Amasadepa

I remember when I started a company years ago; I walked out with the forms stamped and a massive smile that exposed my molars. A cynical old man asked me what I was smiling about; I told him the good news “Now you just have to worry about amasadepa!” I asked around about this word, I never got a definitive definition “Biterwa na’masadepa” There it was again this mystical force that moves events silently behind the scenes frustrating you. This is a force that cannot be predicted, manipulated, evaded, or negotiated with, this force must only be accepted fatalistically. After extensive research I was able to ascertain that “amasadepa” comes from the French words for “it depends” and was just Rwandacised into a local concept. But the concept changed because we had a fatalistic agrarian culture, we just took it to be the accumulation of all factors you have no control over. The concept breeds a malaise in our spirits, it is the opposite of empowerment, and the first principle of self-sufficiency is to believe you have the power to control your destiny. Other factors outside your control will always happen but you have power to react to events and change them. How Rwandans conceptualise their relationship to fate will affect our ability to adapt to the global market. Turkey has gone from number 105 to the 16th biggest economy in 10 years simply because they were able to adapt their pious rural Muslim values towards production. I recently tried to buy a plot but before I could arrange the money the owner sold for half the price, simply because they couldn’t wait a day. I told them “Mwahombye” you’ve lost a fortune. “To be rich is God’s will and to be poor is God’s will.” Was the unanimous chorus, as if they were a choir! How do you convince a person that they can affect not just themselves but they can change the world? The Chinese did it by numbers, Mao used to tell them that if they all stomped the ground at the same moment then the whole world would shake. Rwanda does not have the numbers but we can affect the world, we already do – our history stands as a lesson to humanity, a history lesson that is being rewritten by Rwandans. Some of us have already reached Vision 2020, I was born into it and middle-class life but the chances I had and have were limited to a mere few. There is a concept that redefined history and human thought, it occurs in many cultures in different words. Descartes said “I think therefore I am” the Bible says “as a man thinks, so he is” and even in Kinyarwanda it is there. These concepts helped societies make massive leaps, nations are like people, they need motivation, they need to hear “you have what it takes” and “you are the best” just like you should tell your wife she is the most beautiful, if not to others then she is to you. Rwandans are lacking that drive and speed, umwete, effort, pizzazz, to have enthusiasm and pride in performance. We are hostages to amasadepa, when we unlock the mental shackles of fate, we will be on an unstoppable course to development. Ends