How a woman saved people during the genocide in Rwanda (7 photos)

During the Rwandan genocide, Zula Karuhimbi saved more than 150 people. The brave woman used a very unusual method, but, nevertheless, it was effective. A real heroine.





Rwanda, a small East African country, has a population even smaller than Moscow. But it was there in 1994 that one of the most terrible and bloody events took place.

Historically, this country was inhabited by Tutsis and Hutu. The Hutus have always had a numerical advantage, and the difference between the nationalities is almost invisible. Tootsies are just a little taller and their skin tone is a little lighter. They were in the past the ruling people of Rwanda, they were always richer and more respected.



The presidents of Burundi and Rwanda died and on April 6, 1994, mass pogroms and killings of Tutsis began. In just three months, about a million people were killed. The Hutus, supported by hateful articles in the media, took up arms and went to kill every Tutsi they met along the way, even if it was their friend or neighbor. The cruelty of these murders was head and shoulders above the cruelty that happened in German concentration camps, known for their sophistication in torture. Men were killed and women were raped. The media wrote about Tutsi women that they are a “sexually attractive fifth column.”



But it doesn’t happen that there aren’t those in hell who are willing to risk their own lives to save innocent people.

Zula Karuhimbi was known as a witch, people were afraid of her and tried to avoid her. She stood up against armed, crazed people while those who were able to escape were hiding in her house. People sat day and night in a cramped, hot basement, some hid in the attic, under Zula’s bed, some even managed to hide in the branches of a plum tree, so conveniently planted next to Karuhimbi’s house. By the way, Zula herself was a Muslim and, of course, did not recognize any witchcraft. She simply knew the properties of different herbs well and skillfully mixed them.

But she was so convincing in her speeches that she managed to scare away the attackers.



But how did she manage to cope with angry and armed men? When they showed up in her yard, she immediately smeared her hands with the juice of a special poisonous plant. All she had to do was touch the fighter’s skin, and he immediately began to become covered with burns and ulcers. Of course, they didn’t understand what was going on; they were sure that the witch had cursed them. And then Zula would go into the house and start rattling everything she could get her hands on. Leaning out the window, Karuhimbi shouted to the militants that it was the disturbed spirits who were angry at the uninvited guests.

The militants tried to accuse her of hiding Tutsis, but Zula reasonably answered them: “I’m a witch, everyone is afraid of me, no one comes to me.”



Once they wanted to set fire to Karuhimbi’s house, and when they couldn’t burn it down, they fired bursts of machine gun fire. But Zula was so convincing in her predictions that the wrath of the spirits would fall on families and generations of fighters that they fled.



The brave Zula Karuhimbi saved the lives of more than 100 Tutsis, about 50 more Hutus who did not want to take part in the massacre, and even three whites who were out of place in Rwanda at that time.

In 2006, the woman received an award for her participation in the fight against genocide, which was presented to her by Rwandan President Paul Kagame. It’s interesting that she also saved him, only in 1959, when there was a similar outbreak of local hatred. Kagame was only two years old at that time.

Zula then took off her beads, ordering the mother of the future president to weave them into Paul’s hair and tell everyone that he was a boy. Then only Tutsi boys were slaughtered.



It was Paul Kagame who stopped the genocide of the Tutsi, stopping the bloodshed and torture, becoming the commander-in-chief of the Rwandan Patriotic Front.

Already very old, Zula took the medal with her to bed every evening and kissed it. In it, she saw the faces of all those whom she managed to save, each and every one.

Zula Karuhimbi, nicknamed "Schindler's Witch", lived a long life and died in 2006. She was 106 years old. A woman who was full of love for people and was ready to do anything for them.