survive.” It was 1994, and the Rwandan genocide had just begun. Ingabire Moys’s family were among hundreds of thousands of people targeted because they were Tutsis.
Arifa, a Hutu, was the only neighbour to check on the family. She brought them supplies until they could escape from the city and helped bury their dead. I thought this was a great opportunity to pay homage to the Rwandan women who saved many lives, including my own. “We were the only Tutsi family on the street. No one came to see what happened or to help, except her,” says Ingabire Moys. “She saved our lives.” Read More…
