Rwanda was a nation born violently in struggle with itself; as the Belgian flag was lowered over Kigali and the new flag rose, thousands were running for their lives to exile and decades of misery. For those who remained the fate was barely better, more ethnic trouble, more poverty, they had nominal control of their affairs but true independence eluded them. Indeed, in the immediate post-colonial era African nations became more dependent on their former-colonial masters; and even worse, African nations went from being economically profitable to basket cases begging for aid. You cannot be independent and beg for aid. It makes you realise the muted celebrations we had on Independence day are due to the fact that we aren’t truly independent; we are a sovereign nation but only economic independence will make us independent. We cannot sit on the G8 or the G20, we do not have a strong voice on the WTO or IMF or UN because this world only recognises economic power. A brief glance at our history shows that the Belgians had no intention of intention of granting Rwanda-Urundi and Congo independence until 2010; they produced a 50 year plan for de-colonisation. The colonial masters made the mistake of favouring one ethnicity over another, then switching sides when it suited them. Rwanda was a unified state before Count Von Gotzen arrived in 1894; he added Rwanda and what is now Burundi to the wider land mass acquired by Emin Pasha called Tanganyika. The death of Rwabugiri in 1895 led a power struggle among Royal family members and it wasn’t until the child King Musinga was enthroned that things calmed down; his mother Kanzongera was the real power in Rwanda. German involvement was minimal as their focus was on rebellions in Tanganyika; then WWI changed matters and from 1914-1926 Rwanda was nominally independent. The mandate was given to Belgium in return for them voting to cede Tanganyika to the British. The Belgians placed the Northern autonomous states under the centralised power of the king and replaced the existing chiefs who had separate roles such as military, grazing land, farming, and religious chiefs. The worst thing they did was to ruthlessly categorise every Rwandan into the strict caste system of tribes; while these definitions existed before they were never used in the way they were. Just when Rwanda was really getting economically productive in the 1950’s came the independence struggle; the Mwami Rudahigwa initiated it by asking for independence in 1954. This caused the Belgians to switch allegiance to Firebrand politicians. As Rwanda received independence on July 1st 1962, it was done against the will of most of the politicians at the time. The likes of Kayibanda focussed on an internal class struggle that had to be overcome before connecting to the wider economy. It is a common theme in African history; a nation gains independence only to withdraw into itself in order to protect itself from reality of modern life and when it emerges it is further behind than independence. Rwanda withdrew into itself, its infrastructure decayed, population exploded and result was poverty. East Africa was a sucessful concern when the British left; it had a good rail network, roads, industry and schools. Soon bickering between the various leaders led to the dissolving of the East African community; nations focussed inward. They reattached the umbilical cord of neo-colonialism but this placenta sucks blood from the child instead of nourishing it. So today when I have to make an international withdrawal in a bank, the bank often routes the transaction via Brussels or Paris. The point I am trying to make is that we celebrate independence when we have seen little fruit from it; what we need is inter-dependence, we need to connect our region together. After standing alone for 48 years, we are now untying the bounds of colonialism and uniting in a region to form a mega-economy. While we must celebrate independence, we must seek inter-dependence; for example the nations of Eastern Europe celebrate independence and the fall of communism, but they also celebrate inter-dependence and their accession to the EU. The day when Rwanda is economically self-sufficient and is actually giving aid to poorer countries will be the day we are truly independent. ramaisibo@hotmail.com
