RWANDA: One Boy’s Journey

The Rwandan genocide of 1994

INTRODUCTION

I have not written this book in an attempt to lay blame for my country’s past or its current economic failure. The Rwandan genocide of 1994 was a turning point in the lives of all Rwandans. The war turned our lives upside down and tore our hearts apart. It buried our souls underneath the rubbish of tribalism, racism, illiteracy, and man-made poverty so that even for those who survived, the fight continued. We had to fight to get our lives back on track. We had to fight for the right to education, rehabilitation, and equality.

Surviving life in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) jungle in 1994 has inscribed so many experiences into our hearts and memories that it often seems difficult to talk about anything else without mentioning them. Life was meant to be better in Rwanda after the civil war, but some Rwandans continued to be persecuted, facing undocumented detainments, lack of education, and injustice—their voices systematically silenced. No Rwandan wanted to survive that horror and still have to struggle for peace, even after it the war was over.

Like many other Rwandans, I fought my way back to life, which included going back to school. But, somehow, one step forward seemed to lead to five steps back. Some young people made it back to a better life, but most succumbed to their failures. Many had no option but to join the army, which would invade and fight the D. R. C. in 1998. Few of them made it back, and those who did were never the same.

I have seen life before and after the Rwandan crisis. I have learnt how to create a peaceful environment and know what it takes to rebuild a once fragmented life without depending on foreign aid. I would be haunted forever if I kept quiet about what I know. I cannot sit by and watch as one African country after another degenerates into junk status.

I have lived through and survived so many terrible and violent conditions, and yet I have seen that no person or nation will ever find solutions to the present economic and social problems if we keep blaming the past. I have always had valid reasons for stifling the emotions that the Rwandan war and the death of my father and so many family members aroused in me. I lived by silencing my voice for 17 years. But the internal struggle became so intense I was compelled to follow my instincts and speak out. I believe my instincts have never failed me.

In these pages, I will take you with me from my boyhood in the 1990s to a plane crash that triggered genocide and war. I hope to give you some idea about what happened to the people of Rwanda and the Congo during and after the war, and their efforts to restore peace in the Great Lakes, amidst a mixture of corruption and constructive activities reflected in Rwandan leadership. However, most importantly, I hope to reflect the resilience of the survivors. We soared above the past to rebuild our lives, thus rebuilding a nation once torn apart.

This book is about the fall and rise of Rwanda in front of my eyes. I am not proud of our descent into chaos, but the ascent that followed—a tiny, broken nation rising above the social turbulence that characterised it—is something to be admired. This is about following our instincts and digging ourselves out from beneath racism, tribalism, illiteracy, indiscipline, and poverty, irrespective of our age or our history. This is metamorphosis embodied.

The Rwandan problem is not unique. It is also a continental one. Our leaders use Africa’s prevailing culture of blame and dependence to justify our current failure to enhance social development. While there is some outstanding progress in Rwanda and some other African nations, we can only improve upon our current stagnant social and economic progress by leaving behind the things that have buried so many of us—racism and tribalism—and by working together as one people.