Barankitse in Yerevan at Matenadaran, during the panel Aurora Dialogues, before the Aurora Prize ceremonyBarankitse on a 2017 Armenian stamp
Marguerite (Maggie) Barankitse (born in 1957 in Ruyigi, Ruyigi province, Burundi) is a Burundian humanitarian activist who works to improve the welfare of children and challenge ethnic discrimination in Burundi. After rescuing 25 children from a massacre, she was forced to witness the conflicts between the Hutu and Tutsi in her country in 1993. She established Maison Shalom, a shelter that provided access to healthcare, education, and culture to over 20,000 orphan children in need.[1] Because she protested against a third term for President Pierre Nkurunziza, she lives in exile.
During the 26 years that it operated in Burundi, Maison Shalom grew into a large network of schools, hospitals, and healthcare services across the country. Its purpose was to improve the lives of Burundi's children, through integrated and sustainable development with the ultimate aim of fostering lasting peace in the country. However, in 2015 Barankitse was forced to flee her country, and Maison Shalom plunged into a political crisis.[2] Far from surrendering, Barankitse shifted her focus and decided to dedicate all of her energy to helping more than 90,000 Burundian refugees in Rwanda.[3] In 2017, she opened the Community Center Oasis of Peace in Kigali to help schoolchildren, offer psychological and social support to torture and rape victims, and implement sustainable development activities in areas such as health, education, vocational training, culture, and income-generation.[4] She stated that her vision is to instill dignity in refugees to keep their dreams alive: "Evil never has the last word – Love always wins."
Barabkitse has received numerous awards, including the Juan Maria Bandres Prize for Asylum Rights, and the French Government's Human Rights Prize (both 1998), the World Children's Prize (2003),[5] the Four Freedoms Award (Freedom From Want), the Voices of Courage Award of the Women's Commission for Women and Refugee Children (both 2004),[6] the Nansen Refugee Award (2005), the Opus Prize (2008),[7] the UNESCO Prize (both 2008), the Prize for Conflict Prevention (2011), and the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity (2016).
Biography
Marguerite "Maggie" Barankitse was born in 1957 in Ruyigi, East-Burundi, one of the poorest regions of the country. Of Tutsi heritage, she was a teacher at a local secondary school but was fired because of her protests against discrimination between the Hutu and Tutsi in the field. She then went to work as a secretary for the Catholic bishop in Ruyigi.[8] Despite mounting tensions, Barankitse put her dream of ethnic harmony into practice by adopting seven children: four Hutus and three Tutsis. As violence escalated between the two tribes following the assassination of the first democratically elected president of Burundi, a group of armed Tutsis descended on Ruyigi on October 23, 1993, to kill the Hutu families who were hiding in the Bishop's manor. Barankitse had managed to hide many of the children but was caught by the fighters. They beat and humiliated her and forced her to watch the killing of 72 Hutus, but she refused to tell them where the children were hidden.[9] Ultimately, she was spared only because of her Tutsi heritage. After the ordeal, Barankitse gathered her adopted children and the surviving orphans and hid them in a nearby school. As more and more children sought shelter with her, she decided to create a small nongovernmental organisation: Maison Shalom, the House of Peace. Her house was open to children of all ethnic origins: Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa. She calls them "My Hutsitwa children",[10] and they call her Oma[11] (or "grandmother" in German). In the following years, Maison Shalom in Ruyigi was one of the few places in Burundi where Hutus and Tutsis cohabited in harmony.[12]
Since the events of 1993, over 20,000 children and youth have benefited from Maison Shalom. Before the current crisis in Burundi, the organisation employed more than 270 people, including nurses, psychologists, and educators who implemented special projects for the children.
In April 2016, Barankitse spoke out against the third term of President Pierre Nkurunziza and joined the youth demonstrations denouncing him. As a result, she was obliged to hide for a month in an embassy in Bujumbura.[13] Eventually, she had to flee; the government had her name on a death list.[14] Barankitse found herself a refugee.
Maison Shalom in Burundi
In the autumn of 1993, after the assassination of Melchior Ndadaye, the first democratically elected president of Burundi (a Hutu), the Burundian civil war began with massacres taking place throughout the country. In the province of Ruyigi, disaster struck on 24 October. To exact vengeance for the killing of members of their ethnic group, the Tutsi hunted the town's Hutus, who were hiding in diocese buildings. Barankitse, a Tutsi, was also there, and she tried to reason with the group of Tutsi to not to use violence. However, her efforts were in vain: They decided to tie her to a chair and forced her to watch the killing of 72 of her friends.[15] A few hours after the massacre, the children of the victims started to come out of their hiding places. That day, Barankitse says, she realized that her mission would be to fight the violence ravaging her country by giving those children, and the 20,000 who would follow, an alternative to hate.[16] Amid the prevailing disaster, the news spread rapidly about the "crazy woman of Ruyigi" who dared to take in all of the orphans who came to her, never refusing anyone. Twa, Hutu, Tutsi: Barankitse made no distinction.
