Rwanda Day, still the talk of the town

It is a sign of our times that two weeks after “Rwanda Day 2015” cyber space is still all atwitter with the day’s excitement, and varied views about the import of not just the day, but, the concept itself. It seems nothing has really happened until it has been anointed by the all conquering World Wide Web. The internet being what it is of course, opinions tend to be taken for fact, and there are inevitably many such opinions. Before Rwanda Day becomes defined by the internet, we should perhaps revisit the event in the Netherlands and look at the concept of the day. Anyone seeking an explanation of what the eponymous day is all about, need only listen to President Kagame’s address, now of course to be found – where else? – but cyberspace ... Youtube, to be precise. “Coming together as we are here today is one way of pulling as one for the common purpose of building our nation, a purpose to which every Rwandan and even the many friends of Rwanda are called.” These two lines from the President’s address, thanking all who had come from far and wide, tell us almost everything about the event that has become known as Rwanda Day. There have now been seven such events since the first one in Chicago in 2011, all with the central aim of enabling all Rwandans to stay connected to their country of origin, and feel part of the process of nation building, begun with country’s liberation by the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), two decades ago. This year’s Rwanda Day was hosted in the Netherlands, at the RAI Convention Centre in Amsterdam. If however the tiny Rwandan Diaspora in the Netherlands had looked forward to an intimate gathering, where they had the Head of State all to themselves for a chat, they were to be disappointed. Think of Amahoro Stadium with a roof, and you have an idea of the size of the venue. You could fit at least a couple of football pitches in the main hall, yet by six o’clock, before the arrival of President Kagame to give his address, finding a free seat was getting difficult. An estimated four thousand Rwandans had converged on Amsterdam, coming from Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Great Britain, and even Portugal. The idea of Diaspora engagement has now become common currency. The African Union (AU) talks of the Diaspora as the sixth region, adding the Diaspora to North, East, West, South and Central Africa. There is not an African country which does not at least pay lip service to Diaspora engagement. Even the World Bank has now woken up to the developmental potential of the Diaspora. It is now accepted that the Diaspora sends more money home in remittances than Africa receives in foreign aid. It is fair to say that the AU and others follow where the governing RPF has led since 1994. Engaging the Diaspora has always been in the RPF’s DNA. It could not have been otherwise. As a movement, the RPF was conceived in exile, the cherished brain child of exiled Rwandans. First among their objectives was to restore to every Rwandan, his or her God given right to return to their country of origin. Now in government, it has come full circle, and is fulfilling that promise to every Rwandan. Seven times since 2011, President Kagame, accompanied by an entourage of ministers, civil servants, business people, and others has been the guest speaker at these events, in parts of the world where there is a sizable Rwandan Diaspora. Others may value the Diaspora for its perceived economic potential, for the RPF, what the Rwandan Diaspora can bring in developmental gains is a bonus, a happy by-product of the main objective, to connect every Rwandan to their homeland. For older Rwandans especially, who have known what it means to be stateless, it is a fulfilment of a dream that touches their very soul. Rwanda Day is among other things, living and celebrating that dream. For younger Rwandans, it is a celebration of a singular nation on the African continent. Even the least politically engaged are painfully aware that a nation, whose leadership exists only to serve the people, is sadly a rarity on the African continent. They too come to celebrate a dream and a promise fulfilled, but, a different dream and promise from that of their parents and elders. For them it is a dream full of infinite possibilities, a pride in the uniqueness of their nation, and its leadership especially. Such feelings were palpable in the RAI convention centre, as they were at the last Rwanda Day event, and will be at the next. They create a celebratory hybrid atmosphere all of its own. Think of a festival, a music concert, a cultural and business expo, with serious discussions on development and political issues, and you have some idea of Rwanda Day. Typically, the smartly turned out audience responds enthusiastically to the warm up acts, but, the excitement reaches a crescendo with the arrival of the star billing; President Kagame. On this as on every other of the last six occasions, the President acknowledges the euphoric welcome with characteristic composure. It is a demeanour on which the crowd quickly picks up as soon as he is invited to the lectern to speak. One can feel the crowd’s mood turning from excitable to expectation. But, for the repeated bursts of applause that punctuate his address, one could hear a pin drop. The audience seems to hang on his every word, listening intently, even to the pregnant silences that are characteristic of his style of delivery. It is an informative scene, instructive about the relationship most Rwandans have with their Head of State. There is admiration, of course, and respect yes, but, there is also something even more intangible; there is love. There is an almost telepathic understanding that he cares for them, and they for him. Rwandans are not the demonstrative type, so when they spontaneously erupt into