How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child

by Sandra Uwiringiyimana

It was part of an unfortunate culture, mainly in the villages, in which young men would kidnap a girl, rape her, and then marry her. The rape is committed so that the girl is too ashamed to go back home, or so that her family won’t ask for her back. Hundreds, if not thousands, of girls have been married this way. It is one of the reasons why I think my parents were so passionate about educating their girls, so that we could learn that no one can take away our worth.

Ironically, people back home in Congo had called us Rwandan, but here in Rwanda, people called us Congolese. We didn’t fit in anywhere. We were stateless.