Scratching The Surface

Interesting country Rwanda. If you didn't know what had happened here in very recent history you would think that it was the most developed and contented country in East Africa. The roads don't have a single pothole, there are roundabouts full of flowers, modern glass buildings beside broad, tree lined avenues, and everyone is smiling.

For those of you that don't remember here is a very short account of what happened in Rwanda:

Rwanda has two main tribal groups, Hutu and Tutsi. The two groups had coexisted and intermarried for centuries. They shared a language, a religion and were pretty much indistinguishable. This all changed when Rwanda became a Belgian colony after being taking from the Germans during World War One. The Belgians issued identity cards to distinguish the two tribes, and used the Tutsi minority (about 15%) to control the Hutu majority. It was classic divide and rule tactics used by all imperialist nations at some point.

Seen as the Tutsi's had all the positions of power and became more and more rich, naturally the impoverished Hutu's got a bit annoyed. Following independance in 1962, Hutu anger spilled over and there were numerous massacres of Tutsi's in the sixties and seventies. When multiparty elections finally took place obviously a Hutu party won.

Following the election the economy went downhill. Partly due to a government not used to governing anything and also due to a slump in world coffee prices. The population, becoming increasingley poor, blamed the government and it was easy for them to twist the blame onto the relatively affluent Tutsi's.

Persecution led to a major refugee problem in East Africa as hundreds of thousands of Tutsi's fled abroad. In 1990 a rebel Tutsi army invaded Rwanda from Uganda. This caused further problems for the Tutsi's that remained in Rwanda. The Hutu government secretly trained informal militia, the interhamwe, to finally rid Rwanda of the "Tutsi problem".

In 1994 the Hutu Rwandan President was assassinated, probably by fellow extremist Hutu's who thought he had gone soft in looking for peace with the Tutsi rebels. What followed was a genocide of an efficiency never previously witnessed anywhere on Earth. In 100 days up to a million people, Tutsi's and Hutu moderates, were brutally murdered. The machete being the chosen method of dispatch. It works out at more than five people a minute.

What is particularly hard to fathom is that to kill so many of the population, it wasn't just the interhamwe or the army, it was regular people as well. The government and radio stations preached such hatred that the general population got caught up in it and joined in with the killings as voraciously as those who had been trained to take part. Neighbours killed neighbours, lifetime friends were not spared, there are even stories of husbands butchering wives.

After the Tutsi rebels took control of the country and peace was restored, there was a huge immigration of Tutsi's who had fled after the massacres of the sixties and seventies. The proportion of Tutsi's in the country is once again 15%.

So going back to my first paragraph, there are no visible scars of what happened here. Predictably few people really want to talk about it, but when they do you realise it isn't as rosy as it appears. Even though there are now no tribal groups, just Rwandans, people don't forget. The ruling immigrant Tutsi's still look down upon the Hutu's and also on the surviving Tutsi's who they often believe must have collaborated in the genocide to have survived. These same survivors potentially have to live next door to people they know are murderers, often of their own family.

The good roads and nice buildings have not been constructed by a happy, together people, more by massive foreign aid money. Correctly known as guilt money seen as no countries attempted to stop what was going on here. Unemployment and homelessness is huge here though because foreign aid has not been followed by companies opening factories or offices.

I do have a solution. Tourism. And this is a travelblog after all, so this is why you should all come to Rwanda. The scenery is stunning. Huge volcanos in the west, hills and mountains everywhere else. Great beaches on large inland lakes, national parks full of animals, in particular the now very rare mountain gorillas. The food is good, beer is great, and it is easy to get around. Plus the people are very friendly and it is reputed to be the safest place in East Africa to travel.

After doing nothing to stop what we knew was going on here I think we owe it to the people to help them get back on their feet.

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