Tomorrow, the country will be celebrating the 19th Liberation anniversary and the halting of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.While no grand national celebrations have been planned to mark the day that had been the norm, this year it will be taken down to the grassroots to give it a more personalised meaning.People will be able to take stock of their past, the missed opportunities due to misrule, discrimination and utter criminal impunity. The new era that is unfolding before their eyes, the physical transformation of the country would not have been possible without the psychological and ideological makeover that the government prioritised from the very beginning.The age-old hate ideology that had been inculcated into people’s way of life was one of the biggest obstacles the government had to confront and overcome. It was deeply rooted in the community and had been exploited to the full by the former regimes who fed off divisive politics in order to stay in power.Now the generations that grew up with artificial ethnic differences – the legacy of a colonial past – are slowly getting out of action, by-passed by age, leaving the way clear for a young unified and dynamic youth that is the future of this country.A day like Liberation Day should be a day for storytelling, educating the young on the follies of the former regimes that brought this country to its knees twenty years ago, and to give them the confidence to take up the mantle of guiding this country to even greater heights.
