We are treading the right path

In the recent past, different authors who subscribe and belong to diverse schools of thought and ideology have written and aired their views pertaining to a new path that leads to building a unified Rwanda cleansed of divisionism and strongly built on unity, reconciliation and forgiveness.A right path that the brave have trodden, brave not in being heroic and fearless but rather being courageous to detach themselves from the hatred cord of belief sturdily embedded in the philosophy of dividing people based on ethnicity. This code of belief was fronted and engineered by the then leaders. To them, individual interests came before national interests. Their quest to divide Rwandans was accelerated by politicians, scholars and historians who belonged to the same school of thought.For many a decade, they continued to venomously cloud the minds of Rwandans with a dogma based on divisionism. This was in contrast to the Rwandan society that existed before the advent of colonialism. Remarkably, before the advent of colonialism, the Tutsi, Hutu and Batwa existed in Rwanda not as ethnic groups but according to their occupations like cattle keeping, agriculture and pottery. They lived in harmony, not divided, all as one and believed in a doctrine enshrined in the Rwandan Spirit (Ndi Umunyarwanda). They all strived to foster the development of their community and its security. Most of us are familiar with the Rwandan history. Thus, I intend not to share with you what transpired in the past but to share the new path that we are treading, a path that has recently been trodden on by our brave youth, and many other examples of people in leadership. Our history has left many of our people with scars, remorse and burdens that can only be healed by the Rwandan spirit Ndi Umunyarwanda. Am putting emphasis on healing for the reason that such scars cannot be cured by silence neither by ignoring what happened but rather through truth, unity, forgiveness and reconciliation.Certainly, Ndi Umunyarwanda is comprised of all the four. During a recent dialogue on Ndi Umunyarwanda at the Ministry of Health, Prof. Chrysologue Karangwa used the analogy of the wall, where as Rwandans we need to hold each other’s hand “Urunana” to get over to the other side of the wall. With a sense of humour deep-rooted in famous old Kinyarwanda adages he explained the meaning of Ndi Umunyarwanda. He put emphasis on Ndi Umunyarwanda being a journey that together we must walk in cohesion and with the same ideology aimed at fostering forgiveness and reconciliation.Ndi Umunyarwanda is indeed a journey where we need to walk the talk, and where the truth should prevail consequently leading toward building a better Rwanda, the Rwanda that is you and me living in harmony and working hard to develop it. Ndi Umunyarwanda is not new, our ancestors have trod this journey and it helped them to live as one people united by the Rwandan spirit. The youth have trod the same journey by spear heading Ndi Umunyarwanda programme. We all wish to leave a legacy where we will be judged by the good that we did, and let us not forget that in most cases we are always the first recipients of what we teach or give to our children, as a parent, and a Rwandan I strongly believe that with Ndi Umunyarwanda we will set a good example to the next generation and other generations to come and am convinced that we are treading on the right path.The writer is Head of Division, Rwanda Health Communication Centre-Rwanda Biomedical Centre