Focus Media (Kigali)
Ann Christine Ishimwe
17 March 2008
The Rwanda Historians Association, which is composed mainly of university lecturers and other researchers, was officially launched last week with the aim of properly writing down Rwanda's history which has always been distorted.
The vice-president of the historians' association, Joseph Gahama; the director of culture, Straton Nsanzabaganwa; and the president, Déo Byanafashe, during the launch.
Déo Byanafashe, the president of the association, said that the association saw the light in 2006 at the national university, with the objectives of teaching Rwandans history, bringing together historians on Rwanda and also to be a part of the African association of historians.
He went on to say that at the same time he was elected the president of the association, Joseph Gahama became vice president, and Jeanne d'Arc Baranyizizwe become was elected treasurer. However, due to a lack of finances the association was never officially launched.
"It is high time Rwandans started writing our own history," Byanafashe remarked, adding that in the past it was written by foreigners who had their own interests. The president went on to say that at that time, Rwandans were not sufficiently educated, and by the time they were, they were too busy fighting each other.
Therefore, no one actually took the time to write down the history in a proper manner.
This made them realize, as members of the historian association, that they and other educated people had to sit down and write down the real history of Rwanda, without personal bias.
Straton Nsanzabaganwa, the director of culture at the ministry of culture and sports, pointed out that this association is greatly needed in Rwanda, because the Rwandan youth hardly know anything about their history, and what has been documented so far has been written by people who had their own motives.
It was due to this and other reasons, the director of culture said, that there is a wide gap between our past history and the present.
Nsanzabaganwa also remarked that writing down our history is like walking on thorns, as all people do not think of it in the same way and to make matters worse, that same history had a negative impact on the majority of the population.
He further pointed out that most people, when speaking of our history, talk about it from their own perspective and based on their personal experiences. "When people start telling history in that way, they are actually spoiling it," the director of culture said.
He advised the members of this association to write the history as educated people who know what is required of them and have no personal motives involved.
Sense of direction
"A country without history cannot have a proper sense of direction," Emmanuel Mudidi, the rector of KIE, remarked, adding that it had always bothered him to realize that Rwandans always learn of the history of other countries like the DRC or India, but when it would come to Rwanda's history they would be told that there were many problems involved in it.
The rector further noted that the history is there, but it has not yet been properly recorded. Therefore, he pledged his full support to the association, and promised to sensitize other universities on its behalf so that they too can support the historians, including with financial assistance.
Speaking of the action plan of the association, Déo Byanafashe said that in the short term they want, amongst others, to identify people at home or abroad who work on the history of Rwanda, in order to collaborate with them. They also intend to organize seminars and conferences on the history of Rwanda.
The medium-term projects, the president explained, are to compile a true and concise history of Rwanda, and to work with competent authorities to preserve the national archives, the national library as well as the archeological patrimony.
The association also intends to set up a history laboratory in order to register and preserve Rwanda's oral tradition.
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