Amminadab Munyaneza was born in Rwanda and raised in a Christian household with Muslim relatives, an upbringing that planted the seeds of the interfaith work he would later devote his life to. He went on to become a Quaker (Friends Evangelical Branch) Pastor, earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and theology from Pan Africa Christian University in Nairobi, and later a master’s degree in peace building and conflict resolution from Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
In 1994, Munyaneza survived the Rwandan genocide, an experience that would come to define both his faith and his life’s work. He moved to the United States in 1995, eventually settling in Schenectady, New York, where he has built a home and a career around turning what he witnessed into a force for peace building and conflict analysis and resolution.
That work has taken him around the world. As a Civil Affairs Officer for the United Nations, he served on peace-building missions in the Former Yugoslavia Countries (Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) Nepal, and Uganda, and also worked in Yemen and Iraq. Closer to home, he served as an early director for the African Services Coalition before going on to found organizations focused on interfaith dialogue, social cohesion, and conflict resolution.
His memoir, It Takes More Than a Man: Faith, Survival, and the Journey from Genocide to Peacebuilding, yet to be published, tells the fuller story of the words that changed his life, the faith that carried him through it, and the work of rebuilding that continues until today.