Barankitse initially gathered the 25 orphaned children of the Ruyigi massacre. With the help of European and Burundian friends, she organized a network that provided care for a growing number of children.[17] In May 1994, the Roman Catholic bishop of Ruyigi, Bishop Joseph Nduhirubusa[18] agreed to transform a former school into a children's shelter called 'Maison Shalom'. It was named so named by the children, in memory of a song heard on the radio at the time, and because the word "peace" in Kirundi had been instrumentalized and defiled by the slaughterers on both sides of the conflict.[19]
Maison Shalom's focus was predominantly children, including child soldiers, orphans, mutilated children, and minors in prison. However, its services were available to the entire community, having an impact not only on the lives of orphans but also the entire region that could access to its services. Maison Shalom's activities soon also expanded to other cities such as Butezi and Gizuru, where Barankitse opened other children's shelters.
Over the years, what was merely a shelter seeking to protect orphans from both sides after the civil war, grew into an entire village,[20] and included a bank, a crèche, the REMA Hospital,[21] a hotel,[22] a shop, a resource centre for learning sewing and computing, a mechanic training school, a swimming pool, and even a cinema.[23]
REMA Hospital built by Maison Shalom in Burundi
Many of the activities were income-generating initiatives run by the youth themselves, such as the guesthouse, the cinema, the car workshop, and the like. When they became independent, the young people supported by Maison Shalom received a small house and a plot of land.
In 2004 an estimated 20,000 children had benefited from Barankitse's help, either directly or indirectly.[24][25]
By 2015, over 300 houses for children and youth aged between 4 and 20 had been built. The NGO also helped internally displaced persons and returning Burundian refugees to reintegrate in Ruyigi and to find their missing relatives. Barankitse was also on the frontline in the battle against HIV/AIDS, setting up counselling projects to promote HIV/AIDS prevention. She and her staff cared for over 100 HIV-infected children who had been abandoned or orphaned.
Barankitse also started an initiative to help imprisoned youth. Some children were born in prison, and she worked to find them a better life, through education and a home outside prison. Her team continued to promote agriculture and established a microfinance project to enable the parents to develop small businesses.[26]
In 2015, however, everything fell apart. The Burundian government started suppressing protests against President Nkurunziza. Thousands of Burundians started fleeing to Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania or the DRC. Barankitse protested, cared for the wounded young, and fed those who were in prison. But in June 2015, Barankitse was herself forced to flee. In Burundi, there is a price on her head.[27]
Maison Shalom Rwanda and the Community Center Oasis of Peace
Barankitse refused to spend her days in Europe comfortably and decided to dedicate her energy to help more than 90,000 Burundian refugees in Rwanda.[28] She started with her expertise: education. She fought for education for children and university students in refugee camps.[29] She put 126 children in preschool, 160 in secondary school, and obtained 353 scholarships for university-level refugee students to join Rwandan universities, and 10 scholarships for the best students to study in universities abroad.
In May 2017, Barankitse opened the Community Center Oasis of Peace for schoolchildren, offer psychological and social support to victims of torture and rape, and to implement activities of sustainable development in areas such as health, education, vocational training, culture, and income-generation.[30] The Center offers a variety of courses including in English language, culinary arts, tailoring, embroidery, and painting. It also has a restaurant and is cyber-equipped with computers with internet connections for research and basic computer training. Approximately 200 people come every day to the Centre and benefit from the various services offered by Maison Shalom.[31]
Maison Shalom seeks to help refugees and especially young people in exile to live in dignity, to use the period of exile for empowerment and forgiveness for those who forced them to flee their homeland.[32]
Mahama Elite Center at Mahama Refugee Camp and
Since 2015, more than 430,000 Burundians have been forced to flee and to seek refuge in neighbouring countries such as Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda.[33] Among them, more than 90,000 are in Rwanda, of which 58,000 live in Mahama Refugee Camp.[34] This camp is considered to be a model case of refugee management in the East African Region.[35]
To support the refugees living there,[36] Maison Shalom opened the Mahama Elite Center on 22 June 2018.[37] This training center was poised to offer vocational training and employment to Burundian refugees in the camp. The project will enable young people to improve their living conditions but also to strengthen their entrepreneurship skills.[38]
Awards and honours
Graffiti of Marguerite Barankitse in Burgos, Spain
The scope of her action, as well as the fact that she protects all children without consideration of their origin, Tutsi or Hutu, brought Maggy praise from all corners of the world:[39]
1998: Prize of human rights, awarded by French government. – Liberté – Égalité – Fraternité
Burundi originated in the 16th century as a small kingdom in the African Great Lakes region. After European contact, it was united with the Kingdom of Rwanda, becoming the colony of Ruanda-Urundi - first colonised by Germany and then by Belgium. The colony gained independence in 1962, and split once again into Rwanda and Burundi. It is one of the few countries in Africa to be a direct territorial continuation of a pre-colonial era African state.
