Throughout the month of April, our communities have been colored by a sad looking purple colour. This colour is a cold reminder of the brutality of humankind in its extreme. As the country mourned nearly one million Rwandans killed in 1994 Genocide, George Kagame relives personal experiences that brought him, without reading the details of the late 2007 parliamentary report that covered the entire country, that subtle incidences even here in Kigali are signs that government has its hands full in the fight against genocide ideologies. “He is here, the one you have been looking for, the one who finished your family during the genocide, now he is here shouting in the taxi park.” Petero Muzeyi, (not his real name) shouted at a passenger in Nyabugogo Bus Park mid last year. Muzeyi was part of a group of youths that lounge in Nyabugogo Park during the day and vanish into neighbouring shacks during the night. That Sunday evening, they were having fun as they called upon passengers in the taxi park. I happened to be traveling to Lake Muhazi’s Jambo Beach for an assignment on Bralirwa’s annual Mutzig nationwide annual folklore and musical festival. A fellow journalist who was traveling with me was intrigued with the remarks of the boys, who looked to be enjoying the above scene describing the 1994 Genocide. He was caught between the drama and the fact that the youths were so eager to talk about the genocide in such a way; “Maybe after 50 years, even the Rwandan Genocide will be a matter of history left to chit chats and jokes,” he remarked. No one else in the bus understood the journalist’s English to offer a discussion and I was lost between my anger against the taxi touts and their jokes or the humiliation of the passenger. The passenger seemed not to be bothered with the antics of youths; other passengers looked on in amusement. Fast forward to April 2007 in the newly built taxi park, a group of beautifully endowed adult and teenage ladies walked inside one bus, one of the taxi touts in the park asked the conductor of the bus; “Hey.........are you going to Masisi?”, the conductor was impassive, and his colleague offered the explanation; “the girls you have packed inside that bus can only be residents of Masisi.” The same month in Butare City, Peter went for dinner in the city centre one dark evening; the moment he stepped in the dining room electricity went off. One of the diners in the room remarked; “This is what happens when a stranger walks onto other diners in a place.” Peter was not a stranger and it was not a joke either. Peter was offended! For some reason a parliamentary commission in December 2007 discovered with the help of percentage rates that many schools especially in the Northern Province were breeding pupils and students along identities which the parliament members termed as ‘Genocide ideology’. The ideology got its name from investigations that school children labeled each other as Hutu or Tutsi; the students thereafter began to write their determination to eliminate their supposed opponents, which type of ideas the commission went on to report caused the 1994 Genocide. The report caused alarm to many observers and politicians; to date headlines still appear in the media about genocide ideologies - either as politicians urging their people to avoid the ideas here or an attack against a genocide survivor there inspired by what researchers have termed as ethnic hatred. In some cases, the attacks have been motivated by one victim testifying against one genocide perpetrator. In many cases, the names are different, but the motive is always familiar. Yet, in the same month that these events happened, the nation was in mourning for about one million victims of the 1994 Genocide; the same month, conferences were taking place in Canada disputing the Rwandan Genocide. Government has called for promoting a robust relationship through public and private sector partnerships, the feeling of unity and reconciliation will be harvested. Academicians agree though, that soon, genocide ideologies will be history in Rwanda. Professor Lwakabamba, the Rector of the National University of Rwanda says the institution deals with administrative issues connected to genocide ideologies, and he adds that the situation is not alarming as has been published in the media. He says, “In the past we had issues where students wrote abusive language in the toilets and their hostels. We have stopped this writing.” Lwakabamba, however, admits that during guild elections, genocide-related ideas come into play in student politics; “Genocide ideas come into play especially in election time. However, here they take the rivalries between Anglophones and Francophone students.” Francophone is the Kigali-speak for someone that speaks exclusively French as his second language while Anglophone is for the English speaking lot. Lwakabamba adds that there is too much competition for guild seats; “Students fight by all means to get to these positions because they earn a lot of money.” The university has adopted an intelligence network to report about genocide-related incidents among the students; “We have put up security agents to check and report back to the administration about the situation concerning genocide ideologies.” Government has committed resources to eliminating genocide ideologies in the country. Protais Musoni, the minister of local government says; “Through programmes like Ubudehe, Umuganda, community policy committees, we have promoted a culture of people solving their own problems, if citizens have initiative to solve their own problems, they cannot be manipulated, we worked to achieve a universal feeling of self esteem among Rwandans,” powerful words from the minister of Local government. Musoni says such ideologies will be eliminated in the long run as Rwandans become more hard working and inspired by competition among citizens in regard to exploiting government policies instead of ethnic thinking that was indoctrinated into people. Reacting to the-infamous Parliamentary report that confirmed the existence of genocide ideologies in Rwandan schools, Professor Frank Chalk a Genocide studies expert says that it is possible to eliminate genocide ideologies among people but the process is very fragile and can take a long period. “People in many countries find it difficult to admit what was done in their name to their fellow citizens and that teachers feel as if they are “walking on eggs” until most members of society come to a general agreement on the crimes that were committed and who was responsible for them. Part of the process involves legal accountability and another part of the process involves writing history text books consolidating for teachers and students what is known and encouraging research on what is not yet known. While history shows that all this takes time and patience, even generations, it is essential that the government, the teachers, and the students encourage each other with mutual respect and dignity to move forward in the spirit of honest inquiry, with no corners hidden from scrutiny and records open to researchers, so that scholars may confront rumors and myths with hard evidence. A plaque at the University of Wisconsin quotes the famous phrase ‘The Truth shall make you free.’ I fully endorse that proposition.” Ryzard Kapucinski writes in his acclaimed that, “It is easy to sell an ideology to a poor man and government has stated that poverty is among the leading causes of the 1994 Genocide. The government insists that poverty is the leading cause of suspicion among citizens, therefore its programs to eliminate genocide ideology is embedded in other weapons in the war against poverty. One last word from Musoni; “It is important to raise the self esteem of our people so that they accept that some people are rich and others are poor, to avoid being indoctrinated with harmful thinking about each other.” The minister adds that by fighting poverty with all its might, the government of Rwanda was committed to promoting a competitive economy such that Rwandans work hard to eliminate one of the primary causes of communal hatred. Ends
