Letter from Kigali: Seeing Rwanda, Africa and the World from a different perspective

When I first visited the African continent and the country of Rwanda 4-1/2 years ago, I – like many other “muzungus” – was only really aware of “The Three G’s”: Genocide, Gorillas and Gender. I had watched “Hotel Rwanda”, the highly distorted Hollywood version of what happened at the Hotel des Mille Collines during the Genocide against the Tutsis in 1994; I had also watched “Gorillas in the Mist”, the more accurate Hollywood biopic of Dian Fossey, who studied gorillas in the volcanic forests on the border with what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. And I was particularly intrigued by the third “G” - Gender - because of my many years of professional coaching, training and writing on gender equity, women’s leadership and male social activism. I had been told about Rwanda’s post-Genocide focus on educating and empowering all girls and women, resulting in the highest female representation in a legislative body of any country in the world. Nearly triple the number in the USA where I was living at that time. During my initial first two-week visit, I got to find out a lot more about the three G’s: touring the Kigali Genocide Memorial and learning some of the heart-rending truth about what really happened long before and during the horrific events of 1994; spending the weekend in Musanze and going on a once-in-a-lifetime gorilla trek in the Volcanoes National Park; and doing some volunteer communication training and leadership coaching for the administrative staff, faculty and students at the Akilah Institute for Women. I also began to learn about three other G’s: Green for environmental care and protection that goes way beyond the well-publicised ban on single-use plastic bags; Graciousness for the warm welcome of the Rwanda people for a foreigner like me; and Global South, a term that had been popularized by the World Bank for lower-income countries that are mostly clustered in the Tropics and Southern Hemisphere and that is now being used as a more neutral alternative to more hierarchical, inaccurate and outdated terms, such as “Developing”, “Industrialising” or “Third World”. During that initial visit in late 2016 (and then during a second visit two years later), I also noticed a marked shift in the way I was viewing myself in relation to Rwanda and the rest of the world. Old Africa hands had told me that I could not have made a better choice than Rwanda for this initial visit to the continent. Post-Genocide Rwanda is often called “The Switzerland (or Singapore) of Africa” or “Africa for Beginners” and for very good reason. From the moment I arrived in Rwanda, it was love at first sight. Much to my surprise, I immediately felt a tremendous sense of peace, joy and well-being as I started wandering around Kigali and meeting people at Akilah and beyond. I had feared some kind of post-colonial resentment but everyone seemed to be so genuinely open, hospitable and joyful, albeit in a modest, unassuming way. It was very hard to believe that here had been a Genocide here just over 20 years earlier. Absurd as it may sound, I also began to believe that I had been here before and now I had spiritually “come home”. I had already lived in eight countries on three other continents and yet I had never been entirely comfortable in any one place. This was especially true of my original home country of England, long before Brexit. Even though my parents and I were born there, we were of Jewish, Lebanese and Persian heritage and I was always made like an unwelcome guest or outsider. I seemed to be so different from the Rwandans I met and yet I started to feel as if I somehow belonged in a country that was so close to the cradle of civilization. As I explored Kigali further, I was pleasantly surprised by the many spotlessly clean, quiet and uncluttered streets that defied every negative Western stereotype of modern African cities. Rush hour in the City Centre seemed like the middle of the night anywhere else. The green hills and red roofs reminded me of the “Eternal City” of Rome in Italy. It was no surprise to me to find out that Kigali is considered to be the safest city in Africa and the seventh safest in the world. Coming from an increasingly polarized and conflicted country ahead of the 2016 US presidential election, I was also deeply impressed by the way that Rwanda had managed to reconcile, reunify and rebuild since the Genocide in 1994. It was not uncommon for a taxi driver to openly say to me something along the lines of: “My mother is a Hutu, my father was a Tutsi but I am a ‘Rwandan’ now.” Just over four years later, I can proudly say that my native country was England, my adopted country is the USA and I am a proud Rwandan resident now. Obviously, there is still much to learn at all levels of this complex culture and the rest of Africa as it decolonizes and grows. At the same time, I hopefully have something to share with the rest of the world from a “Global South perspective”, particularly during a time of global pandemic, widening health and economic inequities and social unrest that has been spreading throughout the Global North too. This is the first in a new monthly series of personal columns, entitled “Letter from Kigali”. Local resident and writer, Jeremy Solomons – who was born and educated in England and naturalized in the USA - will share a unique topical perspective on what is happening in Rwanda in relation to Africa and the rest of the world. This series is modelled on the “Letter from America” radio series that UK/US journalist, Alistair Cooke, presented every week for nearly 60 years. The author at Kigali Genocide Memorial site. The views expressed in this column are entirely those of the writer who can be reached at jeremy@jeremysolomons.com

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Letter from Kigali: Seeing Rwanda, Africa and the World from a different perspective