Rwanda

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We had just come back from Rwanda, I called Tonny.

“How was it?” he asked.

“Good, beautiful. I think interesting is about the best word to describe it…”

“but a bit boring…?” I hadn’t thought that, it would be ridiculously unfair a label for such a fascinating, beautiful country so I don’t know how he knew that that was at the back of my mind.



We only went for about 10 days but my impressions were that Kigali is an impressive city, spotless, organised and really feels like it is going somewhere. With Lauren, a veteran of three genocide ‘tours’, I visited some wonderful memorials, museums about the genocide and the history behind it. We went to Lake Kivu, absolutely stunning, wonderful to swim in, fascinating islands and, paradoxically given its proximity to Congo and history as the centre of the worst atrocities during the genocide, one of the most peaceful places I have been. Everywhere we travelled there were green, rolling hills, lush vegetation and friendly, helpful people.



So why did it feel like it was missing something? Perhaps I was influenced by what I had heard beforehand. Most reviews started, “it’s nice but…”, my housemate Amber was a bit more upfront, “it’s Disneyland Africa.” As you may have already gathered it is hard to put my finger on what exactly it was but it almost felt like the whole population was holding themselves back. I don’t know if this strangely European-style repression of emotion was a result of the genocide, a cause of it or nothing to do with it at all. I also wonder if it would be noticeable if you haven’t just come from Uganda, where people often seem to do the first thing that pops into their head.



The genocide ‘tourism’ was fantastically done, particularly the memorial in Kigali. You are given a historical and worldwide context to the genocide, which educated me on genocides such as the Holocaust and the Armenian Massacres, and brought home how similar many of the world’s worst crimes have been. One of the most thought-provoking sections was on the use of the media and propaganda. Though it was written about how genocidiares controlled the minds of the population it could equally be applied to the control of the narrative since the genocide. Someone famous once said something a bit like, “the story belongs to the victors”.



The official narrative now is that the divisions in Rwandan society were caused by colonialists, preyed upon by Hutu extremists who used the divisions to kill over a million Tutsis with the compliance of the international community. Whilst it might be the ‘truth’, how the truth changes with shifts in power and according to your geographical location has become very apparent to me whilst I have been abroad. It is quite humbling for an ‘all-knowing’ Westerner to be in between two information streams as conflicts rage around the world.



We had only been across the border into Uganda a few hours when we heard our first conflicting account of the genocide story. John and his family had fled the genocide in 1994 and he had recently returned to see the memorial. “That president I don’t think he’s fair, he only talks about his own people but everyone died. They only have Tutsi skulls at the memorial.”



Many from the West that stay in Uganda for a while, and for that matter many Ugandans, long for a bit more organisation, unity, direction and ‘seriousness’. This was all on impressive display in Rwanda, epitomised by the Umaganda Day, where the whole population spends one day a month volunteering for the good of the community. There was also an impressive self-confidence about culture and development, traditions such as Umuganda are celebrated and development is very noticeably managed and implemented by people that understand the context. However, as my sister’s friend and wonderful host Alice so perceptively put it: “people are so focussed and dedicated to development, which is wonderful, but you sometimes wonder if they are missing out on something.”

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Photos

In the market
Sampling the local delights in Kibuye

Lakeside
The stunningly peaceful Lake Kivu

Memorial
The haunting and horrific Nyanza Memorial Site