Focus Media (Kigali)
8 July 2009
opinion
Fifteen years on, it is still difficult for both Rwandans and outsiders to reflect on this country's liberation without looking at events through the prism of the 1994 genocide. For many a Rwandan and rightly so, the routing of the forces of mayhem and bringing those hundred days of madness to an end, was the single most significant act of the Rwandan liberation.
Yet later, one may find his or her thoughts meandering into uncharted territory. Would July 4 have been any less significant if there had been no genocide? What would the day mean to Rwandans and indeed the world if the Rwanda Patriotic Front had simply overrun a crumbling regime as was the typical African way at the time?
We do not have all the answers. It is enough to know that what we have are very hard-earned freedoms and we should guard them jealously indeed.
Few can imagine the consternation for instance when one learns for the first time in 1994 that in the 30 years of its existence the National University of Rwanda had produced only 2000 graduates. That the whole of Rwanda had only a single pre-primary school and going to school was a privilege one got depending on their social standing in society.
We will take that as a point to briefly ponder when thinking of the many ways the country has been liberated - the unprecedented freedom in our country for everyone to go to school.
Although the clock stopped briefly in 1994 before it began ticking again, a quick look at key economic indicators reveals that this country had began to sink long even before its would be liberators had an inkling of when or what form their return to the motherland would be. Luminaries like former finance minister and now African Development Bank President Dr. Donald Kaberuka would tell you that with or without the 1994 genocide, this country was doomed.
People in any of the neighboring countries may have grown up seeing Rwandans and interacting with them socially and even within their families. To them (foreigners) it never made a difference and most were never aware of the different ethnic shades of Rwandan. A Rwandan was simply a Rwandan and often that was defined by social and economic status. Disadvantaged by the fact of being refugees, the average Rwandan was relegated to the position of a serf in most of these countries where they happened to find themselves.
That is the way the average person in a host country perceived a Munyarwanda and one doubts it would have made a difference to that stereotype if anybody (with the exception of Burundi) had told a Ugandan, a Tanzanian, a Congolese, a Kenyan that there existed a country called Rwanda where one group of Rwandans were privileged and more affluent than the other. Neither did they get to know much about any differences Hutus and Tutsis until the war of liberation was launched in 1990.
Although Rwandans had played a gallant role in Uganda's own liberation that had climaxed in a euphoric victory in 1986, Rwandans were simply Rwandans to the Ugandan. Whether it manifested itself in the sense of social envy that was often expressed after Rwandans like President Kagame and others who rose to prominence in the Ugandan power structure after 1986, one would bet money few Ugandans could tell a Hutu from a Tutsi. One wishes a similar attitude had prevailed inside Rwanda.
Our foreigner friends have many stories about us. A close witness to a family drama has one involving a Munyarwanda herdsman, his beautiful daughter and their Ugandan host. The son of the employer got romantically involved with herdsman's daughter and time came when they wanted to make it official. The boy's family was opposed to the union because they could not see one of their own marry a Munyarwanda herdsman's daughter.
Anyhow, even the girl's father was opposed to marriage with a non-Munyarwanda and he promptly carted off the girl to an arranged marriage with the 'right' man. In the end the forced marriage didn't work and the girl eloped to go live with her former boyfriend. Today knows that the mother is a Munyarwanda, she is treated with a new sense of respect and appreciation. She is not a refugee but someone with a country that is ready to embrace her and her social contacts. Her children have access to the best of two worlds as she can move back and forth without hindrance.
This story could have happened in any of the countries of refuge and we bring it up to demonstrate how deep-rooted prejudices against the Munyarwanda were. For as long as the condition of the Diaspora Munyarwanda remained deplorable to the eyes of the outsider, even the resident Munyarwanda would never have dignity.
As Rwandans and their well wishers once again reflect on that day that marked a new beginning for this country, it should also be a time to look at those small intangibles that give essence to being Rwandan today.
Creating a society where all citizens have equal opportunities and the right to belong came at a terrible price; it is our duty to always ensure all that sacrifice never comes to naught.
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