Voices of Rwanda is dedicated to recording and preserving testimonies of the rescapés for use in memorialization, research, and education. All funds from this campaign will go directly to support these efforts.
Please listen to Claudine, a rescapée of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, as she recalls what became of her childhood, and what swimming means to her.
The Challenge: Swim the Strait (for VOR)
- Board member Kerry Propper (Chardan Capital) pledged to match $20,000 towards filming testimonies.
On August 23rd, I took to the waters in an attempt to swim from Europe to Africa by crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, in what was ultimately a 15.5 mile swim (due to shifting currents). I am proud to join the ranks of the fewer than 400 swimmers who successfully crossed the Strait without a wetsuit, but more importantly, I am proud that this symbolic journey has helped to raise funds for Voices of Rwanda.
Many have asked why I chose to swim. I hope this page helps to explain the connection between swimming, our work in Rwanda, and my own journey over the years.
In short, upon my first arrival in Rwanda nearly a decade ago, I felt completely outside my comfort zone. And yet I also felt I didn't have a choice but to return; Rwanda became an inevitable direction as I was pulled into a narrative of such force. Throughout my years as filmmaker, journalist, and director of the Voices of Rwanda archive, I have been a secondary witness to history by listening to the stories of others, who have been, and remain, my courageous guides across rough waters. This swim was an attempt to express that initial journey in a very physical way and to serve as a public statement that the oceans we as an organization must cross remain ahead of us.
Swimming to Rwanda
"Who needs metaphors for hell, or poetry about hell, this actually happened here on earth." - Spalding Gray
In a small downtown theater one night in 1985, American actor and writer Spalding Gray made history by recounting history. He stepped on stage, sat behind a desk with a pencil, notepad, and glass of water, and began bearing witness to his experiences while filming The Killing Fields.
Spalding was a consummate outsider to the culture and to the historical events of Cambodia, and yet Cambodia became woven into the fabric of his life and left him tangled in a mess of history. He called his monologue Swimming to Cambodia. And while he had not experienced the dark chapter of Cambodian history with his own eyes, he had heard from the witnesses, and in turn, his own telling became another kind of bearing witness.
In honor of Spalding and his unique gift for sharing the inner workings of his mind through storytelling, and in memory of all those who endured genocide, in particular the nearly one million Tutsi in Rwanda who were killed in 1994, many of whom were thrown into lakes and rivers unable to swim, I call this effort "Swimming to Rwanda."
Just Going for a Swim
"When we came back from school, we would agree to meet at 3 o’clock. You know at 3 o’clock, the sun is very strong. So, we’d say: 'Let’s go for a swim.' ... Sometimes we would lie to our parents, telling them that we were going to fetch water. [laughter] But in reality, [more laughter] we weren’t really going to fetch water. We were just going for a swim." - Claudine
In the video clip excerpted from Claudine's testimony, we are introduced to a childhood idyll of swimming in the lake. Soon after, Claudine's laughter and smiles disappear as the memory of genocide surfaces. Her mind grants her a brief reprieve to live in the innocence of her childhood before it is drowned by explicit visions of the genocide. As such, even the most precious memories of the lake are forever contaminated by her experiences during the genocide.
For the rescapés in Rwanda, living with genocide means living with the persistence of these memories. And for hundreds of thousands like Claudine, "just going for a swim" will never exist.
Preserving Voices of Rwanda
Since 2006, I have been filming life stories of the rescapés of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi for Voices Of Rwanda, a video archive dedicated to bringing testimonies to high schools, Universities, museums, and research institutions around the globe. VOR was founded with the goal of filming for 20 years, but we are unable to continue our work without wide support from those of us outside Rwanda who are ready to listen, who believe that the rescapés deserve a space to share their stories, and who recognize the importance of preserving history for the future.
Though our work is always disorienting, I am still swimming. Please help me swim farther by sponsoring this crossing.