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The Finest Flowers of Buta — In Praise of the Lives Offered by the Forty Martyrs of Buta Seminary (Louis Niyongabo)
On April 30, 1997, forty seminarians at Buta refused to be split along ethnic lines — and paid for it with their lives. Louis Niyongabo offers them a text he himself calls a « song of praise », not merely an account.
A historical fact that cannot be silenced
On the night of April 30, 1997, armed men broke into Buta minor seminary and ordered the students to separate by ethnicity — Hutu on one side, Tutsi on the other. The forty young men refused. They died together. The author says it plainly on the back cover: « this historical fact must not be passed over in silence, for it opens our eyes to the deep aspirations of every citizen of good will. »
A song of praise, not just a tribute
Louis Niyongabo, a Marist missionary long engaged in student chaplaincy and peace formation (he belongs to the Worldwide Movement for Reconciliation), writes as a man of the field as much as a theologian. The text speaks of prophetic, priestly, mystical dimensions — but remains, above all, an act of memory for forty teenagers who chose, at an age when few choices are truly one's own, to stay united.
A book to make sure « refusing division » is never forgotten — and what it can still inspire.
- Author: Louis Niyongabo
- Publisher: Presses Lavigerie, July 2018
- Language: French
- Pages: approx. 95 (estimate)
- Weight: 188.37 g
