My friend Dave has been in Rwanda for the past month. Here is an excerpt from his third, and latest, email. (Previous emails can be found here and here):
Because Rwanda, like so much of Sub-Saharan Africa,has historically survived by having strong, powerful (and unelected) leaders, like tribal elders, there is no culture of independent decision making, or even for many independent thought. A volunteer teacher at the Centre told me she was amazed when in one of her art classes she gave the pupils the option to draw anything they wanted. None of them knew what to do and sat there with blank looks and blank paper. They all, and many were in their mid teens, wanted to be told what to draw.
This deferment of responsibility and unwillingness to make independent decisions manifests itself in so many ways. A problem or argument can be solved simply by asking an older person, who by virtue of their age is considered to be wise. But in a society where no one has a schedule, no one keeps an appointment and no one makes a decision, it is amazing that anything ever happens.
And yet somehow things seem to get done and remarkably we have completed most of the filming around the Childrens Centre in Kigali. In the next few days we venture out into the countryside to no doubt experience a whole new and interesting set of complications.
I keep wondering whether Dave’s observations about group think and deference to authority are any excuse for the genocide. Probably not, but an interesting insight nonetheless into how the killing took place.
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