BBC Kinyarwanda suspension: Nipping the problem in the bud

For decades, African nations have been celebrating ‘independence’, but one can’t help wondering why they were dependent in the first place. Was it necessary that they were governed by Western powers? But that’s an argument for another day. The issue is, are we really independent anyway? We celebrate our ‘independence’ heroes and immortalise them, but did they really fight and win independence, or we are merely celebrating them in vain yet when they departed, they left with a deep feeling of dissatisfaction and helplessness? Are our enslavers not laughing at us behind clenched fists whenever they hear us celebrate and talk of being ‘independent’? Aren’t we just lab rats in some big experiment whose main purpose is amusement? Otherwise how would you explain massive interference and covert control by western powers over African nations? How would you explain the wanton bullying and shameless threatening of African leaders just because they may have decided to do as their people please? Think about the media syndicates and conspiracy theories crafted by non state actors who are not answerable to anyone. The BBC ‘untold story’ documentary has really given away way too much about the state of the world we live in, especially as far as Africa is concerned and has set me thinking. I can’t help echoing President Kagame’s frequent question: Why should someone burden themselves with having to determine what is good for someone else? There has to be an explanation to all this. Everyone seems to agree that the BBC documentary’s motive was not to bring anything new to the history of Rwanda’s history of genocide, but to offer a bigger and credible platform to negationist and revisionist narratives. All that was said by those featured in the documentary has been peddled for years by the same people. While they are at it, the BBC attempts to reduce a genocide to the level of mere politics, claiming to have ‘the duty to tackle difficult’ issues to generate debate! It doesn’t bother them that this is genocide. Even from a moral point of view, this is beyond cynical. Rwandans also have the duty to tell the world and the BBC in the strongest terms possible that they can debate anything, any day, anytime, on any platform, but not to poke their raw wounds. That the world left them at the time of dire need was enough and there is no need to rub it in - we get it. The devil has been at work at the BBC for decades now, but no one guessed it would culminate into an overt denial of the genocide. There have been queries as to why Rwanda had to target the Kinyarwanda programmes when the documentary was broadcast on BBC2, a show exclusively meant for the UK audience (there have been relentless campaigns before, to influence the UK Government to terminate aid to Rwanda, and this is among the aims of the documentary). Here is the reason; whether you like it or not, the best way to find a lasting remedy for a recurrent problem is to cure the cause, not the symptoms. Ponder this scenario: Had Rwanda followed ‘advice’ from western diplomats to not go to Congo in 1997 and continued fighting the genocidaires insurgents in northern Rwanda as they attacked, where would Rwanda be now? You would be excused to think the devil himself was in charge of the Kinyarwanda-Kirundi programs for they not only spewed hatred at the Rwandan leadership since inception, but propagated genocide ideology with unprecedented zeal. In the guise of ‘encouraging debate’ on matters affecting Rwanda, the political activists masquerading as journalists and commentators used the BBC platform to give voice not to objective well meaning commentators who want to see Rwanda overcome its painful past, but to those bent on seeing it sink again just because they don’t think Rwanda is ‘in the right hands of the right ethnic group.’ And the BBC condoned this. This has been going on for such a long time and a lot of these dangerous trends have been documented and information shared. Unfortunately, all this information has always been met with indifference and typical skepticism. There is no doubt that this indifference is just not coincidental. This is Africa, and who cares if they bite each other to distinction? That is why nobody sees anything wrong with a bunch of Rwandan extremist politicians donning the journalism cap pushing the buttons of powerful media arsenal from London to achieve their sinister objectives camouflaged by ‘media freedom.’ Well, under the circumstances, a country has to do what a country has to do, if that is what will take the world to see things as they are.

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BBC Kinyarwanda suspension: Nipping the problem in the bud