Gilbert Tuhabonye

Gilbert Tuhabonye's personal story is as harrowing as it is
inspirational. A native of Burundi, a country in east
central Africa, he began running competitively while a
boarding student at Kibimba Protestant school. A member of
the Tutsi tribe, Gilbert became a national champion in the
400- and 800-meter races when he was a high school junior.
As a senior, he was an extraordinary runner whose goal was
to get a scholarship to an American school, get an
education, and return to Burundi.

Tribal war and atrocities intervened, changing his life forever.

On Oct. 21, 1993, the centuries-old conflict between the
Tutsi and Hutu tribes erupted in a massacre while Gilbert
and his peers were in class at Kibimba. Hutu classmates and
parents, several teachers, and other Hutu tribesmen forced
more than 100 Tutsi into a schoolroom, where they were
beaten and set on fire. All of the young victims perished in
the conflagration, excepting Gilbert, who spent nine hours
buried beneath the corpses of his friends and classmates.

Badly burned, he used a charred bone from the pile of
remains to break a window. He jumped free of the burning
building and ran into the night on wounded feet. He had
survived one of the worst massacres in the long Tutsi-Hutu war.

Tuhabonye ran from horror into a new life in the United
States. He went on to graduate from Abilene Christian
University, where he became a national champion runner --
despite the scars from his extensive burns.

A dozen years later, and more than 8,000 miles from Burundi,
Tuhabonye is a star and popular coach in running circles. He
lives in Austin with his wife, Triphine, and daughter Emma.