The Hutu, also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great Lakes Twa.
The Tutsi, also called Watusi, Watutsi or Abatutsi, are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi.
Cyprien Ntaryamira was a Burundian politician who served as President of Burundi from 5 February 1994 until his death two months later. A Hutu born in Burundi, Ntaryamira studied there before fleeing to Rwanda to avoid ethnic violence and complete his education. Active in a Burundian student movement, he cofounded the socialist Burundi Workers' Party and earned an agricultural degree. In 1983, he returned to Burundi and worked agricultural jobs, though he was briefly detained as a political prisoner. In 1986 he cofounded the Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU), and in 1993 FRODEBU won Burundi's general elections. He subsequently became the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry on 10 July, but in October Tutsi soldiers killed the president and other top officials in an attempted coup.
The Burundian Civil War was a civil war in Burundi lasting from 1993 to 2005. The civil war was the result of longstanding ethnic divisions between the Hutu and the Tutsi ethnic groups. The conflict began following the first multi-party elections in the country since its independence from Belgium in 1962, and is seen as formally ending with the swearing-in of President Pierre Nkurunziza in August 2005. Children were widely used by both sides in the war. The estimated death toll stands at 300,000.
Pierre Ngendandumwe was a Burundian politician. He was a member of the Union for National Progress and was an ethnic Hutu. On 18 June 1963, about a year after Burundi gained independence and amidst efforts to bring about political cooperation between Hutus and the dominant minority Tutsis, Ngendandumwe became Burundi's first Hutu prime minister. He served as prime minister until 6 April 1964 and then became prime minister again on 7 January 1965, serving until his death. Eight days after beginning his second term, he was assassinated by a Rwandan Tutsi refugee.
Mass killings of Tutsis were conducted by the majority-Hutu populace in Burundi from 21 October to December 1993, under an eruption of ethnic animosity and riots following the assassination of Burundian President Melchior Ndadaye in an attempted coup d'état. The massacres took place in all provinces apart from Makamba and Bururi, and were primarily undertaken by Hutu peasants. At many points throughout, Tutsis took vengeance and initiated massacres in response.
The National Forces of Liberation is a political party and former rebel group in Burundi. An ethnic Hutu group, the party was previously known as the Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People and adhered to a radical Hutu Power ideology, but since the mid- to late-2000s has moderated its stance and cooperated with the Tutsi-supported Union for National Progress party in opposition to the rule of Pierre Nkurunziza and the CNDD-FDD.
Agathon Rwasa is a Burundian politician and the leader of the National Liberation Forces. He was a Hutu militia leader during the Burundi Civil War.
Alexis Sinduhije is a Burundian journalist and politician. After founding Radio Publique Africaine during the Burundi Civil War, Sinduhije received a CPJ International Press Freedom Award and was named to the Time 100 list of most influential people. In 2007, he left journalism to run for president, but was arrested in 2008 on a charge of "insulting the president," Pierre Nkurunziza, drawing protests on his behalf from the U.S., U.K., and Amnesty International. He was found not guilty and released in 2009. The film "Kamenge, Northern Quarters" follows Sinduhije before, during, and after his incarceration.
Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa. It is bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and southeast, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west; Lake Tanganyika lies along its southwestern border. The capital city is Gitega and the largest city is Bujumbura.
Ethnic groups in Burundi include the three main indigenous groups of Hutu, Tutsi and Twa that have largely been emphasized in the study of the country's history due to their role in shaping it through conflict and consolidation. Burundi's ethnic make-up is similar to that of neighboring Rwanda. Additionally, recent immigration has also contributed to Burundi's ethnic diversity. Throughout the country's history, the relation between the ethnic groups has varied, largely depending on internal political, economic and social factors and also external factors such as colonialism. The pre-colonial era, despite having divisions between the three groups, saw greater ethnic cohesion and fluidity dependent on socioeconomic factors. During the colonial period under German and then Belgian rule, ethnic groups in Burundi experienced greater stratifications and solidification through biological arguments separating the groups and indirect colonial rule that increased group tensions. The post-independence Burundi has experienced recurring inter-ethnic violence especially in the political arena that has, in turn, spilled over to society at large leading to many casualties throughout the decades. The Arusha Agreement served to end the decades-long ethnic tensions, and the Burundian government has stated commitment to creating ethnic cohesion in the country since, yet recent waves of violence and controversies under the Pierre Nkurunziza leadership have worried some experts of potential resurfacing of ethnic violence. Given the changing nature of ethnicity and ethnic relations in the country, many scholars have approached the topic theoretically to come up with primordial, constructivist and mixed arguments or explanations on ethnicity in Burundi.
