Forgiveness After Genocide: Laurence & Aloys + Solange & Vedaste

In this episode Niyonagira Laurence recounts her experience of the Rwandan genocide. She talks about the process of forgiving Mutiribambe Aloys – a neighbor who killed members of her family – after he returned to the village from prison. Aloys speaks how terrifying it was to return to the village, and what happened when his son fell in love with Laurence’s daughter. Dr. Valentine Ngalim speaks about his research on forgiveness in Kenya. Laurence’s daughter Uwizeyimana Solange remembers processing her understanding of the genocide as a child, and how she decided to marry Aloys’s son, Uwizeyimana Vedaste. Vedaste describes the song he wrote about their story, “Imboni Y’ibyiza.” To read an English translation of the song, you can go to the SongWriter episode page. Chapters: 00:02:25 Laurence and Aloys' story 00:21:48 Dr. Valentin Ngalim's perspective on forgiveness 00:38:52 Solange and Vedaste's story SongWriterPodcast.com Instagram.com/SongWriterPodcast Facebook.com/SongWriterPodcast TikTok.com/@SongWriterPodcast YouTube.com/@SongwriterPodcast SongWriter is a music and songwriting podcast that turns stories into songs. Host Ben Arthur invites writers, poets, and musicians to share a story or poem, then pairs it with an original song written in response. Along the way, the show explores the creative process through intimate conversations and performances. Guests have included Questlove, Susan Orlean, David Gilmour, Joyce Carol Oates, David Sedaris, and George Saunders. Distributed by PRX, SongWriter also appears on the syndicated radio program Acoustic Café and in Paste Magazine. Learn more at SongWriterPodcast.com . Season seven is made possible by a grant from Templeton World Charity Foundation

You can listen to Forgiveness After Genocide: Laurence & Aloys + Solange & Vedaste online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Forgiveness After Genocide: Laurence & Aloys + Solange & Vedaste is an episode from SongWriter by Ben Arthur.

This episode is 50:56 long.

This episode was published on Apr 21, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from SongWriter when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.