Blood Ties: A Wound, A Memory, A Path to Healing for Rwanda and Africa’s Great Lakes

In the heart of Rwanda, where hills whisper memories and rivers carry stories too deep for words, a bold and evocative book has emerged—Blood Ties, authored by Fred Mfuranzima and co-authored and produced by Tuyizere Omar Theogene of ISOKO Group. More than just literature, Blood Ties is a reckoning, a mirror, and a balm. It’s a multilayered work of art and activism that tells the untold, heals the hidden, and confronts the inherited silence.

“Some stories are not told with ink, but with tears, blood, and forgiveness,” writes Fred Mfuranzima in Blood Ties’ unforgettable opening chapter.

A Book Born from Blood and Rebirth

Blood Ties is not fiction. It is a soul-baring testimony, a woven narrative of trauma, love, betrayal, ancestry, and survival—echoing the voices of those who have lived through the most complex histories of Rwanda and the wider Great Lakes region. From intergenerational wounds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, to modern identity crises, to the quiet resistance of women, orphans, and the forgotten—this book unearths it all.

“We carry graves in our names, but we also carry gardens,” Mfuranzima notes in Chapter III, titled The Inheritance of Fire.

Each chapter is named like a poem. Each voice feels alive. There are no heroes—only humans, fractured and hopeful.

Voices Behind the Vision

Fred Mfuranzima, a young poet, activist, and researcher, reflects in the book:

“I didn’t write Blood Ties to reopen wounds. I wrote it so that we could look at them together—and begin stitching them with truth.”

Producer and co-author Tuyizere Omar Theogene, founder of ISOKO Group, adds:

“This book isn’t just a book. It’s a doorway. To conversation, to healing, and to a future where silence doesn’t kill and memory doesn’t divide.”

Their partnership birthed not only a powerful narrative but a movement that spans book, film, poetry, and peacebuilding.

 From Page to Screen: Isoko y’Amaraso

The Blood Ties project doesn’t stop at print. It expands into a gripping documentary and film series Isoko y’Amaraso, now streaming on Rwanda Movies Zone on YouTube.

Shot across Rwanda, the series visualizes the raw and haunting experiences behind the text—lost children, complex family reunions, cultural resilience, and the clash between modernity and tradition. It offers a deeply human lens into post-genocide Rwanda that global audiences can learn from.

“Cinema is where our silence breathes,” says Tuyizere Omar. “So we filmed the pain, but also the laughter, the culture, the relationships of blood ties in our family, the hands that still reach out. And the story of the movie is a part of the book among many stories, poems and paintings in the book.”

 A Poem from the Book: When Memory Speaks

My grandmother’s tears watered banana trees,

My uncle’s silence fed the ghosts.

But I—I build bridges from their bones,

And write peace in the language of dust.

This is just one of many haunting, beautiful poems sprinkled throughout Blood Ties, reminding us that storytelling is both weapon and medicine.

Why It Matters: From Rwanda to the Region

Across the Great Lakes region, cycles of violence, forgotten truths, and generational trauma remain deep. Blood Ties dares to address what many avoid.

It has become a learning tool for youth peace initiatives, cultural preservation efforts, and reconciliation workshops. In Musanze, Huye, and even Bujumbura and Goma, the book is stirring critical dialogue among communities, universities, and artists.

“In Burundi, they said this book could have been ours. In Congo, they asked where the Congolese Blood Ties is,” shares Fred.

It’s a story from Rwanda—but it speaks the regional language of pain, resilience, and unity.

Where to Find Blood Ties

You can get your physical copy at Isoko Group, Kimironko, Kigali.

Online purchases are available on:

Payhip Store – ( https://payhip.com/b/b5R2n )

Amazon Books

Solar Bookstore (https://selar.com/wdpm28h4s8)

Watch the film adaptation Isoko y’Amaraso on YouTube via the Rwanda Movies Zone Channel (https://youtu.be/3KLhjdlxJvA?si=2L4QaV-hLB9nxxk3)

Final Word

If you’re looking for a book that speaks truth to power, that weaves poetry into pain and film into memory, Blood Ties is not just a recommendation. It’s a must. It’s for readers, dreamers, survivors, and seekers of peace.

“Blood does not only tie us by violence,” Fred writes, “it ties us by choice—when we choose to remember, to forgive, to build.”