Eugénie Musayidire

Eugénie Musayidire (born 1952) is a human rights activist and writer who was born in Rwanda. An ethnic Tutsi, she left the country in 1973 after being threatened by Hutu extremists, moving first to Burundi and later to Germany as a political refugee. In 1994, she lost most of her family and relatives during the Rwandan genocide, an event she covered in her 1999 book Mein Stein spricht (My Stone Speaks). In 2007, she was awarded the International Nuremberg Human Rights Prize for her efforts to reconcile the Tutsi and Hutu communities.

Quotes

 * The paintings express aspects of genocide like betrayal of relatives, negligence of the church and community leaders, and issues related to the horrors which visited the local people.
 * Eugénie Musayidire said that, my stone speaks (The New Times, Wednesday, April 08, 2009)
 * the genocide happened while she was abroad and that the pain of losing her relatives, in Nyanza district, compelled her to write the book-which became a source of internal healing.
 * to express a painter’s version of the pain, Eugénie Musayidire said (The New Times, Wednesday, April 08, 2009)