Carrying Divine carries them too. These are the names of Henriette’s family and her closest friends, lost in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. We name them so the carrying continues.
Teacher and professor. Educated his children at great cost in a system designed to keep them out. When Dismas at the education office offered to falsify her papers to bypass that system, he refused: I will not lie. No matter how much I want this for my daughter.
·Killed 1994
Nurse. A teacher’s heart. Gathered every child in the neighborhood into her tiny frame and said: You are children of God. All of you.
·Killed 1994
Adopted with Esperance after their parents — Uzamutuma’s brother and his wife — died in a car accident before Henriette was born. Henriette only ever knew them as her oldest sisters. Clementine was at every birth, gentle through the panic, laughing at her sister’s questions.
·Killed 1994
Adopted with Clementine. Married a man whose papers got her safely through several roadblocks. When she insisted on going back to save their younger cousin Tutuyu, her husband refused to bribe further. He told her to get out of his truck, and drove away.
·Killed at the roadblock with Tutuyu, 1994
Ten years older than Henriette. My hero, like a second dad to me. Vetted Innocent before the marriage and became his close friend; told him he would send Henriette back to her family if he ever laid a hand on her.
·Killed 1994
Five years older than Henriette. The watchful one. Quiet, protective, always telling her: No more questions for now, Henriette. Just observe.
Father of Angelique.
·Killed 1994
Born one year after Henriette. Her closest companion as a child. E.J. — Emmanuel Julius — is named for him.
·Killed 1994
Left his last year of high school to join the RPF. Left a note under their mother’s pillow with most of his tuition money returned: I am going to fight for our safety. Please don’t worry about me.
Returned to Kibuye during the Hundred Days to find his family gone, and walked home through the open. Killed in a church, trying to stop a woman from being raped.
·Killed 1994
One of the three youngest brothers. Taken with the others to the government building under the false promise that the educated would be saved.
·Killed 1994
Living with Henriette and Innocent in Kigali to attend a private school. The public school system in Kibuye had closed its doors to him.
·Killed at the gate, April 7, 1994
Hidden with Esperance under blankets in a truck. The two of them were taken from the truck at the same roadblock, on the same day.
·Killed 1994
Met her at university in Butare. Prayer warrior, godly mentor, the friend who carried Henriette before Henriette carried Divine. Her last call, the Easter weekend before the genocide: There is nothing more we can do. There is nowhere we can hide, unless we hide in Jesus. We are ready to go home to be with Him.
·Killed with her family, the first day of the genocide, 1994
Held prayer meetings in defiance of the killers, in a small building next to his home, each time they came. Every time they came to separate his congregation, he and his people would say the same thing: There are no divisions here; we are all children of God.
·Killed with his congregation, 1994
They opened their home to Henriette and her four children, hiding them from the militia that came daily to check the houses. Their daughter Chantal left with Henriette’s family. Her parents were killed shortly after.
·Killed 1994
Carry your own Divine wherever you go.