In April 1994, Yannick Tona was 4-years

CROSSING BORDERS
PHOTOS by
CAROLYN
In April 1994, Yannick Tona was
4-years-old, hiding in a bush,
trying not to be killed.
His family had gathered at his grandmother's house in the
southern Rwandan town of Butare. They wanted to face whatever was coming together, and the militia was getting closer.
They heard the screams of people running down the street,
fleeing the men and their machetes.
"We decided to divide up," Tona says. "I went with my mother. My sister went with my uncle, and my younger brother went
with my grandmother. We hid in a school. Then my mom learned
that they were going to come kill that night in the school so we
left. That night, most people in that school were killed. We hid in
bushes. We survived."
Tona lost more than 80 members of his famüy during the
Rwandan genocide, a three month-period from April to July 1994
when government-backed extremist Hutus called for the mass
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CRUZ
slaughter of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
The ethnic conflict took a country that appeared unified by
a common language and culture and turned it into a bloodbath,
pitting neighbor against neighbor, husband against wife and parent against child. Nearly 1 million Rwandans - 20 percent of the
population - perished.
Tona and his mother walked for three weeks, without food,
to neighboring Congo. By mid-July, a peace agreement ended the
killings, and mother and son returned to Rwanda.
"I remember asking my mother, 'Why are we going back to a
country that tried to kill you?' But people are passionate about
their country," he says. "She wanted to come back home and help."
"I wanted to discover why this happened. I was a kid, and I
didn't understand. The more I learned, the more I hated people.
These were people I had grown up with. People who were close to
my family; people I knew.
"Then one day I discovered: Hating people doesn't really do
anything about it. I want to make a difference. If I'm going to be
different from these people, then I have to do something."
As a child
in Rwanda,
Yannick Tona
survived genocide
to become
a tireless
promoter of
tolerance and
cross-cultural
understanding.
At TCU, Tona met
Zack Siegert,
a finance major from
Colorado with an itch
to travel, and the two
became friends.
Today, Tona and
Siegert are part of the
growing bond between
Rwanda and TCU
that's helping shape
a new generation of
global leaders.
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Since that realization. Tona has
been on a mission to promote global understanding by connecting
young people across cultures, serving on the hoards of different youth
organizations in Rwanda, Canada and the United States. He gives
frequent talks, speaking around
the world, about his experience
to encourage action against genocide, discrimination and bullying.
• • 'I'
Tona entered TCU's Intensive
English Program (IEP) in 2012 so
he could hone his English skills and
take his message to a wider global
audience. He was the first recipient
of TCU's Carl and Teresa Wilkens
scholarship to support rebuilding efforts and English education
in Rwanda. The scholarship, made possible by the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid, was named after the American couple
who aided Rwandans in hiding during the genocide.
Kurk Gayle, director of the Intensive English Program, decided to enlist other students to help Tona make the adjustment
to American campus life. He helped form the Rwandan Student
Committee to provide a support system for Tona and future scholarship recipients. Zack Siegert, who had come to TCU from Castle
Rock, Colo., was among the recruits.
"We got to meet Yannick and heard his story," Siegert says.
"We were just there as a resource for him to take him to lunch or
learn how to operate the washer-dryer, just basic things like that."
The two young men hung out a few times, and Siegert helped
set up a speaking event featuring Tona in December 2012. After
that event. Tona asked the Colorado native: "Do you want to come
to Rwanda?"
Siegert loved traveling and was planning to spend the 2013
spring semester in Seville, Spain, through TCU Study Abroad.
"I said sure," Siegert recalls. "I've always wanted to expand
my horizons, continue traveling to new places, especially after
working with him. He said, 'OK, if you're serious about it, let me
know.' "
Why did Tona make the offer?
"After I see all TCU has done for me, the great experience I've
had, the scholarship, I was interested in what I could do to give
back," he says.
While studying in Spain, Siegert followed up with Tona. He
told him that he really wanted to visit Rwanda but not just as
a tourist. Together they developed a plan: Siegert would stay
with Tona and his family in the capital city of Kigali for a month.
During the first week, the young American would work in an
orphanage on the outskirts of the city, and then he would spend
three weeks interning at a bank.
