From Congo, Uganda, Kenya and everywhere to Rwanda

At first sight, the poster looks like a photographer’s dream shot. The well-nurtured young urban woman is smiling beautifully with her mother besides her. The illustration depicts a mother and daughter having a great time. Below the photo appears the pharse; “MTN, every where you go”. This is the new face of Rwanda and the advert embodies the very unique quality of its people today. The bright smile on both faces of persons and their evident age difference is testimony to the transition of the country. Yet behind all this flashy background lies the diverse nature of Rwanda’s population today. Many of Rwanda’s current urban working professionals are newly returned Rwandans, born and bred in different parts of the world; especially Uganda, Tanzania, DR Congo and Burundi. Government officials indicate that after 1994, the RPF government allowed official citizenship for all those that had had been in exile, this reflected on Rwanda’s historical context having been a country of emigration. As a result of successive waves and various factors(establishment of new borders, forced displacement by colonizers, famines, wars, etc.), many Rwandan nationals ended up outside Rwanda, particularly in neighbouring countries. Rwandan Diaspora returns After July 1994, all members of the Rwandan Diaspora were able to return to their country of origin and could “ automatically and unconditionally” regain Rwandan nationality if they wanted to. If a person or his or her relatives had acquired the nationality of a third country or had been out of Rwanda for a long time, that person upon returning to Rwanda had his or her Rwandan nationality reinstated. “In early 1995 hundreds of families and their cattle arrived here and at another centre further up the road in Rwamagana hoping for greener pastures in a home they knew nothing about”, Maria Nyiramugabo from Nyagatare says. Nyiramugabo is a 64 year old widow in Nyagatare whose two sons participated in the liberation struggle from 1990-4In some families there were three generations: from the children who thought it was a fascinating game, to the old men and women who remembered the Rwanda they had left in the early 1960s. It was dream come true. Some, having been born in exile, were coming to Rwanda for the very first. Yet all had returned in the hope of rebuilding lives and livelihoods in the new home. According to Frank Mugabo 35, a self made businessman at MTN Centre, the refugees returned with a vast wealth of knowledge, experience, assets and skills to Rwanda, a new Rwanda. “The terrible history of this country is the reason why young people must be taught to love their country so that we don’t go back to the dogs, as was the case for some while in exile.” Previous administrations had seen to it that the country became a private property says Laurent Nkubito, who was born and bred in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “For over thirty years, our country was a private enterprise owned by the partnership of France and Juvenal Habyarimana. We were brought up with only imagined visions of our country”, he said. He goes on to explain the reason he celebrates Patriotism day is because the liberation of Rwanda gave him the opportunity to return to his motherland. “Unlike the Jews who had the assistance of the US and Britain in 1948, Rwandans did not have anyone to fight for their return. Our patriots are those who gave us a chance to see where our parents where born, I celebrate these heroes because of the pride they have given us”, says Nkubito. Rwandans former, refugees Today former Rwandan refugees are as diverse as Rwanda’s population and play an integral role in reconciliation and development efforts in the post-genocide context. Many who gained higher education and skills in exile returned to strengthen the urban middle and upper classes. The fact that most of the country’s major infrastructural highlights in the city and the countryside were put up after 1994 is evidence of this. Rural returnees contribute to the agricultural sector which remains the backbone of the Rwandan economy. The return of diverse groups of Rwandan refugees over the course of thirteen years since the genocide has shaped the country’s current political, physical, social, and economic environments. Rwandan refugees’ experiences in exile differ differ according to their histories, their ethnicity and class. There are rural and urban, well-educated and illiterate. Distinctions remain between communities of returnees accustomed to the culture of their countries of exile, and in the nature of their exile. Some suffered in dismal refugee camps, others survived comfortably in cities. However, it is the longing to go back home that kept fires burning in the Rwandan Diaspora before 1994 and kept Rwandans united wherever they were as if it was one big clan. “In exile we saw each other as Rwandans”, Tito Rutaremera, a celebrated figure in the Rwanda liberation struggle stated in Philip Gourevitch’s book ,“We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families”. “Living outside Rwanda, you don’t see each other as Tutsi or Hutu, because you regard everyone else as strangers. You are brought together as Rwandans, and because for the country where you are, a Rwandan is a Rwandan.” Rwanda is today known as a have of peace and stability. Huge investments are taking place in the banking, mining and energy sectors. New Rwanda There is a renewed sense of unity and national pride and this has not only attracted foreign investors, but it has also encouraged a newly found pride in being Rwandan. According Mugabo, has continuously become a case of reference to other developing nations. “First Rwanda qualifies for the African Cup of Nations, and now the country is involved in peace keeping missions in troubled areas like Darfur. This and the improved quality of life in the country, is the reason I feel proud of being a Rwandan. This is a sharp contrast to the brutal abuse of human life in the country in 1994 and before that”, he says. In many ways, the progress the country has made since the 1994 genocide is remarkable. The ubiquitous devastation is no longer apparent. It has been replaced by a construction boom. From the quiet resorts in Gisenyi, to the easy tranquillity of Butare, Rwanda looks like one huge construction site. Men and women are breaking stones here, or building an alleyway there. The roadsides are dotted with young men and women in all parts of the country currently building trenches on both sides of the road for the installation of optical fibre network lines. The country is beginning to think in terms of future development instead of emergency assistance. To the superficial observer, Rwanda has returned to normality. Alphonse Byusa a senior manager with one Rwanda’s leading private corporations says, “It is important that we emphasise loyalty today, because after liberation the challenge today is to think of what is better for our country in order for us to make progress.” Life in a foreign country had become a permanent fixture with children studying in different educational settings and adopting entirely different cultures. Some even had successful businesses. Education Paul Mugisha, a civil servant with Ministry of Finance is confident the future is bright. “Now there is peace and stability in my country and I am glad I came back”, he said. “The children can go to school and life goes on without being identified as a foreigner as was the case while I was in Uganda”. Francis Butera, a senior executive in one of Rwanda’s transport companies is optimistic about the direction Rwanda is taking today. “We must now shift the struggle from political liberation to transformation of society to ensure freedom for all regardless of who participated and who did not.” He continues that we need to celebrate Patriotism “because it reminds us of the principles that the patriots agreed over before the struggle. “Some of Rwanda’s heroes left families, schools, and pleasure to liberate a whole country. These extraordinary Rwandans should be praised”, he noted. “Today we have got an identity, a sense of belonging as well as a national representation to the rest of the world because of men and women who devoted and lost their lives for the cause”. “There’s a saying in Kinyarwanda The says ‘if u refuse to shed your blood for the sake of country, the dog will drink it freely’. A least the patriots did not accept to throw their lives to the dogs but instead decided to fight for their”, said Butera. Inreality the legacy of the genocide can be found in every aspect of society and governance. Just as there is no statute of limitations for genocidaires, so there is none for their victims. Recently the minister of state for Primary and secondary schools Joseph Murekeraho had to personally intervene in sensitising students of a secondary school in Byumba. Some students had began a campaign of intimidation and traumatising Genocide victims by writing threatening letters and throwing them in school dormitories. Some students had to be hospitalised with trauma related illnesses. Some voices continue to remind the world that Rwanda is, after all, not just another poor country, but one just beginning to recover from a vicious genocide. New programs for healing the wounds, for coming to grips with the past and its consequences, are just being put into place. Ends