Editor,

RE: "Rwandan WWII heroes lie silently in Nairobi cemetery” (The New Times, February 10).

Mr. Mbanda, your article is too sensitive to comment on, especially if you see things differently, but I will try.

I agree with your quote of the definition of heroes, but disagree with your suggestion of celebrating those WWII fighters as heroes the way you describe it. I am also surprised to read this from a person who calls himself a Pan-Africanist.

I am not saying that these Rwandans were not heroes as fighters because I wasn’t with them at the various battles they fought, and I have no reason to doubt their performance at war.

But the question we have to ask ourselves is this: Did they really know what they were getting into when they were recruited—if we can even call it "recruitment”? When you join a liberation war, you know exactly what you are fighting for and ready to sacrifice your life. But did those Rwandans who were recruited into WWII even understand they were going to fight other people’s wars?

To summarise my point, the lives of those Rwandans who died fighting in WWII should be remembered as innocent people who were forcefully taken just like people who were taken and sold into slavery.

Hundreds of slaves died while being transported overseas in the West. But are we also going to classify them as heroes, or simply our African brothers who were forced to go and risk their lives against their will, just to serve other people’s interests?

As Rwandans, we definitely need to find a way of remembering Rwandans who fought during WWII, but not as your article suggests.

Seth

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I agree with Seth—the WWII cemetery is a resting place for men and women who lost their lives (RIP) fighting for British imperialism.

Were the British fighting for a Rwandan cause? Were they defending Rwanda or East Africa for that matter?

The British conscripted Africans to defend British interests. The British were no more than imperial/colonial exploiters who had no concern for East Africans. The dead Africans were simply victims of colonialism and imperialism, and we should only remember them in that light.

While Mr. Mbanda’s article is another piece of information which could help families of the deceased Rwandan fighters to know the fate of their loved ones, referring to them as Rwanda’s heroes is simply misguided.

Rugema Ngarambe

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Thank you Seth and Rugema for your good observations. I apologize for an error that the word "heroes” was supposed to appear in quotes.

That mentioned, true they were fighting a war of British interests, however I have not come across any WWII veteran regretting that he was forcefully recruited to fight for the British.

When you talk to them—and I have talked to many—they are proud and were totally convinced the war was theirs to defend their territory. Though the British ruled, the land remained an ancestral asset of the colonized—which was the Africans’ motivation to fight.

To me, this is the spirit of remembering our "heroes”.

Gerald Mbanda