Football is the most popular sport in the world - it is a creation that exuberates unbounded emotions and makes everything around vibrant and beautiful.
Football has been around for centuries now, and it has made way into people's lives and become the part of everyday culture. In the obscure places to biggest of cities, people having a kick about with the ball in parks, streets, and playing fields, is the common sight.??
Football is referred to as 'the beautiful game' because it gives you the sheer joy and passion. It is also a sport that has changed millions of lives for the better, and come to the rescue of people who had looked outrightly down in life.?
The impact football has had on people around the world is immeasurable. The most riveting and moving tale though, has to be that of Rwanda genocide, and the role football played in mending a broken and torn nation.
Twenty-five years ago, Rwanda suffered one of the worst atrocities in modern history. The Rwandan genocide killed about 1.5 million people in around 100 days. The target was the Tutsi people, one of the ethnic groups in the country.?
The Hutus and the Tutsis were ethnic groups in Rwanda. They were identified by the Germans and then used by the Belgians. Both had moments of power, but in colonial times the Tutsi¡¯s were seen as the superior race by the Belgians.
AP
After the independence, the enmity between the groups explode as both feared each other. After having many peace talks, it all went sideways when Juv¨¦nal Habyarimana, the President of the country, was killed in the plane crash.
It was not known as to who carried out the attack,? but the radio blamed Tutsi rebels and told the rebel group, Interahamwe, and the Hutu militia to start slaughtering all Tutsis they could find.
For the next hundred days, country was rocked by one of the biggest genocide in history as more than a million people became victims of the Hutus inhuman aggression.?
The country was ravaged and shivered - the dark clouds hovered over the entire nation. As expected, this would have an effect on football in the region - sport much adored and part of life in the country.?
In one of the most transfixing story from the harrowing experience is how being a footballer saved goalkeeper Eric Murangwa¡¯s life. He was a footballer who belonged to the Tutsi group and played for Rayon Sports.?
On 7 April 1994, he was about to be killed until the Hutu militia took out a photo album and recognized him as ¡°Toto¡±, his nickname. He asked him if he played for Rayon Sports, in which the militia was a fan of, and spared his life.
It happened in the early days of the genocide, and Murangwa was very fortunate as the member of militia was a football fan. If it wouldn't have been that, he might not have been so lucky. Even after escaping from the clutches of death, he was forced to hide out with another Hutu fan of Rayon named Zuzu.?
After the disturbing months that shook the country to its foundation, people soon found football as the liberating factor. The sport became an alternate world that saved people from the emotional turbulence of the aftermath.? ?
It was football that united a divided nation, and gave them a sole purpose to enjoy the the beautiful game and the joy that comes with it.?
Within weeks of the genocide, football was a catalyst for reconciliation in devastated Rwanda. Rayon Sports played Kiyovu Sports in a match and Hutus and Tutsis united to participate and support. It brought many out of hiding and marked a celebration of peace and hope.
Since the genocide, there has been heavy investment in sports. Ten years after the genocide, the Rwandese national team would participate in their first major tournament: the 2004 African Cup of Nations.?
After 25 years of genocide, football continues to unite people in Rwanda and it has taught the country the only language it knows -? religion, race, color, and gender, can't separate us; for we are one human race.?