Agathe Uwilingiyimana
| Agathe Uwilingiyimana | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Prime Minister of Rwanda | |
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In office 18 July 1993 – 7 April 1994 |
|
| President | Juvénal Habyarimana |
| Preceded by | Dismas Nsengiyaremye |
| Succeeded by | Jean Kambanda |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
23 May 1953 Nyaruhengeri, Rwanda |
| Died | 7 April 1994 (aged 40) Kigali, Rwanda |
| Political party | Republican Democratic Movement |
Agathe Uwilingiyimana (Kinyarwanda: [uwiliɲɟijimɑ̂ːnɑ]; 23 May 1953 – 7 April 1994), sometimes known as Madame Agathe, was a Rwandan political figure. She served as Prime Minister of Rwanda from 18 July 1993 until her assassination on 7 April 1994, during the opening stages of the Rwandan Genocide. She was Rwanda's first and so far only female prime minister.
Agathe Uwilingiyimana, one of the most influential women in Rwandan history, was born in 1953 in the village of Nyaruhengeri, some 140 km southeast of Kigali, Rwanda's capital city, to farming parents. Shortly after she was born the family emigrated from Butare to work in the Belgian Congo. Her father moved the family back to Butare when Uwilingiyimana was four. After success in public examinations she was educated at Notre Dame des Cîteaux Secondary School, and obtained the certificate to teach humanities at 20.
In 1976 she received a secondary school diploma in mathematics and chemistry. She became a mathematics teacher in Butare. In the same year she married Ignace Barahira, a fellow student from her village. Their first child was born later in the year; they would go on to have five children.
In 1983 she taught chemistry at the National University of Rwanda. This was financially possible because her husband obtained a post at the university laboratory at twice the salary of a math teacher. She received a B.Sc. in 1985, and taught chemistry for four years in Butare academic schools. Rwandan media was later critical of her scientific education, as it was thought that girls should not study science.
In 1986 she created a Soriority and Credit Cooperative Society among the staff of the Butare academic school, and her high-profile role in the self-help organization brought her to the attention of the Kigali authorities, who wanted to appoint decision makers from the discontented south of the country. In 1989 she became a director in the Ministry of Commerce.
She joined the Republican Democratic Movement (MDR), an opposition party, in 1992, and four months later was appointed Minister of Education by Dismas Nsengiyaremye, the first opposition prime minister under a power-sharing scheme negotiated between President Juvénal Habyarimana and five major opposition parties. As education minister she abolished the academic ethnic quota system, awarding public school places and scholarships by open merit ranking. This decision earned her the enmity of the Hutu-extremist parties.
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