At the end of June 2013, Siegert arrived in Kigali. Tona helped
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his American friend buy a suit (as
a native Rwandan he could negotiate a better deal in the markets)
and introduced him to his family
and neighhors.
"They all knew me, way before
I ever knew them," Siegert says. "I
was the first Westerner to ever live
in their neighborhood, so they'd
come up the first week and say.
Are you OK? Are you supposed to
be here?' I'd say, Tm fine; I'm with
this family' and they'd say, 'Oh, I
rememher.' They'd heard all ahout
me, that was nice."
Siegert loved the warm welcome he received from Rwandans
and was surprised the capital city
was so large and well-kept, but also
noted some vast disparities.
"There was also a huge gap in what was developed and what
was not," he says. "I was sitting in my office in thefifthfloorof this
skyscraper, and I could see on the other side of this hill there were
shacks on dirt and no running water."
• •
•
In high school, Siegert saw the film Hotel Rwanda, but he
wanted to learn more about the genocide before his visit. On Tona's recommendation, Siegert watched the documentary Ghosts of
Rwanda, which details the genocide and the West's slow response,
and also read the book. Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the
Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculée IUibagiza.
But nothing could prepare Siegert for his visit to the Kigali
Genocide Memorial Center, which is built on a site where more than
250,000 people are buried. There he met with Yvonne Umugwaneza, a communication officer at the center who now is in the Inten-
sive English Program at TCU. (See
Washington to classes that are
sidebar on page 37.)
studying Rwanda and genocide in
"It almost feels like it could have
general tbis semester. Also, Carl
been prevented," Siegert says. "When
and Teresa Wilkens have offered
you're there and you come from a
to Skype in to campus from the
country that could have infiuenced
capital of Rwanda as they attend
the genocide, it's very difficult to
events there marking the anniverhave that feeling and know it still
sary. The project is part of TCU's
occurred."
Quality Enhancement Plan, or
QEP, focused on providing interBut Siegert says Rwandans are
national experiences and awaremore focused on the future than
is the
ness of global issues.
the past. "They love to talk about
Kinyarwanda word
post-genocide development," be says.
Siegert says he hopes his felfor
"They'll always be very positive, saylow students will get involved in
ing, 'Look at bow far we've come and
these and other events on campus
look where we're going."'
and learn more about Rwanda and
its people. He also bopes students
During Siegert's stay in Rwanda,
will reach out to other internationhe and Tona were busy with their
al students and get to know them
duties and work during the day but
better.
reunited at night and talked about
their experiences. By tbe end of tbe
"They are just like we were
month, tbey were like brotbers.
when we came to campus as freshmen, eager to meet people and
"We really didn't know each other that well before, but now I'd share where they come from," he says. "The opportunity is there.
It's just a matter of taking advantage of it. That's the key."
consider (Tona) one of my very good friends," Siegert says.
Tona, who is working toward a degree in political science at
TCU, bopes to one day become president of Rwanda. He has used
• • •
opportunities on campus, such as the Vicente Fox Forum of World
Back at TCU, Tona and Siegert are part of a group of students Leaders, to meet and question former heads of state.
working to educate others about the Rwandan genocide.
He's encouraged by bis generation's interest in global issues
On April 7, tbe 20th anniversary, the two friends will be and tbeir embrace of social media to be more politically engaged.
"In Rwanda, it can't bappen again, but globally I'm scared,"
among a group of 12 students traveling to Wasbington, D.C. to
visit the Rwandan embassy and participate in events commemo- Tona says. "It looks like people don't learn. The Holocaust happened and people said never again, but then we had tbe genocide
rating tbe etbnic atrocity.
In what's being called "Commemorating to Change the World: in Rwanda. Witb the development of technology and a well-inA Virtual Voyage," the TCU contingent plans to bring tbeir ex- formed society, I feel, I hope that we never let something like this
perience to tbe classroom by using Skype to connect students in happen again." Jf'
Kwibuka
REMEMBER
AT HOME IN
RWANDA Yannick
Tona, a freshman
political science major
from Kigali, Rwanda,
and his family,
including his younger
brother, sister and
mom, hosted Zach
Siegert, a senior
finance major, in their
home last summer.
(Photos Courtesy
Yannick Tona)
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2O14
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