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6th Form Conference

His Excellency, Johnston Busingye with JHS Students

On Friday 31 March we held our How to Heal a Nation Conference for the 6th Form on Rwanda.  Because Year 13 did not have the opportunity last year, we held the conference for both Year 12 and 13.   

On April 7, 1994, one of the worst atrocities of the 20 Century began in the small country of Rwanda in the heart of Africa.  Over the next 100 days over one million people died. When the genocide was brought to an end by the soldiers of the RPF the country was desolate and many of the Genocidaires had fled to the neighbouring Congo.  It was in effect Ground Zero.  All public buildings had been stripped bare of paper, typewriters, furniture; even the national bus company had lost all its busses.  Those people who had killed and who had not fled to the Congo, where living alongside survivors.   How do you even begin to heal the damage after such a cataclysmic event?

During the Conference students were able to hear accounts on the atrocities from a range of speakers.

Andrew Wallace, a journalist and historian, who has travelled to Rwanda many times since 1990 and has written and broadcast extensively on the subject of the Genocide. 

Hyppolite Nitigurwiwra, a child survivor, now works in performing arts to spread the message of peace and tolerance.  He has spoken around the world about his experiences growing up in a very remote part of the rain forest in Rwanda and of how he survived the Genocide. 

We were honoured to also welcome to the conference His Excellency, Johnston Busingye, is the current High Commissioner of Rwanda to the United Kingdom.  Before his appointment to this role in March 2022, he served as Justice Minister in the Rwandan Government.  He has also worked as President of the Rwandan Supreme Court and has been involved in the prosecution of Genocidaires at the International Criminal Court for Rwanda.