sustained chants of “Muzeyi wacu” which can be loosely translated as ‘Our Own’. It suggests a deep well of feeling. The man himself, as on every other occasion, was focused on the main message, the salient points. “What then should be our objective?” he asked rhetorically. “Our objective is to pool all our resources, contribution from every Rwandan, to build our nation, write a new chapter in our nation’s history, by taking it from the tragedy in which we found it to where we would all like to see it. This can be done only with contribution from every Rwandan.” Later on in his speech, he would include even those Rwandans who seem determined to celebrate a malignant past, while attacking a wholesome present and brighter future, with visceral hatred. There they were, heavily outnumbered, but, there in force nonetheless, demonstrating against a leadership which would welcome them back to their own homeland, from a self imposed exile, in spite of the apparent malign intent against their own country. To them the President had this to say: “Even those of you who have chosen to distance yourself from your country, come home, we will welcome you, you still belong with us.” Many Rwandans are heeding that call. Thousands have returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo where they had been virtually hypnotised by the genocidial Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). There however remains a core, mostly in Europe, which becomes more and more detached from reality by the year. As President Kagame called for every Rwandan to exercise his or her right to return home as they wished, a right moreover paid for in the blood of the nation’s young liberators, outside, these demonstrators demanded a Rwanda where all Rwandans were welcome, apparently unaware of the irony of demanding something already in their possession. Such a Rwanda of course never existed under the regimes to which they remain sympathetic, and in which some of them served. To keep their status as political exiles, Rwanda’s opponents are now creating a breathtakingly audacious fantasy. They take what the RPF has done and is doing and then claim the direct opposite. In this strange world, sympathisers of the ideology that murdered a million men, women and children, have sought to shuffle reality, and accuse the RPF of essentially being them, while they masquerade as adherents of the very principles for which the RPF fought and which are now the foundations of a new nation, a new society. So at the Rwanda Day event in Amsterdam, they stand outside the hall and demand the very things that are now guaranteed to them, for the very first time in Rwanda’s history. In reference to the Habyarimana regime which declared that Rwanda was too small for refugees to return home, President Kagame iterated; “unlike what we used to hear in the past, Rwanda will never be too small for any Rwandan who wishes to return home. The population may be growing, but, Rwanda will never be too small for any Rwandan.” As he said that, outside, opponents continued to tilt at windmills, demanding the very rights that have been restored to them these last twenty-one years. The strange story of the RPF government and its opponents is that there is virtually not a single criticism levelled by the opponents that is not actually something against which the RPF fought, and which was in fact perpetrated by the genocidal regime to which many of the opponents remain adherents, the barring of Rwandan refugees from returning to the country being the most notorious example. The Amsterdam speech was vintage Kagame. It was in many ways a revolutionary’s speech, a serious challenge to Rwandans, and Africans in general to take their destiny into their own hands, and take their rightful place in the world. But it was also an entertaining speech, full of humour, and gentle ribbing, with twinkle eyed references to the need to make a choice between sitting on one’s behind, dependent on the goodwill of others, or fulfilling one’s God-given potential. Though often called to do so from almost every audience he addresses, President Kagame is always careful not to publicly comment on other African countries’ policies. His speech in Amsterdam was no different. It was nevertheless one of his more Panafricanist speeches. “We must determine the course of our own lives. Waiting for others to determine the course of your life, is not much of a life” Warming to his theme, he went to say, “when we look at the last fifty years, we need to ask ourselves; where was Rwanda, where was Africa? Even excepting the most advanced nations, if we look at countries in Asia, countries which were at the same level of development as us, we find that they have surpassed us many times over”. “How has this happened? What I conclude, perhaps for lack of any other answer, is that we are where we are because we opted to depend on others, waited for them to direct the course of our lives, the way they saw fit. How we are now, is where they determined that we should be. For Rwanda to advance therefore, for Africa to advance, we have to make a choice; choose to be responsible for own lives. I say this to you, you must make a choice. When we ask ourselves what those on whom we have come to depend have, and we don’t have, we find that there is nothing. If that is the case, there is obviously an issue, a problem we must try to understand and solve.” He ended his speech thanking his audience, telling them that Rwanda would not be where it is without their efforts. They for their part remained in no doubt that it would certainly not be where it is without him. And that was the inherent message of Rwanda Day, a leadership united with all Rwandans in the effort of nation building. The writer is a UK-based Rwandan journalist

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Rwanda Day, still the talk of the town