The 1996 Burundian coup d'état was a military coup d'état that took place in Burundi on 25 July 1996. In the midst of the Burundi Civil War, former president Pierre Buyoya deposed Hutu President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya. According to Amnesty International, in the weeks following the coup, more than 6,000 people were killed in the country. This was Buyoya's second successful coup, having overthrown Jean-Baptiste Bagaza in 1987.
The Ikiza, or the Ubwicanyi (Killings), was a series of mass killings—often characterised as a genocide—which were committed in Burundi in 1972 by the Tutsi-dominated army and government, primarily against educated and elite Hutus who lived in the country. Conservative estimates place the death toll of the event between 100,000 and 150,000 killed, while some estimates of the death toll go as high as 300,000.
On 21 October 1993, a coup was attempted in Burundi by a Tutsi–dominated army faction. The coup attempt resulted in assassination of Hutu President Melchior Ndadaye and the deaths of other officials in the constitutional line of presidential succession. François Ngeze was presented as the new President of Burundi by the army, but the coup failed under domestic and international pressure, leaving Prime Minister Sylvie Kinigi in charge of the government.
Marie-Louise Sibazuri is a Burundian women's rights activist and teacher who has devoted her time to writing since 1993. In addition to becoming a prolific playwright, she is widely known as the author of the popular radio series Umumbanyi Niwe Muryango, a soap opera which sets out to improve relations between Tutsis and Hutus following the conflicts of the mid-1990s. After spending several years in Belgium where she was active in the theatre, she has now moved to Australia with her second husband, Hilaire Bucumi. She is currently writing collections of Burundian folk tales.
The Bugesera invasion, also known as the Bloody Christmas, was a military attack which was conducted against Rwanda by Inyenzi rebels who aimed to overthrow the government in December 1963. The Inyenzi were a collection of ethnically Tutsi exiles who were affiliated with the Rwandan political party Union Nationale Rwandaise (UNAR), which had supported Rwanda's deposed Tutsi monarchy. The Inyenzi opposed Rwanda's transformation upon independence from Belgium into a state run by the ethnic Hutu majority through the Parti du Mouvement de l'Emancipation Hutu (PARMEHUTU), an anti-Tutsi political party led by President Grégoire Kayibanda. In late 1963, Inyenzi leaders decided to launch an invasion of Rwanda from their bases in neighbouring countries to overthrow Kayibanda. While an attempted assault in November was stopped by the government of Burundi, early in the morning on 21 December 1963, several hundred Inyenzi crossed the Burundian border and captured the Rwandan military in camp in Gako, Bugesera. Bolstered with seized arms and recruited locals, the Iyenzi—numbering between 1,000 and 7,000—marched on the Rwandan capital, Kigali. They were stopped 12 miles south of the city at Kanzenze Bridge along the Nyabarongo River by multiple units of the Garde Nationale Rwandaise (GNR). The GNR routed the rebels with their superior firepower, and in subsequent days repelled further Inyenzi attacks launched from the Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
Mahama Refugee Camp is a refugee camp in Kirehe District in the Eastern Province of Rwanda, near the Kagera River which is the border with Tanzania. In 2016, it had over 50,000 residents, making it the size of one of Rwanda's ten largest cities. In 2021, there were over 100,000 refugees in Rwanda and most of them were here. In 2023 the population was over 58,000 with the majority under the age of 18.
Relations between Burundi and Rwanda have existed for at least as long as the states themselves. Before contact with Europeans, Rwanda and Burundi were kingdoms competing to gain control over nearby territory. In the 1880s, the two kingdoms were placed under colonial authority, first by Germany, and then by Belgium after 1919.
The Rema Hospital is a hospital in the town of Ruyigi in the northwest of Ruyigi Province, Burundi. It was founded in 2008, and once was flourishing, but by 2017 it had fallen into disrepair.
↑ Christel Martin, La Haine n'aura pas le dernier mot: Maggy, la femme aux 10 000 enfants, Paris, Albin Michel, October 2005, 47-48-90-102 p. ( ISBN2-226158588)
↑ The Official Twitter handle of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugees (MIDIMAR), Tweet of 22nd of June 2018, "Min. @DeBonheurJeanne has inaugurated Mahama Elite Center built by @Maison_Shalom" https://twitter.com/MIDIMARRwanda/status/1010102395479756800
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