My friend Dave’s adventures in Rwanda continue:
No TagsThere is no question that Rwanda is still coming to terms with its recent past, and doing so in its own way. At times I see things that run so contrary to how I imagined third world Africa to be, the supermarkets and modern buildings and even tarmac roads (however pot-holed), only to turn the corner and there it is – the scene of long, orange coloured dirt tracks, small mud buildings with corrugated iron roofs and groups of young, dirty children – the Third World.
[…]When I arrived I found it hard to reconcile this peaceful place with the horror of the genocide that occurred here. It was so difficult to imagine. But the more one learns, the more one realises that all of Rwanda is a memorial to its past. At the top of the street we live on is a tall, perfectly normal looking advertisement hording, typical of any you would see in the US or UK, until you read all the signs on it, from the brash neon of ‘The Havana Bar’ at the top, to the sign giving directions to a centre for victims of torture at the bottom.
The Rwandans are a patient people, very willing to line up (they’d give the English a good run for their money in queuing) and wait for someone to tell them what to do. Once every month there is what they call Umuganda, where everyone in the city, including the President, takes to the streets to clear them of rubbish. It is quite remarkable but there is something akin to peer group pressure at work. There is an obligation to be involved. And as undoubtedly impressive as it is to see such cooperation, I can’t help but feel it was exactly these communal pressures and the eager willingness to participate that enabled such swift prosecution of mass murder during the genocide. Quite the double-edged sword.
Yes, perhaps that political passivity, or whatever it is - political docility, or political subservience - combined with a dollop of hatred and then free rein for human nature to appeal to its absolutely darkest side. Power and hatred, as Germany showed in its darkest days, is a lethal combination.