Mugabe Says Basketball Has Helped Him Deal With Genocide Wounds
Former Rwandan national Basketball team captain, Aristide Mugabe, said that the sport has helped him cope with the effects of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
Mugabe was born to the late Theotime Habiryayo and Veneranda Mukamurehe, on 11 February 1988 in Huye District. He is the second born in a family of three boys.
When his father and big brother as well as other relatives were murdered by the Interahamwe militia during the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, the Patriot forward lived in several places as his family tried to escape the militia. He said:
When I began playing basketball in 2000, that’s when for the first time, I felt some relief in my heart; I learned to be open to everyone regardless of who they are, and I felt a sense of belonging to the society again.
Ever since I started playing basketball, my life started changing although it was not easy at the beginning.
I started making new friends and we could crack jokes and forget the past, they helped me laugh, something that was very difficult before.
Basketball also helped me deal with the wounds of the Genocide.
Mugabe his top-flight basketball debut with Rusizi Basketball Club in 2007.
He has previously featured for Espoir from 2009 until 2015 before he joined the Patriots.