11/06/2008 - Al Featherston, GoDuke.com

DURHAM, N.C. – Chris Rwabukamba avoided the nightmare in his homeland.
 
That doesn’t mean Duke’s sophomore defensive back can escape the horror of what happened in his native Rwanda when he was just seven years old.
 
“I was three-years-old when we left, so I have little connection as far as actually experiencing it, but I have a huge connection because I still have family over there,” he said. “I definitely kept up with it – reading the papers, talking to my mom about it. I was very young in ’94, so I wasn’t aware of what was going on at the time.”
 
What was going on in Rwanda was one of the final episodes of genocide in the bloody 20th century. Between April and July of 1994, militia groups slaughtered more than 800,000 Rwandans (out of a population of about 10 million). At least two million more victims of the horror were turned into refugees, most fleeing over the border of the landlocked central African nation into neighboring Zaire.
 
“It’s kind of hard for people to understand what genocide is like,” Rwabukamba said. “I personally did not experience it. I have some friends, they are about my age, who went through it and survived the genocide. It’s hard to put yourself in somebody else’s shoes and really understand what they went through. Talking to them about it is still a shock to me.”
 
Rwabukamba left Rwanda in 1990 — four years before the genocide.
 
“My father was in the United States – going to school at UNC-Greensboro,” he said. “So my mom, my sister and I came over and stayed in North Carolina a little bit. [My father] was sick, so we moved up north to Detroit. Health-care costs were kind of expensive and at the time, we didn’t have too much money. We ended up moving to Canada – to Ontario, right over the border from Detroit.”
 
Although Rwabukamba’s family made the move to take advantage of Canada’s health care system, they found a home in Windsor, a city of just over 200,000 people that bears the geographical distinction of being the southernmost city in Canada.
 
“Windsor also had a large Rwandan population,” he said. “My mom felt comfortable there, so we made that transition. My father passed away after that. We just stayed.”
 
The future Duke defensive back was six years old when his family settled in Windsor. At first, he played soccer and basketball.
 
“Basketball was probably my main passion,” he said. “I started playing football my eighth grade year. I did pretty well, my first year of playing. I went to a high school that really excelled in football and basketball. I was always a student of the game.”
 
Canadian football is slightly different than United States football. It’s played on a larger field and includes 12 players per side. Rwabukamba excelled as a running back and defensive back for one of the strongest football schools in Canada.
 
“My high school has always had players that did well in the CFL and NFL. We had a player named Oshiomogho Atogwe, who is my mentor. He plays for the St. Louis Rams. He went to Stanford. He came back when I was being recruited and told me what to expect, what to do. My high school coach had been there for 40-some years, so he knows the whole process. He had numerous kids go across the border to play football. I kind of knew what I was getting into.”
 
Rwabukamba was heavily pursued by a number of Canadian schools.
 
“But Canadian universities don’t give athletic scholarships, so one of my main goals was to play college football somewhere in the States,” he said.
 
Rwabukamba received offers from several schools in the Big Ten and the MAC.
 
“It came down to academics,” he said. “My mother was really pushing for either Stanford or Duke.”
 
His mother’s opinion carried a lot of weight with the young prospect.
 
“Mom’s my biggest fan and my biggest critic as well,” he said. “She’s my hero. She raised my sister and me alone.”
 
So why Duke over Stanford?

“I already had a history [in North Carolina] because my father went to school here,” Rwabukamba said. “I just felt my best decision was to come to Duke. Also, I thought I had a chance to play a lot sooner.”
 
It didn’t quite work out like Rwabukamba hoped. He struggled to get on the field at Duke, redshirting in 2006 and seeing limited duty on special teams in 2007. He found it difficult to make the transition from the Canadian game to the American brand of football.
 
“When I first got here it was tough, especially playing cornerback and covering on a much smaller field,” he said. “The ball’s coming out a lot faster. So it was definitely a transition at first. But one of my main things, I was just trying to soak everything in and put in as much effort into getting better as I could.”
 
That hard work paid off in increased playing time this fall – at least it did early.
 
“I started playing a lot early in the season,” he said. “I rotated in a lot at cornerback in the Northwestern game. The Navy game, I played most of the game. I was definitely getting a lot of reps in at the beginning. But as the season went along, my reps got cut down a little bit.”
 
That might have discouraged a lot of players. But not Rwabukamba.
 
“I was eager to play,” he admitted. “I just wanted to help the team win – whether I was on special teams or playing the secondary. I definitely wanted more opportunities, but I told myself, ‘Stay ready, keep getting better and when the opportunity comes, take advantage of it!’”
 
Rwabukamba’s opportunity came at Vanderbilt, when starting cornerback Leon Wright was injured. He made the most of that chance, sealing Duke’s 10-7 victory in Nashville with a dramatic interception at the goal line to kill the Commodores’ last threat in the final minute.
 
“We needed a big play and somebody needed to step up,” he said.
 
Duke coach David Cutcliffe had nothing but praise for Rwabukamba’s game-clinching play.
 
“He made a phenomenal play,” Cutcliffe said. “He did what he was coached to do – he saw the ball, went up and caught the ball at its highest point, just as he’s coached to do. Perfect technique.”
 
A week later, Rwabukamba proved that he’s more than a one-play wonder. He saw extensive action against Wake Forest and was credited with three pass break ups (tying Wright for the season-best total in that category). His final break was a truly remarkable play. With the game tied at 30-all, the Deacons gambled on fourth down and launched a pass in Rwabukamba’s direction.
 
“If they want to test me because I haven’t been playing as much as the other guys in the secondary, then so be it,” he said. “I just have to make sure I play my technique and make sure I perform when tested.”
 
Rwabukamba tipped the pass, but it remained in play. Before the Deacon receiver could pull it in, the Duke defensive back tipped it again.
 
“That was one of the best plays I’ve ever seen a defensive back make,” Cutcliffe said.
 
Rwabukamba said he was acting on instinct.
 
“What happened was that I tipped it and I thought I actually hit it a lot harder than I did,” he said. “But the ball ricocheted off my hand and realized that the receiver could still catch it. I was just trying to make sure he didn’t catch the ball.”
 
The young defensive back still has a lot of football left in his future – the rest of this season and two more years in the future. But he’s starting to make plans beyond football.
 
“I’m majoring in public policy – I just want to keep my options open,” he said, suggesting that those options could include a career in the law or in foreign service for his adopted nation of Canada.
 
One thing he is sure of is a future trip to Rwanda.
 
“I definitely want to go back and be as big an aid as I can to my fellow countrymen,” he said. “I still speak the language. I wasn’t able to experience the grief that others have, at the same time, whatever I can do to help, I want to do.”
 
Rwabukamba’s sister, who is three years older than him, recently visited Rwanda.

“My sister just went back to Rwanda for the first time last spring,” he said. “She said we have a huge family over there. I’m excited to go back one day and meet them. Things have improved a lot. Genocide – you can’t get much worse than that. But it’s kind of settled down. My sister said it’s stable. The country is definitely developing.”

And so is Chris Rwabukamba.