Today Rwanda marks twenty one years of liberation. It is time to celebrate, but also a moment to reflect and focus on the future.

At twenty one, human beings are considered mature and responsible. For instance in Rwanda they can marry and raise a family. In other places that happens a little earlier.

However, in the life of a nation, twenty one is almost insignificant. The age of nations is measured in centuries and millennia and unless a catastrophe strikes, nations are expected to last until the world ceases to exist.

But in the case of Rwanda, the country’s life has been closer to the human measurement of age. And so we can speak of remarkable growth in the last 21 years as if we were talking about a human being.

Twenty one years ago, Rwanda was a shattered country; its economy in tatters, the collective spirit battered and low but mercifully not broken, its people nursing wounds in visible and unseen places.

The country’s fabled hills were empty and silent. One million of their inhabitants lay dead and three million more had fled, some after committing the slaughter. Only dogs, gorged on human flesh roamed the empty villages. The towns were empty, dusty, ruins.

A stench of death hang heavy over the hills and valleys, along the plains, lakes and rivers. The country was all but dead.

Why had it come to this and could the country ever be rescued from the mouth of the grave?

Yes, it could. It refused to die, was resuscitated and nursed back to health.

And so, today, Rwanda stands strong again and growing fast, doing the double:  making up for lost time and following the normal path of growth. That is what makes up the story of liberation today. But first a brief look at how we entered the graveyard in the first place.

The near-death in 1994 followed thirty-two years of stunting caused by an inept, greedy and bankrupt leadership. This leadership could only legitimise its rule by creating an ideology of hate and division which they turned into a national programme.

Intimidation, killing, burning and pillaging were integral elements of this ideology. Under this ideology periodic pogroms became an essential instrument of political control and legitimisation. Survivors of the pogroms did one of two things.

They fled into exile in neighbouring countries or stayed behind and endured discrimination, humiliation and disenfranchisement.

The massacres and flight of refugees can be described as a sort of haemorrhage that eventually caused the country to suffer severe anaemia.

Afraid of the power of new ideas and exposure to different ways of doing things, the bankrupt leadership kept the country closed to the outside world and effectively isolated.

All this – stifling of citizens, massacres, isolation and export of refugees – produced collective lethargy among an otherwise hardworking people. A once proud and industrious people were reduced to dependency, always holding out their hands for alms.

The country was slowly dying as a nation. Only one destructive emotion – hatred – remained and seemed to grow stronger

There was an urgent need to save the country and stop the slide towards death. A liberation struggle had to be waged, the first phase ending in 1994. But liberation is a process and has involved several aspects.

The first was the military aspect, to get rid of the authors of the country’s woeful state and free the people to exercise their potential. That was achieved twenty-one years ago.

The second is ongoing. It is to free the minds of the people, to change attitudes and mindset so that Rwandans can take responsibility for their lives, individually and collectively. This aspect of liberation is about rekindling the spirit of hard work and self-reliance that leads to socio-economic transformation.

Freeing the mind is a two-way process. First, it involves the rejection of certain things: injustice, mediocrity, acceptance of low expectations and so on. Second, it involves the restoration of self-belief, pride and identity as a nation.

The people feel they all belong to a nation with a history, tradition and aspirations, and, therefore, a future. They are heirs as well as custodians to its bounty and promise.

Rwandans are, therefore a normal society with normal ambitions and the right to chart a path of their choice. They have been accorded equal opportunities to enable them address their individual challenges as well as those of the nation

The third aspect of liberation that is also ongoing is transformation of the country and the lives of its citizens. This aspect has been about rebuilding the country and making progress in areas that had long stagnated.

Strides made in the economy, in education, health and infrastructure fall here. Testimonies of citizens about how their lives have been transformed as well as various reports by international bodies about Rwanda’s progress are all proof that the country is changing for the better.

As we have been constantly reminded, liberation is not an event (although we mark it on a specific date). It is a journey, and every time we round a bend or climb a hill, others appear on the horizon and they, too, must be negotiated in order to move forward. The fourth aspect of liberation and current stage on this journey is to safeguard and consolidate the gains we have made so far, and even make more on our onward journey. For this, the spirit and transformational mindset must be kept alive.

This is the meaning of liberation and the significance of what we mark today. Liberation necessarily involves destruction of undesirable and backward tendencies, reversal of many years’ practices and way of thinking, and more importantly, establishing new ways and creating a just and progressive order. This is the road Rwandans are travelling.

jorwagatare@yahoo.co.uk