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The Port Arthur Rotary Club invited Clementine Msengi, a professor at Lamar University and a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide. Msengi is slated to release her new book, “Spared.”

Msengi began her presentation by recounting her youth in western Rwanda. She grew up as part of a Presbyterian church while attending a boarding school as a teenager. Shortly after graduating, she returned home to decide what she would do for the rest of her life. At the same time, the Rwanda Genocide began.

“I want you to imagine you just graduated from high school and then all of a sudden you are forced to go into hiding because someone wants to end your life,” Msengi said. “Because that’s what happened to me and to many other people who belong to the same ethnic group.”

The Rwanda genocide began in 1994 when over 1 million people, primarily of the Tutsi and Twa ethnic groups, were killed by the Hutu militia. The genocide lasted around 100 days after the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana caused a power vacuum that incited Hutu extremists to begin the killings. 

Msengi recounted stories of having to hide, going house to house, in order to not be killed. She and other friends that she had came up with the idea of staying in an abandoned house that was not very far from her original home in hopes that they would not search the area again.

“They put me in an abandoned house in the rain and there was no roof and they said, ‘We trust God will save you, we have done our best and if you die, we will see you in heaven, ’” Msengi said.

The plan worked and Msengi is still with us today.

Afterwards, Msengi made her way to America to attend college at the University of Northern Iowa and eventually receive her Doctorate in Education at Lamar University. Today, she continues to teach at Lamar and educate people on Rwanda and the power of education.

Msengi plans to return to Rwanda in the near future for the first time since leaving over 20 years ago. 

“It’s really important to tell this story so that history doesn’t get forgotten and we live in a divided and uncertain world, so the more we tell the story, the more resilient the community, the better,” Msengi said.