Ndi Umunyarwanda – Rwanda’s quest for lasting unity

I have been following your series in the commentary section of The New Times online edition with much interest. I have to say that the recent one; Ndi Umunyarwanda...which is in line with the Agaciro philosophy, has had a significant impact on me and it’s a major factor that has made me decide to come back home and be part of this beautiful story of Rwanda. I do feel left behind to be honest - Richard, Scotland.Richard’s statement is just of one of the overwhelming, inspiring and touching feedback I received following an article I wrote and was published by The New Times last week.The feedback demonstrates the importance of the programme Ndi Umunyarwanda…turi Abanyarwanda to our social cohesion as a people who are on a journey of reconciliation after the devastating 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi that reduced the country to ashes.Gravity of the CrimeAny form of reconciliation processes (to which Ndi Umunarwanda is central) has to take cognizant of the nature and extent of the crime committed against humanity.The Genocide in Rwanda committed by the state using state security machinery was arguably the most horrific atrocity of modern day history.The entire Tutsi race was targeted for extermination systematically from as early as 1959, 1967, 1973, and in ‘final solution’ of 1994. All these genocidal episodes involved the Rwandan state as the main actor/ catalyst but using masses against a people for who they are.The most bizarre part of the Genocide was that state machinery managed to convince one section of our society (Hutus) that Tutsi had to be eliminated if they are to live in peace and prosperity.Which is why everything Tutsi was targeted from innocent children, unborn babies, fathers killing their children, children killing their fathers, husbands killing their wives, wives killing their husbands…all in just 100 days.Although under normal circumstances, there is no such thing as collective crime/guilt, our situation is rather unique. Unique in that the state mobilised a people (Hutus) to exterminate their compatriots (Tutsis) which then renders the crime collective and thus guilty of a people that believed in, and embraced the ideology of extermination of a people as creed and ‘faith’.A whole people (Hutus) were systematically mobilised against their compatriots (Tutsis) which makes the crime rather collective, and explaining it otherwise is an understatement of the reality, which is a fact of our history, we can only contend with, manage it, and deal with in our healing process as a people and country. That there were exceptions to the mass mobilisation does not negate nor minimise the truth as it is. These can be treated as an exception. But such cannot be used to redefine the reality of Tutsi sequenced massacres over time. The fact that, the entire community rose to call to exterminate their own in 1994, and they did so from every corner of our country, renders this crime collective.And so, the state legitimised hutuism against tutsism which eliminated the substance of Umunyarwanda (Rwandan) replacing it with ethnic tags of hutuism and tutsism mainly for economic as well political gains/interest that were never to be anyway.Hutuism literally replaced Ndi Umunyarwanda, for Tutsi, and to a less extent Twas were aliens in their own country, and not entitled to common goods. It was only after liberation struggle in 1994, that people started to talk of inclusiveness and of one people.But this required leadership whose horizon was beyond ethnic divide, and polarized politics that had characterised Rwandan political landscape since independence. Unusual leadership by President Kagame dealt with the unusual situation indeed, and did so successfully where most would have failed with all measure of certainty. Which is one of the many reasons our country will eternally owe him a revered heroism beyond what defines these terms among mortals. National guilt from ethnic guiltThe demise of Ndi Umunyarwanda can be traced to post-colonial Rwanda, but reached its maxima at the height of Genocide, where ethnic crime against their own was translated mainly by third parties to Rwanda as national or collective guilt.And so a mention of one coming from Rwanda until recently, was synonymous with being a genocidaire. This became a national tag, and our ‘second nature’ as a people and thus a country. Indeed if one googled Rwanda, genocide will feature prominently among the results.This heinous crime by our own over our own required the tremendous effort of our exemplary leadership to cleanse the ghost of genocide that took a national stature.We as a people and country came to be known all over the world for the wrong reason, and we are not over it yet, which is why Ndi Umunyarwanda has become a national imperative, for no matter how we wash the other tags off, they will not simply go away.We have to undertake serious cleansing of our conscious as a people and country to restore our former nature of who we rightly are –Ndi Umunyarwanda- turi Abanyarwanda.Open secretAs pointed in a previous article, the Ndi Umunyarwanda initiative is a means of national cleansing where those who know what happened during genocide tell it all, as it happened, and assume responsibility for their omissions or even commission for this heinous crime against their compatriots. Ndi Umunyarwanda is not a judgmental process, nor a means to admonish a section of our people. On the contrary, taking courage to speak the truth helps to heal and build confidence in our society so as to build cohesion critical for national building.Truth is; most if not all of this ‘truth’ is in the know of senior government officials if not most, and is thus an open secret. Most of what happened during genocide has been told either during Gacaca courts, or through word of mouth by a few survivors, or by moderate Hutus who saw it happen, or even written evidence of planning sessions that took place in various parts of our country, or through audio messages captured on the radio, or even print media.More so, our military intelligence and other intelligence networks have mountains of evidence as to who did what, where, and how including records of military communications no matter how coded these may have been at the time, but nevertheless their orders to kill and who was doing what is all in the know.The Rwandan society is extremely information-efficient for good or for bad, and expecting ‘kept secrets’ to remain so, is mere illusion, and naïve presumptive in the extreme.With such huge amounts of evidence, held by various parties in the government, silence by actual or even passive perpetrators of genocide or even those who omitted to do what they were supposed to have done to save lives, is in no one’s interest, least the concerned parties.Heroic prudence/patiencePatience amidst such massive knowledge of who did what where, and how, demands a saintly heart on the part of our leadership, and all for the sake of our unitary Rwanda, which also is a sign of a leadership whose qualities are not only exemplary but also defies logic in calamity. The ‘logical’ thing would have been retaliation (which was possible) and thereafter reconciliation. But our leadership took on the ‘inhumanely’ calmness and restraint over the mass victims for the sake of our unity, a unity that is priceless to restore and with it..Ndi Umunyarwanda.President Kagame has been able to hold a very delicate balance of national emotions (between victims and perpetrators), heroic prudence and calmness otherwise things would have fallen apart.This thus becomes a natural call and choice of sanity for abnormal Rwanda. Ndi Umuranyarwanda-turi Abanyarwanda.The writer is an economist and financial expert.