Rwandan Football Team Jersey

 The militia noticed the correct photo in the house of Eric Murangwa.

For the Rwandan people, football has always served as a powerful unifying force. In 1918, Belgium declared a small East African country its protectorate, and Catholic missionaries began to spread on its territory not only a new religion, but also a game, which soon a large part of the population was already playing.

76 years later, Rwanda was shocked by the worst event in history, which claimed more than a million lives. Survivors of this bloody nightmare, as a rule, thank relatives, friends and fate. But there are a few people for whom the main savior is football. One of them is the young goalkeeper Eric Murangwa. His life did not end only thanks to football.

In the Middle Ages, a gradual division of the Rwandan tribes into two classes began - Hutu and Tutsi. The former were engaged in agriculture and led a sedentary lifestyle, while the latter were nomadic pastoralists. Over time, the Tutsis subjugated their neighbors - the Hutus did all the dirty work for the newly-made masters, and the Tutsis fought with other peoples and ruled the country's internal affairs. With the arrival of the colonists, the situation worsened: the Belgians gave all power to the Tutsis, in fact, the Hutus turned into slaves.

The creation of an independent state in the 1960s radically changed the situation in the country. The Hutus emerged from the Tutsi rule and began to brutally take revenge on their oppressors. The problem of interclass enmity was especially acute in the provinces, as a result of which the Tutsis in whole communities ("hills") migrated to the capital of Kigali. Together with Muslims (another discriminated stratum of the population), they founded the first football clubs - any other form of public association was already prohibited for them.

Part of the Tutsis fled to neighboring Uganda, where friendly peoples lived. Many of the emigrants received citizenship, but did not abandon the idea of ​​returning to their homeland, and in 1988 they founded the military-political organization Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).

In 1973, General Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu by birth, seized power in Rwanda. The price of coffee (the country's main export product) has been rising, contributing to relative social well-being. However, in the late 1980s, the harvest was destroyed by a terrible drought, and incomes of the population plummeted. The crisis coincided with the first military successes of the RPF, the soldiers were gradually gaining a foothold in Rwandan territory. The a Rwandan Football Team Jersey uthorities blamed the Tutsis for all the troubles, and ethnic cleansing and mass arrests began again in the country.

The government-controlled radio station Free Radio and Television of a Thousand Hills began to incite hatred of Tutsis using simple metaphors. For example, the presenters often called on the people to “cut down tall trees” (it was believed that Tutsis differed from Hutu in taller growth). Radical formations “Interahamwe” and “Impuzamugambi” appeared in the country, a significant part of which were football ultras. They raided Tutsi homes and brutally dealt with their inhabitants.

The worst thing happened on April 6, 1994 - President Habyarimana was returning from Burundi when his plane was shot down by an anti-aircraft gun. The head of state died, members of the RPF were accused of the catastrophe, and genocide began in the country.

On that fateful day, the young goalkeeper of the football club "Rayon Sport" Eric Murangwa (Tutsi by birth) returned home late - he was watching in a bar the semi-finals of the African Cup of Nations between Zambia and Mali. At three o'clock in the morning, the 19-year-old Rwandan was awakened by the sound of a machine-gun burst. Murangwa crawled to the window and saw how people in military uniforms, armed with machetes and machine guns, invade neighboring houses, take residents out into the street and calmly take their lives.

Within a few minutes, five tough fighters were turning the furniture inside Eric's house upside down, smashing dishes and taking valuables right in front of the owner. Suddenly, one of the militias drew attention to the opened photo album - his eye was attracted by a photograph of "Sports District" in the house of President Habyarimana.

"Who are these people?" The soldier asked. “My teammates,” replied the terrified Murangwa. - I play for "District Sport". “What are you talking about ?! I have been a fan of District Sport since childh

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